NAB League, Murray Bushrangers v Northern Knights, rd 4Coby James
Photo by
Aydin Payne
Kyabram may use the hotly debated father-son rule to lay claim to a rising star of Victorian country football after a Mooroopna junior continued his meteoric rise in the sport at the national under-18 championships in Perth.
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While it is a stretch for the sports-mad community to suggest the 18-year-old’s success has anything to do with his father and extended family growing up in Kyabram, we know just how adept Australians are at claiming any sort of headline act as their own.
For much of my upbringing I always considered Neil and Tim Finn Australian, I thought Phar Lap was an entirely Aussie icon and even regularly debated the upbringing of Sam Neill and Russell Crowe.
It is, however, probably a stretch to suggest Coby James’s rise in Australian rules circles has anything to do with the fact his father, Glenn, spent his childhood in the town and his uncles, Peter, Alan and Daryl, all donned the red and black of Kyabram.
Coby is now being mentioned in similar conversations to the headline act of the under-18 class of 2023: Tongala’s Harley Reid.
The pair were teammates in the team that beat West Australia by two points in the second round of the national titles a fortnight ago and were again playing side by side in the 11-point loss against the Allies on Sunday.
While there is no denying the likes of Garry Lyon (son of Peter) and Brett Deledio (son of Wayne) progressed right through the ranks of Kyabram junior sport, Coby has done so 40 or so kilometres away at Mooroopna.
Glenn and his wife, Kim, have raised their family only a few torpedoes from the home ground of the mighty Mooroopna Cats; the family has been involved with Mooroopna Football Netball Club from when Coby started Auskick, and Glenn is vice-president of the Goulburn Valley league club.
Coby has played only one game with Mooroopna this season and it was at GV Creamery Oval in Kyabram against the team his father and uncles all played for.
On that day Coby was actually playing against his cousin, Josh Dillon, who is the son of Karen and former Kyabram footballer Mark Dillon.
Like most junior footballers who show promise, it has been an extremely busy season for Coby, who has played three rounds of the national championships with Vic Country, eight rounds with the Bushrangers and the one GVL senior game.
It is his third year with the Bushrangers after he was thrust into the spotlight by winning the inaugural Scott Watson Medal as the best and fairest player in the then GVL Under 16 competition.
He played nine games with the Bushrangers last season and two matches with Mooroopna before his season ended in late June due to shoulder surgery. Coby started full contact training in February this year.
“He has played a lot of football off half-back flank and in the midfield, where he can use his speed and find space, and is very clean with the football — he uses his assets well,” dad Glenn said.
Coby’s grandparents Ron and Eileen, who have been in the Kyabram community for their entire life, enjoy following Coby and watching him play on the live stream.
Friends before foes: Mooroopna’s Coby James with Western Australian Under 18 representative Clay Hall. The pair played together as juniors and were on opposing teams during the second round of the national championships.
