{"id":296014,"date":"2023-05-12T22:33:36","date_gmt":"2023-05-12T22:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=296014"},"modified":"2023-05-13T00:59:18","modified_gmt":"2023-05-13T00:59:18","slug":"odonnells-emotional-changeroom-moment-with-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=296014","title":{"rendered":"O'Donnell's emotional changeroom moment with son"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aussie cricket great Simon O'Donnell has given an emotional speech as he presented his son James his Bulldogs<\/a> guernsey before his AFL<\/a> debut against the Blues<\/a> on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

O'Donnell will make his debut replacing Adam Treloar, who's out with a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n

He was only signed as a category B rookie last month, having spent much of his teens chasing the cricket dream as a fast bowler.<\/p>\n

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In presenting his son with his first guernsey, Simon recalled when James came home from his first AFL match simulation after graduating from the club's VFL program.<\/p>\n

\"Simon<\/p>\n

"He came home, and he sat down and said 'I just had the best time'," he said.<\/p>\n

"I said 'why'? and he said 'Bont (Marcus Bontempelli) bowled me over twice'.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"He's the only bloke I've ever known who's come home thinking getting smashed up is a good thing, 'because I got smashed up by someone that I actually can't believe I'm on the same sporting field as'."<\/p>\n

Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said James has "been unbelievably impressive with everything he's done".<\/p>\n

"We had our doubts he'd be able to complete a pre-season seeing he hasn't really played much footy," Beveridge said.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/westernbulldogs\/status\/1656908191228387328<\/a><\/p>\n

"It surprised us that everything we threw at him he was able to manage, and we've been able to school him in a couple of roles and try to prepare him."<\/p>\n

Simon said James' debut would be an emotional moment for the whole family.<\/p>\n

"James' sense of team – I know I'm his dad – is quite extraordinary. He wants to do well, but he wants everyone to do well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"You won't understand how much he'll enjoy the journey and what he's about to do, and you guys have given him the opportunity to do this weekend."<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs take on the Blues at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night, where O'Donnell has been named on the bench.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by <\/strong><\/em>clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aussie cricket great Simon O'Donnell has given an emotional speech as he presented his son James his Bulldogs guernsey before his AFL debut against the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":296016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=296014"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":296018,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296014\/revisions\/296018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/296016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=296014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=296014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=296014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}