Deloraine's Stan Tyson enjoying Northern Territory football

Having planned to spend 2021's off-season travelling or living in Melbourne, the 22-year-old Deloraine co-captain is now rubbing shoulders with former AFL players and the Top End's best.

"My old man actually sent me a 'come and play footy' [poster] and it was St Mary's so I thought about it for about for a month and nothing else came up," he said.

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"So pretty much I thought I'd fly over to Darwin for a couple of weeks and give it a bit of a taster and all of a sudden a month later, I'm back up here living now."

Securing a rental and starting a new job this week, Tyson has slotted right into the life in the Northern Territory and into St Mary's premier league line-up, which is undefeated after the first two games.

His debut, a 48-point win over Wanderers, also marked a special milestone for a former AFL gun.

"Debuting last weekend was fantastic in itself and obviously running out with Raph Clarke in his 150th [St Mary's] game, one of St Kilda's greats, was also unbelievable," he said.

"It's obviously a great culture up here, it's a really big family culture which is great, especially coming from Deloraine, which is very much the same."

In addition to running out alongside 85-game Saints player Clarke, Tyson also had Joe Daniher and Ben Long feature at the club's training session on Tuesday, while several Western Bulldogs players have been spotted checking out the action.

"It's pretty cool, seeing as though coming from Tassie you don't see those type of people very much because not many people come down to Tassie for various reasons," he said.

"It's something completely different that's for sure."

The looming presence of AFL stars in their off-season isn't the only difference between the NTFA and Tyson's temporary six-month home of the NTFL, noticing an increase in pace during his maiden appearance.

"It's definitely a lot quicker, it's easy to say that the game is quicker up here but it is ridiculously fast.

"There's a lot of great players playing up in the comp which is also good in itself.

"It's certainly a lot different to Tassie footy that's for sure but I've been back and forth with the coaches and I've got to get some kilometres in my legs up here and then we will be going full steam ahead half way through the year into finals."

With the season finishing in early March, Tyson, who has retained his spot for this weekend's match-up, will be good to go for Deloraine in the NTFA season.