Cats new rookie Nick Bourke, who grew up on a dairy farm in Noorat, spoke to SEN Radio about his opening week with the Geelong Cats.

Despite feeling flat after his name wasn’t called out at this year’s national draft, the young 18-year-old Geelong Falcon admits he couldn’t be happier with the track he took that lead him to the Cats.

“Obviously it was a bit disappointing at the time of the national draft with my name not being called out then - but there are many different options and paths that you can take to get into the AFL system with the rookie draft and you see plenty of blokes like Sam Dwyer (who was picked up by Collingwood in the 2012 rookie draft) who’s come off a VFL list into the AFL and really made it count,” Bourke explained.

“So I was disappointed at the time but I remained positive - and it all turned out all right in the end.

“I’m really happy with the opportunity that Geelong has given me and I’m really enjoying it.”

The very next day after the rookie draft was called, Geelong had all three rookies in the Cats gear and out on the track. What can we say, there's no time like the present.

“I was in there straight away Thursday morning where we had an introduction and a training session and it was really good, the boys are a great bunch,” Bourke said.  

“Then I had my first proper running session on Saturday morning and I found it a bit tougher than usual but it’s been great.”

The club and Bourke have already identified where improvements can be made and his goals have been mapped out for the 2014 season.

“There’s always a lot to work on but probably that inside contested game is my main one – I’ve predominately played as an outside wingman and that mixture of inside and out is something that I need to work on, along with that tackling pressure.”  

“They’re probably the two main areas where I’d like to improve,” Bourke said.  

“But I’m just happy that I’ve been given the opportunity at Geelong and can’t wait to improve on those areas.”

Unfortunately Bourke’s year was hampered with an injury interruption at the beginning of the 2013 season, which restricted his play for a number of months.

“I dislocated (my shoulder) twice early in the year so I had a bit of a rough start but I ended up getting back and played footy for the rest of the year,” Bourke explained.

Bourke went onto give an open insight into the challenges that arise for a young footballer when living in the country. However, the support of his family and the long hours spent on the road did eventually pay off for the young midfielder.  

“Definitely coming from the country does make it that bit harder to get that opportunity at TAC level or at an AFL Club but it’s something that I owe a lot to my Mum and Dad - they put in a lot of effort, time and money with petrol (etc),” Bouke said.

“I also have two younger sisters who play netball as well so they had to try and balance all three of us. They’ve been great with getting me up to Melbourne for the last three years now.

“I got the licence this year, which has made it a lot easier on them, I’d go up to Melbourne on Tuesday and Thursday for training and then on the weekend, so there was 12 hours of travel before you actually played the game, it was me and Lewis Taylor, but it was all worth it."

Click on the video above to catch a glimpse of Nick Bourke out on the track with the Cats.