Small Talk – Ashton Hams Column Round 7

AS TWINS, myself and Kyle obviously grew up playing footy together, won two flags together here at Souths and now I can think of no better way to finish up playing with him down at Busselton, but before that I have some unfinished business.

We grew up in Katanning and being a small town all we really did was play cricket, football and basketball. Mum and dad did a bit of driving around for us, but we had a great time growing up. Even going to primary and high school, having a twin is good because if you have no friends you can always talk to each other. We enjoyed growing up in Katanning as young blokes. Everything was revolved around sport and we did everything together.

There obviously was a few little punch ups as well, but we haven’t had one for a while. The Sony caused a lot of them and there were quite a lot of them in the backyard. The last one would have been somewhere around 2006 or 2007 when we had a night game at Fremantle Oval. We had a punch up at home before that and then had to come down, and play on the same team.

I turned up with a bit of a cut lip and he had a bit of a bruise around his eye, but for the life of me I can't remember what started it. There was a bit of tension in the rooms before the game, but it was fine once we were out there. I think the boys clicked on to what happened pretty quickly and being the way we both are, I don’t think anyone was surprised.

We both came up to Perth to live straight out of high school. We worked a couple of months down in Busso first and then came up to live together along with a young bloke Tyson Lee who played a bit of footy at East Perth. He played a few league games and he lived with us and so did another chick from Busso. We were pretty lucky to live with those two and it worked out well with the four of us moving up from Busso to Perth, and we were all there for each other.

We played colts together at South Fremantle in 2004 and lost our grand final, but the year before we spent a year playing against men in Busso and we felt that really helped us develop. To then come up playing against blokes our own age was a bit easier. We lost our colts grand final, but then in 2005 it was our first year playing league footy together and ended up winning a flag.

It was an awesome team to break into. We had Whitey there as well so all three of us were playing up forward at that stage. There were some really good players there with us like Matt Clucas, Ryan Webb and Evan Hewitt, and we learnt so much off those experienced blokes.

My first year going down back was 2006 and then Kyle came back there as well in 2007 as did Whitey. We had good times all playing there together and it was probably better there because we could switch to each other and get our stats up. It was good to learn to play forward and back early in our careers, and if you can play those two positions there's less chance of getting dropped.

By 2009, the back-line we had was pretty special. I haven’t seen much better and in that grand final team we had Sammy Hunt, Josh Head, Chris Bossong and then there was obviously Kyle, myself and Whitey. We all worked so well together, knew how each other played and it was an awesome to be part of.

That was definitely the highlight of my career. It was a bit different than 2005 when were still really young, but by 2009 we felt more a part of it, and we had a pretty good week.

I ended up getting drafted by the Eagles shortly after that and it was fairly hard not just on myself and Kyle, but for the family as well. Mum and dad had to be pretty happy for me, but very disappointed that Kyle didn’t get picked up as well. It was a tough couple of months there and we were still living together. He didn’t take it too well, but in the end you look at the positives and he now is a fully qualified sparky earning good money with a family, and I'm still trying to build myself a career on bugger all.

We are twins and play exactly the same, and he is a little bit taller. He definitely deserved an opportunity especially considering he probably played even better than me even in that 2009 grand final even though I got the Simpson Medal, but it has worked out pretty well for both of us in the long run.

He moved to Swans in 2011 and then the last couple of years when I came back to play at Souths there were a couple of times where we played against each other and it was just weird. The first time it was when we were still living together and I didn’t like it, and I don’t think he liked it either. It was very weird going to the same game to play against each other. There wasn’t much said during the game and I didn’t try to go to him, and he didn’t try to come to me. We tried to avoid each other really and get on with the game, but he did get a bit lippy there when Swans were up and on their way to winning. It had to be done, but neither of us liked it. 

We are still close today. We talk three or four times a week and I actually just got back from Busselton on the weekend. I went down to watch him play in Collie and he was up here to watch us play a couple of weeks ago. We actually now are closer than the years we actually lived together up here in Perth. He now has a couple of little boys and I love being around them as their uncle. It's always good to go to Busselton and relax a bit, and look after the boys.

I love spending time with his boys and the best thing about being an uncle is that you can give them all the lollies and chocolates, and leave. It is awesome though. He is a good dad and Lisa is a good mum, and they have a nice little family going there. They are loving living in Busselton. I'm happy just being an uncle and it's awesome watching his boys grow up.

Our parents have played a massive part in both our lives. They kept coming up to watch us play together at Souths when they were living in Busselton before we ended up at different clubs, and in about the first five years they only missed about two games. They did a lot of kilometres and were supporting us all the way through. It's just awesome to have good parents like that especially coming from the bush, and when they drove us around when we were younger. It's a pretty big job and they would have done anything for us. I think they enjoyed coming to watch us play up at Souths as well and most of the time ended up three-quarters pissed.

Kyle is now playing down at Busselton and I see myself ending up down there with him at some stage for our last chance to play together. I'd like to think I have another three or four years left here first and then we can both retire down there playing together. Before that, though, it would be nice to get one more flag up here and then one down there with him. We might be able to sit in the forward pocket together again which would be nice.

By Ashton Hams