Not to his parents, but instead, to the very person he’d be marking.
James was unsuspecting on Thursday night as Vic Country coach Paul Corrigan announced the squad for the following day’s AFL Under-18 National Championships clash against Western Australia at the WACA, and would have been concealing a grin only he could explain after being named in the midfield.
It meant he was about to rub shoulder’s with WA’s Clay Hall, an old mate from back in the day.
They began their fledgling footy careers playing Auskick at Mooroopna and have remained great friends since Hall took his talents west.
But only fate could have brought them this close together once again.
“He plays in the guts for WA, so I texted him the night before and said ‘I’m playing in the middle with you’,” James said.
“We were best mates before they took off to WA, so we just catch up every now and then.
“I saw him on the first bounce, we shook hands and I gave him a hug. It was good to catch up with him because I hadn’t seen him in a while.”
Mates or not, once the siren sounded there was no such love shared between the pair.
James’ last outing for Vic Country had him run along half-back in the company of Shepparton United’s Oscar Ryan and, while Ryan remained in his usual post against WA, James was called into the engine room for his hard running and fierce tackling.
The travellers held the lead over WA by 11 points approaching quarter-time, though the Black Swans were able to peg the deficit back to nine points by half-time ― and James was now in his element.
“It was an awesome game, it was probably one of my favourite games I’ve played in just with the crowd,” he said.
“They were so loud against us, it was awesome.
“It just kept getting louder and louder and we had a little fight at half-time and walking back into our rooms they just started booing.
“It was the first time I’d been booed before, but it was a cool feeling.”
Vic Country talent Zane Duursma was commanding plenty of the limelight ― and direction of boos ― in the second half as was Harley Reid, but doing the one percenters ― the donkey work ― was none other than James.
His battle with Hall was exceptional and it was only fitting during a scintillating game of football, the best of the National Championships.
With WA mounting a grandstand comeback which looked for all money one which it would complete, James had the last laugh over his old mate Hall as he sent a spiralling clearance high into the heavens, with the siren sounding before the ball hit the deck.
The score read 8.13 (61) to 8.11 (59). Bragging rights were Vic Country’s.
Before joining the others donning the Big V who were congregating in the rooms, James had one last order of business ― get a picture next to his old Auskick buddy.
Dad’s orders.
It capped a game for James’ own personal annals, with the experience of being thrown into the cut and thrust, out of position, against high quality opposition, one he’s not soon going to forget.
“It was my first time being to Perth and I got moved into the middle,” he said.
“I actually found out the night before, we had a team meeting and Corro (Paul Corrigan) said we’ll put you in the guts this week. I was like ‘yeah all right’.
I felt like they wanted my defensive pressure and stuff like that, tackling and pushing down to defend, I felt like my tackling was strong during the game.
“I loved mid because I played a few games in the guts for Bushies this year, so I sort of knew what to do. I just stuck to what I knew and it paid off ― we got the win.”
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