It felt like Ben Cavarra’s AFL debut was a long, long time in the making.

At 24 years of age, the mature-aged draftee had to do it the hard way, overcoming draft setbacks and an injury-affected first season in red, white and blue before earning that chance in round one this year.

He was forced to wait a little longer than he would have liked for his first win.

The debut game didn’t go to plan, with the Bulldogs soundly beaten by Collingwood, to the tune of 52 points.

Eleven games later – plus an added three-month break due to COVID-19 – and Cavarra got his second chance in a result which couldn’t have been more different, as he kicked two majors to help the Bulldogs to a 57-point win against the Adelaide Crows.

“It took me a long time to get my first AFL game and after I’d had a taste of it, I wanted a lot more,” Cavarra told westernbulldogs.com.au.

“I did have to wait a fair bit for this game to come.

“Since I’ve been at the club, I’ve been waiting to play in that first AFL win as well and looking forward to that Powerade shower and enjoying that moment with my teammates.

“To have that moment was pretty special.

“It’s another goal I can tick off, but once you tick those little goals you just want more and more.”

Cavarra might still be tasting that Powerade today – or at least trying to wash it out of his hair and boots, after the drenching he received in the rooms.

It almost sums up the small forward’s journey that he had to work just as hard for game two, as he did for his opportunity on an AFL list and his debut game after being a star at VFL level for a number of years.

A hand injury in between was just one more obstacle to overcome.

But a string of strong showings in scratch matches saw him called up to face the Crows, as the Bulldogs’ forward line took on a different look around Aaron Naughton and floating ruckman Tim English, with a real pressure presence at ground level in the likes of Cavarra and Rhylee West.

“I’ve been able to put some good performances in the last few weeks,” Cavarra said of his scratch match form.

“Gia’s been helping me out a lot, going through edits and working hard on the training track, and I think that put me in a good position that when I did get the call up I was ready to go and came in with full confidence I could play my role for the team.

“I’ve been working really hard on my forward craft and it felt like I started to show a little bit of what I can do. 

“It was good to get a win, I had a lot of fun out there and really enjoyed it.”