WHEN ASKED to describe himself as a player, one word sprung to Hudson O’Keeffe’s mind straight away.

Competitor.

As Carlton supporters trawled through social media to find highlights of their newest Blue when he was announced as a signing last Friday, O’Keeffe was asked about his approach to his football.

The new Blue is quick off the mark — he ran under three seconds in the 20-metre sprint at last year’s Victorian draft combine.

But when it comes down to it, he loves to get his hands dirty around stoppages.

“I’m just a competitive beast,” O’Keeffe said with a smile.

“I love competing. I love to tackle hard and hit hard… you know you’ll get 100 per cent out of me every game.”

Joining Tom De Koning, Alex Mirkov and Marc Pittonet in what the latter has coined the ‘Kreuzer Academy’, those traits are fairly consistent with those displayed by the man that used to be known as ‘Tractor’ in the Navy Blue No.8.

O’Keeffe has been straight into training since becoming a Carlton player, completing some ruck craft while rubbing shoulders with the Blues’ ruck brigade.

Friday may have been a whirlwind, but O’Keeffe is already thinking about what’s to come.

“I just want to play some good footy,” he said.

“As a ruck, you’re not expected to play in your first year. I want to develop and become a really good AFL ruck one day.”

A Hawthorn supporter growing up, O’Keeffe cited former Hawthorn ruckman Ben McEvoy as well as Max Gawn as his main sources of inspiration from a playing standpoint.

However, there hasn’t been anybody who had a bigger impact on O’Keeffe than his parents, who were the first people he told when he got the news.

“I was so excited. I knew they were waiting,” he said.

“We thought we were going to get the news cover the next couple of days, so they would’ve been caught off-guard a little bit.

“I got them on the call and they were just as happy as I was.”