James Bannon is a Rugby Union player who played football for the South Coast Monaro representative team in 2019. During his time playing he was coat hangered and managed to score a penalty try for his team. We sat down to talk about what he learnt during the experience and how it affected his gameplay moving forward.
Q: What was it like playing for the south Coast Monaro representative team?
A: It was a cool and interesting experience which I was able to learn a lot from. I got to learn new skills such as how to bond with new players and make sure that we got our basic football skills right. But it was mainly about learning the ways other players play the game and how to mold the way you play around that.
Q: What new skills did you learn?
A: I learnt how to play with new players as well as how to play in a variety of different positions to become a utility player. As well as this we had a lot of fitness training and they gave us a lot of drills we could take back to our home clubs and to focus on fitness and other aspects of gameplay.
Q: What was gameday like?
A: It was a round robin competition where we played other teams from all over Australia such as Tasmania. The pace of the game changed a lot compared to how it usually is in club football. I even managed to score a penalty try after getting coat hangered although I did have to sit the rest of the game on the bench as I had split my lip and was bleeding everywhere. Overall it was a good time and we managed to beat Tasmania although we got smashed by all of the other teams.
Q: How did the experience change how you played moving forward?
A: It improved how I play my own game a lot as it gave me the experience of the extra in a game and also the intensity that I can bring to my game. It also changed the way I manage my own gameplay when playing for my club.
Photos by Barrett Bannon
Barrett Bannon is a year 12 student at St Mary MacKillop College who enjoys making films, creating media pieces, and mountain biking.