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PLAYING in an empty stadium wouldn't have been how Jack Ginnivan envisaged his first game as he dreamed of an AFL career from his earliest junior football days.
But with his AFL debut coming during another Victorian lockdown tonight, Bendigo Pioneer draftee Ginnivan's first game for Collingwood against Port Adelaide at Marvel Stadium tonight will be in front of no crowd
With his debut 18-year-old forward Ginnivan becomes the 61st former player from the Bendigo Pioneers to play an AFL game and the second this year behind Fremantle's Josh Treacy against Hawthorn in round four.
Debuting during a lockdown means that Ginnivan's family - parents Craig and Debbie and sisters Brooke and Meg - can't be at the game and instead will have to watch on television.
"I've spoken to Jack the past couple of days and I said to him that I'd rather he play a game of AFL footy in front of no-one and us not be there rather than us be at a game and he not playing," Craig said during the week.
Ginnivan's Magpies' debut in front of a locked out crowd - albeit on the big stage of Friday night football - is in stark contrast to the atmosphere for another ex-Pioneer, Paddy Dow's, first game for Carlton.
A much-hyped No.3 pick in the 2017 National Draft, Dow was selected for the Blues' 2018 season-opener against Richmond.
A monster crowd of 90,151 packed into the MCG as the Tigers began their premiership defence with a 26-point win after kicking away from the Blues in the final term.
Playing in front of more than 90,000 against the reigning premiers - it was one heck of a baptism of fire for Dow, who collected 11 possessions and laid five tackles in his debut.
The crowd of 90,151 at Dow's first game is the largest a Pioneers' draftee has debuted in front of.
The traditional Essendon-Collingwood Anzac Day match is the AFL's biggest home and away game of the year and in 1998 was the scene for Pioneer draftee Dean Solomon to make his debut for the Bombers.
Essendon had taken Solomon with pick 20 in the 1997 Draft and he was quickly thrust onto the showpiece stage by coach Kevin Sheedy with his 1998 Anzac Day debut game for the Bombers.
At that stage just the ninth player from the Pioneers to play an AFL game, tough defender Solomon had 10 touches in front of a crowd of 81,542 who saw Collingwood win by 20 points and Magpies' full-forward Saverio Rocca boot seven goals.
It was the first of 209 AFL games for Solomon at the Bombers (158, including the 2000 flag) and Fremantle (51), with he and Dow among seven Pioneers' draftees who have debuted in front of more than 50,000.
In round one of 2010 the AFL got its first look at the player who would go on to become one the biggest names in the game a decade later when Dustin Martin debuted for Richmond.
There were 72,010 at the MCG as Martin - drafted from the Pioneers with pick No.3 in 2009 - collected 18 disposals as one of the Tigers' shining lights on a dismal night in which they were belted by 66 points.
Other Pioneers' draftees who have also debuted in front of crowds of more than 50,000 have been North Melbourne's Daniel Harris (56,028 v Essendon, round 1, 2001); GWS Giants' Brent Daniels (52,105 v West Coast, round 16, 2018); Collingwood's Kayle Kirby (51,223 v Melbourne, round 23, 2017); and Sydney's Josh Thewlis (50,091 v Collingwood, round 13, 2014).
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