James Demetrie is one of the quiet achievers of the Power House Football Club. He first came to Power House in 1986 and this year he continues a 34 year association with the Green Black and White.
He played 66 games as a half forward flanker and occasional back pocket between 1986 and 2000.
In a modern world dominated by information technology, social media and branding, James has helped bring the Power House Football Club into line with today’s technical expectations.
Our website is considered amongst the very best in the VAFA and is a benchmark for other clubs within the VAFA and beyond.
Power House FC was the first amateur sporting club in Australia to develop a web site in 1995 thanks to James’ foresight.
James’s football career was restricted due to injury and poor eyesight but he was and still is passionate about the success of the House
James (through his company DISKMANdotNet) has been one of our longest serving club sponsors and has been responsible for running the club website since 1995.
James sat down at the bar with Pav to talk about his time at the Club…
Pav: James, in 1986, a fresh faced 18 year old kid with a real love of football walked into Power House. How did you get here?
James: Living in Doncaster made it a challenge. I didn’t have my own car at that stage, so it took me a bus to Box Hill, a train to Flinders Street and a tram down St. Kilda Road and then finally my excellent “Frogger” skills crossing Queens Road. It was quite an effort to get there in the early days.
But overall, I blame it all on you. I came to Power House because you kept telling me what a great club it was.
Pav: So it was my fault? You should be proud…you became only the second Greek to play for Power House… Aussie Rules wasn’t very big in Athens!
James: Yes… I blame you for a lot of things…
Pav: It was a long time ago…Rick Sykes was your first coach. What do you remember?
James: I remember him bellowing from the outer Lakeside wing, where the bench used to be … “Jimmy run!, Jimmy this isn’t school-boy footy anymore.. Jimmy just RUN!”. I was really young and pretty scared.
That far back is too many seasons ago; it’s all a bit of a blur.
Pav: What about the characters…who stood out when you first walked in?
James: At the beginning I was probably a bit intimidated by the ‘legends’ of the club and the ‘lads’. I found it a bit hard to fit in. Although not a character as what you’re asking about but Steve Mason always had a lot of time for me, genuine and caring. I played a fair few games with Steve in the ressies, and I distinctly remember him ‘coaching’ me in some games while he was umpiring!
Bruce Wilson is probably one of the characters who really sticks out, his crazy black rimmed glasses which he wore like Kareem Abdul Jabbar, he was and still is rather mental. He looked like Tarzan played like Jane.
Nigel Deans is another, he was a funny bugger on and off the field we used to have such a laugh out there, and he used to look after me. When a fight would break out, I’d go and stand next to him, when he wasn’t busy punching an opponent.
Pav: What about Micky Bray?
James: Mick was a harsh looking guy, always one who was the centre of attention or leading the rounds of beers after match. He was a real tough nut, played hard, uncompromising footy. Bursting through packs, like a steamroller; no one got in his way.
He wouldn’t say much to me, but a wink and “Wog, you played OK today”, he’d say. They were different days back then.
At the start I didn’t know if he was taking the piss or what, I was always taken aback, but in time I knew he always had good intentions and we had a good relationship from afar. Good moustache.
Pav: So you only played 66 games in about 14 or so years…injuries? Moved interstate? Walkabout? Why so little game time?
James: Young and dumb. Chasing the dream, travelling, setting up businesses, failing, starting again. Footy was part of my dream, but I couldn’t get through winter training!
Truth be known my eyesight was so bad at night under those shitty lights. I couldn’t see a thing. Whoever was coaching was never impressed, no less my team mates who executed perfect skills to me only to have me make a dick of myself and them because I couldn’t see the damn ball.
So summer training I’d train well and show promise, but once daylight saving ended, training became too hard. I always went walkabout by about round five or six.
Pav: I know you were half blind when you played…alcohol or eyesight?
James: My eyesight was crap…BUT I was actually not half bad keeping up with the boys in the drinking department. If drinking was counted in the B&F, I would have excelled for sure.
