‘‘It was really good to be out there with the boys and have a good win,’’ Sheldon said.

‘‘I had a plate put in my leg and then got the tendons in my ankle fixed up, so I’m a bit unfit, but just easing into it. I started off the ground and had a few rests.

‘‘I was lucky enough to get on the end of a couple, the boys looked after me pretty well.’’

Post-game, Sheldon admitted he was ‘‘pretty sore’’, but ‘‘feeling good’’.

Despite his injury, Sheldon has remained involved at the club and was keen to deflect some of the attention onto his teammates.

‘‘I’ve been helping out a bit, ‘Dirty’ (coach David Williams) has been really good, he’s really open to suggestions and we get on really well and I talk to him a fair bit,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s just a really good young group, like Nick Coulstock, we call him Nick ‘Tacklestock’ because he just tackles away all day.

‘‘Oggy’s (Liam Ogden’s) tackling in the forward line was unreal, ‘Weardo’ (Bernie Wearden) had a good five minutes there that kept us in the game.

‘‘Individual efforts is what we’ve been working on really hard and playing the full minutes until the fat lady sings and we just want to breed that sort of culture in our club.’’

The on-baller played forward all day, but Williams was more than happy with his new star’s contribution.

‘‘Some of the one-percenters he did, with his blocking and a couple of marks, hopefully he can go on from there,’’ Williams said.

‘‘We’ve got a lot of blokes that go through midfield and fortunately we didn’t have to get him in there in his first game.

‘‘He was pretty sore, too, he got a rub at half-time and a rub through the third quarter, but he’s got a lot of character.’’