THE SYDNEY Swans’ latest NAB AFL Rising Star nominee, Jesse White, says a mid-year stint in the reserves was the catalyst that sparked his stellar second half of the season.

White received the final nomination for the 2009 NAB AFL Rising Star award after his three-goal performance against the Brisbane Lions in round 22.

The athletic key position player started the season as the Swans’ back-up ruckman but his form fell away as the season progressed.

A two-week stretch in the Swans’ reserves produced hauls of eight and 11 goals, paving the way for White’s return to the senior team to replace the departed Barry Hall.

The 21-year-old Gold Coast native finished the season with 20 goals, including a flurry of 15 majors in his final seven matches.

“I think it was just finding out where I should be playing,” White said on Tuesday.

“I played a little bit in the ruck and I felt like more of a fill-in, instead of playing where I should be playing and using my strengths.

“I was a bit disappointed that I was dropped but I went back there and I knew that I was a senior player [in that team]. I went back there just to prove to them that I wanted to be back in the [senior] side.”

Much has been made of White’s basketball background – he received offers to train at the Australian Institute Sport and to play at Arizona State University in the US – but he said Australian football was always his first love. 

“A lot of people say I’m a basketball convert but I’ve been playing AFL since I was eight,” he said.

“I just had a bit of a break and focused on my basketball [where] I played state and got selected in the Australian side.

“It was under-16s where I came back to AFL and that was when I knew that I loved my AFL and I wanted to stick to it.”

With a successful season under his belt, White said he was keen to build on his development during the off-season.

“Now that Michael O’Loughlin’s going and we’ve lost Barry Hall, I’m [one of] the forwards now so I’ll be playing a lot more minutes. It’s exciting,” he said.