AFLW: Gold Coast Suns' Georgia Clayden's nervous wait for 'surreal' debut news

Her coach Cameron Joyce was calling to chat, and she knew it could go one of two ways.

She could be making her AFLW debut on Saturday for the Gold Coast Suns, or she may have to wait another week for the chance.

But it was good news that met her on the other end of the phone: she was debuting against the North Melbourne Kangaroos.

"I was a bit nervous, initially, because you don't know which way it's going to go," Clayden said.

"And then he said, 'How do you feel about playing this weekend'?

"It was a very exciting moment, and there were definitely plenty of happy tears."

Clayden, one of three mature-age signings by the club in June, will don the No.18 jersey in the Suns' backline in Hobart for round one.

A debut naturally brings with it nerves, but the 27-year-old was hoping to draw on her international experience as a junior in netball and volleyball.

"It's all starting to feel a bit more real, because initially it just felt very surreal and a bit like a dream," she said.

"It's been a rollercoaster couple of months, really. Signing and moving quickly. It's funny how everything happened so quickly, so you don't necessarily get time to stop and go, 'Wow, this is happening'.

"Coming into this first round, I was working hard. I was really trying to crack that starting team and it's really exciting to be able to say that I've done that."

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The Ainslie Tricolours product still recognises there is a job to get done, and her focus is on helping her team achieve that.

The Suns want to better last season's win-loss ratio (3-10), and book a finals spot for the first time in the side's history.

It all starts against the Kangaroos.

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"I feel like there's something quite special here with this group," Clayden said.

"We know North Melbourne are a tough team, and certainly looking at the stats from last year they're a very strong defensive team. [Cameron] did an awesome job on stats, and things that we can do and implement. So we want to make it a contested game."

The Suns' defender may not be only player from the region earning her debut this weekend, Cambridge McCormick a strong chance to earn her GWS Giants colours on Sunday, too.

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