Pav: I saw you get cleaned up a few times, once at the Ross Gregory in the centre of the ground and once down at Como Park against Old Geelong. Can you recall those two incidents?
James: I remember that game at Como Park. I think I was around half back and saw the ball come loose so I just went for it. I was going flat out and I bent down to pick up the ball and got hip and shouldered from both sides; resulting in a fractured scapula. The drugs were good at the hospital I remember vaguely…
Years later on our home ground, it was a perfect Autumn day, it was sunny and bright and I was unusually having a good day on field. I remember running off half-back and suddenly found myself in space in the centre. I went for a bounce and slammed the ball into the hard cricket pitch area. The ball lobbed backwards over my head. My momentum stopped, I caught the ball behind my back, tried to bring it around to the front and then WHACK! Crunched and dumped…I’ve never felt so much pain in my life!
I could hear you, especially, having a pretty good laugh from the fence.
Pav: That was one of the funniest things I ever saw on the field! You would have seen a few coaches in your time…most of them had interesting “quirks”. Who stands out in your mind as the most impactful…or interesting?
James: I remember bits and pieces from each ‘era’ I played at the club. I probably wasn’t under their influence enough weeks in a row to say that much. But George Tsolacos was a funny bloke. He was a scary bastard!
As far as impact goes, I really think Craig Richardson was my favourite coach. I think he knew I had potential and he encouraged me and gave me responsibility and he made me a better player. I know I frustrated him but looking back it’s because he was just trying to make me a better player.
Pav: What about players…who could really play?
James: Of course if I mention some, I am going to miss just as many. What I really remember is that we definitely had some really good players at the club.
In no particular order, or skill set, there was Mark Mason – gritty and determined, Jeff Scotland – smart, modern for the day footballer, Derek Desler – I can just remember him being really good, Richo – easily the best both sides of the body player I’ve seen at the club, Jimmy Hall – could run all day, great user of the ball, Stuart Craven – tough, kicked lots of goals, great leader, he could draw – remember that Piranha logo?, Nugget – smart defender, great guy, Warde Elliot – tough nut, kinda mental when he crossed that side of the white line, Paul Edwards – longest straightest kick for goal I’ve seen at the club, intimating on field with some tough tatts.
Pav: So you have seen some great club men come and go…who stood out?
James: Over the years I have had the pleasure of meeting a lot of great people at the Club; a lot of them really put their heart and soul into the place. There are many but to list a few, from my early days, Harry South, Ian, Peter and Ric Dakin, Mark and Steve Mason.
To my middle years at the Club the likes of Frank Doyle, Warde Elliot, Mick Verberne, Jason Evans, Bruce Wilson and Paddy Barrett and now in the current day, Daniel Buckley, and the one constant throughout my years is you, the longest serving president.
But my hat goes off to all you guys. A club is nothing without stalwarts such as these. These people helped bring success to the club and the club deserves more success due to these great people.
Pav: The game and the Club has changed so much since you last played…what have you seen that is the biggest difference?
James: As you know I don’t get down to the Club as much as I would like, but I am there in spirit and I keep in touch with you and Bucks and follow everything on social media. Things I notice is that a lot hasn’t changed, as it’s still a great place to forge lifelong friendships, great atmosphere during and after games, great social scene.
Probably the biggest change is how the Club has embraced technology, having a great web site, recruiting via the Internet is a fantastic initiative, a professional email marketing system. I think though the Club is just more professional these days, regardless of which grade we’re playing, the organisation from the Committee, to the Coaches, to the players is just getting better.
Pav: We had some fun times on the field…any particular games stick out?
James: One game against Elsternwick, at Elsternwick’s tiny home ground. I can’t remember the year, but it was the one and only time a bunch of us played together in the reserves.
There was you, Nigel Deans, Bruce Wilson and Jimmy Galanopoulos, Sammy Evans and Jason Evans played that game too… a more fun game I have never played in. Power House was always about just having a kick with my mates.
