New Brisbane Lions recruit Charlie Cameron has touched down in Brisbane and admits he’s itching to get started with pre-season training.

Cameron met with his new teammates and was shown around the Club’s facilities after being traded to the Lions from the Crows during the final moments of the Trade Period last week.

The 23-year-old admits he was nervous he would remain in Adelaide in 2018.

“I was speaking to my manager, with 20 minutes to go and I was like ‘is this going to get done?’. I was a bit nervous and then when it got done I was so happy,” Cameron told lions.com.au.

The excitement machine was desperate to return to Brisbane to be closer to family and friends after four years in South Australia.

“Just being close to family and I’ve got a small community up there so I want to be a role model for them and try and inspire them so I’m looking forward to doing that,” Cameron said.

Cameron was born in Mt Isa but grew up on Mornington Island, a remote community in Far North Queensland. He attended boarding school in Brisbane at Marist College Ashgrove, a famed rugby union nursery which boasts former Wallabies Captain John Eales as a past pupil.

It was Marist College who introduced him to AFL.

“We played two or three games a year as my school was a rugby school…that was it. I did Lions Academy for six months and then stopped it,” he said.

After graduating in 2011, Cameron moved to Newman, Western Australia to work in the mines, where he swapped a rugby ball for a Sherrin.

“Might as well just play footy on the weekends and have fun,” he thought at the time.

It was not long before his raw talent was spotted and Cameron was urged to move to Perth to play WAFL for the Swan Districts.

In 2014 the Adelaide Crows picked him up in their Rookie Draft and he played 73 games for them, including this year’s AFL Grand Final. 

“I'm just trying to have fun along the way and try and enjoy my time playing AFL as it’s a short career,” Cameron said.

Cameron is ready for a new chapter in Brisbane and has already become acquainted with his new teammates.

“It’s a new beginning with challenges along the way but I’m looking forward to it,” Cameron said. 

“They are all good fellas, I met a couple last night and a few today.”

Four-time premiership winner Luke Hodge joins him as a Lions recruit in 2018, a player Cameron has long admired and enjoyed playing against.

“I can’t wait to learn from him,” Cameron said.

Cameron will start pre-season training in late November.