Last Saturday morning, Edyn Sibbald was at home preparing for the third match this season for which he had been named as an emergency.

“You have to prepare basically as if you’re playing,” says the 200-centimetre key position player from St Bernard’s. “There’s every chance that someone ends up moving and that’s basically your opportunity.”

However, the 21-year old’s day changed in the space of a phone call from coach Dan Jordan.

“It was a bit last minute, but that’s the nature of it when you’re an emergency,” says Sibbald.

“We’ve got the mantra in the VFL, ‘Next man up’, so basically you just have to be ready whenever you’re called upon.”

After having his patience, commitment and disciplined put under the microscope, Sibbald’s time had come. In Round 18, he made his Essendon debut against reigning premiers Port Melbourne.

After being presented with his jumper by captain Heath Hocking in front of the playing and coaching group and match day crew, Sibbald concedes that “the nerves start to kick in” as the ground looms closer to the end of the race for the first time.

“You start thinking about the game and what you’re going to do based on what we discussed during the week at training.”

With family watching who had rushed to North Port Oval once the long-awaited call-up had been made - “My old man and grandfather have been to basically every game that I’ve played in the last twenty years, then I had the rest of the family up in the stand as well” - Sibbald started up forward in the first quarter.

For all his height it was a ground level ball that got the debutant involved – he gathered just beyond the paint and with a deft shimmy gave himself time and space to turn and find Jackson Merrett Inside 50. It was one of two score assists Sibbald had in the opening quarter and he would go on to finish with seven possessions and four marks.

“I was pretty happy with my first half. It was good to get involved in some passages of play,” surmises Sibbald.

Essendon was caught short by just five points in a match that went down to the last play of the day. With the Bombers sitting just outside the top eight, Sibbald’s aim to make a place in the team mirrors his side’s aim to secure a finals place in the final three rounds of the home and away season.

“I’m hoping to hold the spot but the nature of it is that you never know week-to-week,” reflects Sibbald. “When you go to training you train at optimal levels to try to break into the side.

“It would be good to string a couple of games together. I’ll look to do all the extras off the field to get the body right and get up and get through the training sessions during the week.

“On the field, it’s about executing what we train during the week and what DJ [Jordan] and Daff [forward coach Nick Daffy] and the other coaches are trying to implement in the side … [and] keeping yourself in touch with everything so you have that in your arsenal if you get another call-up.”

Essendon play Geelong in Round 19 at GMHBA Stadium this Saturday night from 7.00.