Mitchell said two false call-ups by Parramatta trainers tested his nerves in the minutes before his eventual entry into the game. "I got up a couple of times, they said to get ready twice, the first two times the heart just jumped and I was sort of freaking out a bit," he said. "It was more excitement than anything, and then the third time he said "get up" and I thought it's probably just another get up, get down sort of thing, but it was the actual time to get up. "I think all the nerves had left me by then and I was just ready to get out there."
From there Mitchell ran out into the epicentre of a Friday night footy spectacular.
"It felt like there were speakers just lodged straight next to my ears, people are just screaming straight into you, you can't really listen to many of the calls either, you can hardly hear the boys just because it's so loud," he said. "But playing with NRL players it's makes things a lot easier as well, it was scary but exciting at the same time, it was everything I thought it was going to be, but I couldn't really describe it."
In the 80th minute Mitchell crossed the white line for the final try, and the first of his NRL career. "Basically I was thinking to just run as fast as I can, I saw Izzy (Israel Folau) in the corner of my eye and I just knew I really had to kick my legs, and they just got me there," he said.
"I was a bit tired at that stage, but after crossing over I just had a half-second moment to myself, stared up into the sky and just thanked my lucky stars."
Anthony's father Steve, who travelled down to Brisbane to be there for the 21-year-old's big moment, said the experience of watching his son carve up the Broncos defence exceeded his wildest expectations.
"Mate, it was one of the greatest experiences of my life," he said.
"It was unreal, just amazing, it was beyond anyone's expectations - he had a great debut."
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There was only one person in the place whom seemed happier than Mitchell..........and he knows who he is