I think there’s a photo of all of us after the game, we should dig that up, I’d love a copy of that.
(L-R Nic Pavlou, Nigel Deans, James Demetrie, Bruce Wilson, Sam Evans, Jim Galanopoulos)
The other one was against Richmond at their ground. It was one of those days for me, rare, but everything fell into line all in one day. Although we were a few goals down at half time, we kicked into gear and we came over the top to win by 20-30 points. I was playing off half-back and being the designated runner, I had some freedom to run and carry. It was the day I managed to kick my one and only goal for Power House.
Pav: Since your playing career finished, you have continued to support the club in a different way. Tell us what you have been doing?
James: My business is in Web based services. We handle everything from domain names, web hosting using our own servers, build web sites and web applications; all that kind of stuff. I can tell you I am a way better web provider than I was ever a footballer, so it made sense for me to help the Club in the best way I could.
Our Club, was the first Amateur Sporting Club in Australia to have a web site. The first Power House FC web site was built in 1995 and over the years I have provided about 5 or 6 different new web sites for the Club. All along I have supported the club with domain name registration, web hosting, web and graphic design, photography. I am very proud to have been in such a good position to contribute in such a way to the Club.
The Club didn’t even know I was building that first web site, so I just made it how I thought it should be. The first web site was quite basic, and it had things like a basic list of game fixtures, a map of the ground location, some contact details.
The biggest challenge was then trying to integrate more elaborate content such as obtaining photos of legends, honour board information, photos of premiership teams, premiership team members in position etc. and then putting that together in some cohesive way.
Without guys like Daniel Buckley, Ian Hammet, Ian and Peter Dakin and yourself providing historical content, we couldn’t have done it.
Pav: So how did you pull all the data together?
James: We hit a critical point with the web site about 5 or 6 years ago where I thought it was just a bit stale and it was starting to feel like every other Clubs’ web sites, so I spoke to you about getting some real content. As mentioned above, real info about the history of the Club, honour boards, life members, premiership success information and the like.
We spent about 6 or 8 months gathering a lot of this hard to find stuff and badgered the likes of Ian Hammett, Ian Dakin and others to dig up photos and their memories and other official archives to create the content you see today on the site.
Pav: What advice would you give to a new player coming to the club?
James: Ha! I remember Jeff Scotland telling me “you’re a long time retired”. How was I back then to know that would work out to be so true? My mind is still young and so I would like to play, but my body isn’t having any of that. So, my advice to any new player is to stick around and do the best you can for as long as you can.
This Club can change your life, make you some new friends, some might even last a lifetime. But even if you retire or are unable to play there’s still things you can do to make yourself and the Club better. Stick around, do what you can.
Pav: Life Membership – what does it mean to you?
James: It’s really a true honour to be inducted as a Life Member of the Club. It was a surprise, I had no idea it was even a possibility that could even happen to me. To be in the company of the other Life Members who have contributed both on and off the field is just amazing feeling.
I guess in my own way I’ve done a bit for the Club, but I never did it for a ‘thank you’. The Club has done a lot for me during my ‘career’ with my feeling of worth, self-esteem, lifelong friendships and the feeling of belonging, so this has been my way of giving back.
While I have you, I just want to say it was remiss of me that I didn’t thank my team mates and coaches; I was literally in shock, when I accepted my Life Membership a couple of years ago and it’s been eating me up a bit inside. So I just want to thank all my team mates over the years; to list all would be impossible, but I do need to specifically thank Richo as my favourite coach and players like Stephen Mason, Nigel Deans, Bruce Wilson, Sammy Evans, Jason Evans, Blowers, Mick Verberne, Nugget, Johnny Senior, Jimmy G, Mick Bray, Warde Elliot, Jason Gill, Mark Braini, Swampy Maddox and of course you Pav, for without you, my history with the Club would not have ever happened.
Pav: Thanks, Dermie, It’s been great catching up!
James: Is it time for a beer yet?
