Demon rewarded with senior debut after stellar start to under 17.5 season

The 16-year-old has made an immediate impression at the Demons following his graduation from Wagga Swans at the end of last year.

Campbell has been named in the best in each of his four games for the Demons so far this season and he's had a significant impact on their strong 4-1 start.

Making your senior debut is an exciting achievement for a young footballer and Campbell said he was looking forward to running out tomorrow.

"Yeah I'm really excited for it," Campbell said.

It was only eight months ago that Campbell was playing under 15's footy for the Swans and he admitted his rise into first grade might've come sooner than he expected.

"Yeah a little bit," he said.

"I wasn't expecting it until the end of the season."

The teenager has only been at the Demons for a couple of months, however that's all it's taken for Campbell to feel right at home at Crossroads Oval.

"It's real good," he said.

"I love it."

Campbell believes he'd had a strong start to the year in under 17.5's and he felt that the team had also taken big steps forward after failing to record a win last season.

"I've been going well," he said.

"The team has been going well and much better than last year, so it's good."

The teenager is the second senior debutant the Demons will have this year and Collingullie co-coach Shane Lenon said it was exciting for the club to have the teenager make his debut.

"He's had a good pre-season and he's been killing it in the under 17's," Lenon said.

"He's in the Giants Academy as well so he's been a talented junior.

"His form and the way he's been training, he's certainly ready to play a game in first grade and he's earned his spot.

"It's a reward for effort and it's exciting for him and the club, it's really good."

The Demons have made a considerable push to strengthen their junior stocks over the off-season and Lenon believes the club is going to reap the rewards of their hard work over the coming years.

"Last year we didn't have an under 15's at Collingullie and our 17's didn't win a game and they probably got beat by an average margin of 100 points per week," he said.

"Now our under 15's are sitting in the top four and our under 17's are sitting third and have been real competitive.

"We had Ryan Kemp debut against Narrandera and we've got Ashton Campbell that's going to debut this week.

"Cam Morphett and Tommy Wichman are both 16 and in the Giants Academy and I reckon they will probably get a game.

"Cam Greenway he's another one and then next year you've got a couple of absolute guns in the 15's in Joey Stone and Hayden Donohue who I'd imagine they'd play first grade next year as well.

"The junior club has done a really good job and they've got some good coaches in place, they've got good numbers and a bit of depth.

"It's great to see really and the whole club and especially first grade are going to get the benefit out of these young talented players feeding into the senior side for sure."

Campbell is one of two inclusions for the Demons ahead of their clash with Wagga Tigers as Hugh Bent also returns to the senior side.

Pat Woods drops back to reserve grade while a slight hamstring strain for Josh Klemke will mean that he'll miss the game at Robertson Oval.

Lenon believed Klemke would also miss the game against Leeton-Whitton next weekend, however he was confident he'd be right to return against Griffith in round nine.