PYRAMID Hill stalwart Gavin James will play his 300th club game this Saturday – with one gaping hole in his impressive football CV.
James, a former co-coach of the Bulldogs and twice runner up in the league’s Harding Medal, will run out at Mitchell Park against Maiden Gully for the milestone.
But six of those 300 matches have been heartbreaking grand final losses with Pyramid Hill.
The first grand final loss came a year later, followed by others in 2008, 2011, 2019, 2023 and 2024.
James first played senior footy for the club in 2005, when he was still a local kid in Year 12.
And apart from two seasons when he played in the Bendigo and Heathcote leagues, as well as a short stint in Darwin with the Waratahs, he has been a Bulldog fixture ever since.
“I’m proud to knock that one over,” James said of the 300-game feat.
“Not too many can get to do that at one club.”
The short stint – just 10 matches – with South Bendigo followed his off-season in the Northern Territory.
“It’s a different environment, like playing a wet-weather game every week – everything is so sweaty and that gets transferred to the ball,” James said.
He admitted to feeling exhausted at South Bendigo, so he returned to Pyramid Hill for the second half of the season.
In 2015-16 he was with Huntly in the Heathcote league, enjoying playing with a bunch of mates after tiring of the driving from Bendigo to Pyramid Hill.
But then another mate lured him back to the Bulldogs.
Brad Fawcett, who coached Pyramid Hill in 2016, asked James to join him as co-coach, and he was happy to return home. 
At 37, he says his body is feeling better than it has for a few seasons, and he is likely to lace up the boots again in 2026.
But this season there’s unfinished business, with the third-placed Bulldogs striving for the club’s first flag in 75 years.
Having a consistent lineup has been difficult, with more players travelling long distances and not available every week.
“We’ll see what the next month brings and see if we can get things to click” James said.
- GARY WALSH