FD16a FFCDN0104-REV.indd - Fremantle Football Club

Up Close – James Walkerbeen fantastic because they have given methe opportunity to get some experience. I ammore or less just trying to get a hand on thewhole process of Corporate Finance and it’sreally very interesting – I have been given avery good opportunity,”he said.“I did a year full time atMelbourne Universitybefore I got drafteddoing my Commercedegree and when Igot to Fremantle Itransferred to UWA and just studied parttime… I took a couple of second semesters offbut eventually chipped away at it… and it wasgood to get it done and have something that Icould say I have been able to achieve.He said future studies were not out of thequestion but gaining experience in thebusiness world to prepare him for life afterfootball was at this point a priority.“Potentially I could do something postgraduate but at the moment I am quitecontent plugging away at getting a look atthe business world and getting some realexperience to see what it’s like and if I enjoyit and at the moment I am really enjoying it,”he said.“Right now I am very happy to be doingthe work as opposed to the study, I think Iprobably hit saturation point at the end of thecourse, it had been six years and I needed todo something else for a while.”Season 2003 was undoubtedly the mostsuccessful year in the history of Fremantle,making the finals for the first time and historymaking crowds being recorded throughoutthe year. However, with experiencing the goodtimes, James is one of the few that also feltthe hardship of the tough times.“2001 was an incredibly tough year and I thinkbecause we were going so poorly as a team asmuch as you wouldn’t like it to, it does have areal bearing on your life outside of football. SoI think as much as anything the impact that“it has always been agreat source of prideto see how loyal oursupporters are”had on your self esteem and your outlook onthe world was quite negative,” he said.“Contrasting that with last year I started torealise exactly why I started playing football.When you’re winning you can really enjoy theatmosphere, I knowI have already said itbut the fans, it wasamazing to see themout in force in a waythat we could bring somany people together.“For me it was 2003 that made me realise alot about how much I enjoy playing the gameand why I began playing it in the first place. Itwas great to get back to that sort of feeling.”Perhaps it was his own ‘love of the game’ thatenabled James to be grateful for Fremantle’spassionate supporters, because in 2003 itwas obvious that the players were eager toshow their supporters just how much theyappreciated the continued loyalty of their fans.“Yeah it has been a great initiative of theplayers to go to the crowd at the end of a gameas a group, because our supporters have beenfairly long suffering. I mean we only have abrief history but it’s not a history laced withsuccess, so it has always been a great sourceof pride to see how loyal our supporters are,”he said.“We are just trying to give something back. Solast season, to have a winning season and toplay in the finals it was great to be able to givethem something, well a bit, back and hopefullybring us into a successful era. I mean thewhole idea of us going to the crowd is to showthem that we are appreciative of everythingthey have supported us through,” he said.There was an enormous amount of excitementin Western Australia prior to the 2003 finalround derby and the elimination final, butJames said he isn’t one to get caught up in theall the media hype.“I do get selective about when I read thepapers, I mean before a big game I don’t knowif there’s much to be gained from immersingyourself in that sort of stuff, I just try andmove through the week without too muchdeviation from my normal routine,” he said.“But in terms of the finals build up, down hereat training we had 8000 people and that wasa pretty amazing feeling. For me, having beenhere through the bad times, it was a greatexperience to have those people come down tosee what potential Fremantle has as a footballclub, to really be quite a big part of the AFLand I think that was sort of reflected in thecrowd. So those sorts of things are more whatI enjoy about the build up.”With a lifestyle full of so much action, Jamesis happy to head home to a more peacefulenvironment, to spend time with his staffy ‘Ali’and prepare for the next day.“I go home and take Ali for a walk and thenmost of my night just revolves around the nextday. I like to go to see a film, listen to musicand that sort of thing and I do eat out with theboys quite often.“I like doing stuff that’s not too physicalespecially after a big day at training.”Hopeful of another successful year in 2004James said he believed the team couldestablish themselves in the higher part of theladder.“I hope 2004 is in the same vein as last year,and the development chain in 2004 continuesat the same pace as 2003 and I think if thatdoes happen we can be a really good side.There is every indication from our pre-seasonthat we have progressed well.”Just ahead of his 100th game this year, Jameswas truly modest when reflecting on hisachievement.“I don’t really want to get ahead of that, I amhappy just to see how it goes, it’s just one ofthose things,” he said.James stormed home to win the 100m race at theAFL Grand Final last year.12 Fremantle Football Club March 2004