YOUNGSTER Mark Austin will play just his second match for Carlton this weekend but the Blues have high hopes for the athletic defender.

And assistant coach Gavin Crosisca, in charge of the club's defence, has flagged more opportunities in the coming weeks.

"Mark Austin will hopefully be a 10-to-12 year player for us at centre half-back," Crosisca said.

"He won’t be a high possession winner, but he’s going to be big and strong, he’s got really good pace and he’s going to be able to spoil the ball very well.

"He’s more of a stopper than say a Jarrad Waite is at centre half-back, put it that way, but hopefully that will allow us to put Waitey in different positions.

"We’ll try and develop Aussie as quick as we can and hopefully he can gain some confidence over the next six or seven weeks."

Austin, 19, has earned high praise from Northern Bullants coach David Teague for his steady progress this year and has featured regularly among the best players for the VFL affiliate.

He played alongside Bryce Gibbs at SANFL club Glenelg and was selected 35th overall in the same draft, but while his good mate – the No. 1 pick – was able to play all 22 games in his first season, Austin didn’t make his debut until round 22.

"Age-wise he’s equivalent to the Matthew Kreuzer draft so you need to be patient," Crosisca explained.

"You need to be patient with those guys and understand how old they are. We got him as a 17-year-old and he was fairly slow to develop last year and didn’t come to terms with AFL footy very quickly. But this year it’s amazing what a bit of confidence does; he’s looking very strong, he’s looking very quick.

"One of his mates, Michael Jamison, is helping him with regards to closing down and spoiling from full-back and centre half-back and he deserves his spot," he added.

"He’s shown some good signs and hopefully he can play well enough to gain some senior confidence as well."