Jacob Blight made a promising senior debut with Richmond in yesterday’s match against Carlton at the MCG.

It was a baptism of fire for Blight, who was assigned the key-defensive role on star Blues forward Harry McKay.

But the Tigers’ first pick in the recent AFL mid-season rookie draft handled the tough task impressively.

He restricted McKay to just two goals and had 11 disposals, three marks, four intercepts, three rebound-50s and eight one-percenters himself.

Post-match, he spoke with Richmond Media about his first-up experience at the game’s highest level. Here is what he had to say . . .

Debut delight

“It’s certainly a step up, to say the least, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was just a huge honour to run out with those boys and some legends of our footy club and play alongside them. You’ve got ‘Broady’ (Nathan Broad) and Rioli and ‘Tig’ (Nick Vlastuin) and those sorts of boys. They’re all premiership players. They looked after me. ‘Funk’ (Ben Miller) the same. I thought he was excellent today as well. It was just a huge pleasure to be out there, and hopefully there’s many more to come.”

Playing on Harry McKay

“It was a great challenge . . . I really enjoyed the challenge. It was a lot of learnings and a lot of stuff I’ll take away.

Important spoils

“I feel like I had a couple of good ones today. Obviously being a wet game, can’t really bring the aerial presence with intercept marks, but just winning or halving the contest with a spoil is just as good.”

Support from family and friends

“I was actually trying to find them, but it was a pretty good crowd today, so it was quite difficult to see them. Very appreciative they could come down before and after the game. Credit to them for making the trip over and much appreciated.”

Self-assessment of his performance

“I was pretty happy with the way I performed and what I could bring, but of course there’s always things to improve on.”