Richmond youngster Nathan Gordon says his heart “skipped a beat” when coach Damien Hardwick told him he would be making his debut for the Tigers in Saturday’s loss to the Western Bulldogs.

Gordon, who started the game as a substitute, was brought onto the field when teammate Nick Vlastuin was forced out with concussion in the first half.

He says he doesn’t remember much from his first game in Tigers colours, but hopes to build on his debut performance as the season progresses.

The 24-year-old was one of Richmond’s best players, picking up 15 disposals and kicking a goal.

“I wasn’t expecting to come on so early, so I was on pretty quick and it went pretty fast, the game,” Gordon told Crocmedia’s Sportsday.

“I don’t remember much, but I absolutely loved it and thought I did pretty well in my first game in Tigers colours.”

Sign up as a Richmond member and bring the roar home in 2014

Gordon, who was originally drafted to the Sydney Swans before being delisted at the end of 2012, arrived at the Tigers this year via the SANFL.

He said while he was happy with his own individual performance, the team’s poor showing – particularly in the second quarter – proved to be the difference against the Bulldogs.

“We knew they were number one for contested footy, we knew they were really good at that,” Gordon said.

“It was our second quarter that killed us. We got beaten in a lot of areas, the main thing was basic skill errors by us.”

Gordon said the team didn’t get an old-fashioned ‘bake’ from the coach at half time, but were given an ultimatum ahead of the third quarter.

“Dimma didn’t really (give us a spray), he just mentioned that about the key points (on the stat sheet) and just said do you guys want to fight or do you guys want to give up here?” Gordon said.

Sign up to Superboot and you can win $10k thanks to Bingle Car Insurance

“So he got us in pretty close and he got us pretty fired up and we made a decision to get back to our winning ways and in the end it was a bit too late and they just got over the top of us.”

Gordon said there was no directive at half time to use Jack Riewoldt more when moving the ball into the forward line.

“No there wasn’t, it was more team orientated, but Jack was one of the blokes who stood up in the second half, I was really rapt with him and he stood up for the team and he started clunking a few marks and kicking a few goals,” Gordon said.

“So we need people like that and good players like him to step up at a time like that and I think he did exactly that.

“But there was no chance, we just got back to hitting our targets and stopped those easy, basic errors we were doing in the second quarter that killed us.”