"It was hard to explain, but I tried my best," Lachie said. "It's hard even now to piece together what happened and what we did and what we have coming up this week. But it's obvious how much it means to a lot of people here. So many people are so happy."

Hunter became a Bulldog because his father played 130 games for Footscray from 1988 to 1996, which meant Lachie .  was able to make a slightly less-stressful start than the other kids in his draft. Like Tom Liberatore and Zaine Cordy, he has the chance now to write his family's name more permanently into club history. "Dad's stoked," Lachie said. "He's pretty excited about what we have the chance to do."

Hunter was eight when he started to play football, but Mark was not the first parent he followed into sport. His mother, Colleen, began playing lacrosse as a teenager, representing Victoria before moving on to much bigger things. She travelled to four World Cups, often as the Australian captain. She played for more than 20 years, her last game for Australia coming three years after Lachie was born. There's no vision around of her games, and only a few photos. But he has heard a lot of stories.

"She grew up in Williamstown, and Williamstown is a place where a lot of people play lacrosse, I'm not sure why," he said. "It's not a big sport but in that community it is, so she got started when she was young and kept going with it. I think she was a centre, which is pretty much the same as a midfielder in AFL. She was pretty smart and pretty quick, from what people have told me."

Hunter was allowed to play lacrosse before he was old enough to start out in footy; he played on his older sister Lauren's team as a five-year-old and while it was a long, long time ago wonders whether  the sport instilled in him some handy habits. "There's a lot of hand-eye, and it's a lot about spatial awareness, so it's similar to basketball in that way. There's also a lot of zoning, which can relate to footy," he said.

"I spent two years on the girls' team, but when I was old enough to play footy I had to choose, and footy won pretty easily. If I could have played footy when I was five I'm tipping I would have gone straight there. I always loved it the most."

Still, lacrosse has remained a part of his life: Colleen moved into coaching and Lauren has also made Australian teams, combining her career with full-time work. "She's in the squad at the moment for the next World Cup, so hopefully she makes that," said Hunter, who knows not to take for granted what he has access to as a footballer.

"Lacrosse is huge in America, but she gets a bit jealous about how much funding there is in footy because she's gone on trips where she's basically had to pay her own way. She's a full-time nurse, so she's had to squeeze all her training in around that for a long time now. It takes a lot of commitment, and when the monetary rewards aren't there you really do have to do it for the love of the game."

The first thing Hunter's mother told him when she made it to the rooms in Sydney on Saturday was that she had cried her way through the whole last quarter. She will be there again this week, hoping to see him step into entirely new ground, but with a strong connection to the Sydney side, too. Colleen's brother Tony is the father of Swans co-captain Jarrad McVeigh, who is doing all he can to overcome a calf injury in time to play.

Hunter spent more time with his other cousin - Mark McVeigh - as a kid, but hopes Jarrad will be out there on he MCG with him on Saturday. "Mark used to come round for dinner a fair bit, and I actually barracked for Essendon when I was young because of him," he said. "I used to ask him questions and idolise him and watch him play all he time. He was a really good player, and Jarrad's been so good for Sydney. I hope he plays and I hope we get to line up on each other at some stage. That would be pretty cool."