James Ferguson had an auspicious start to his league career. The wingman from Wembley Amateurs wandered over to Claremont Oval to see if he was good enough to make it at league level, and immediately made his presence felt. A disciplined athlete, Ferguson was selected in the Tigers side for the pre season Emu Export Cup, holding his spot even when fourteen Fremantle Dockers players joined the side for the final qualifying game.  He eventually finished equal second in voting for the John Worsfold Medal, awarded to the fairest and best for the pre season competition, tying with Perth's Nathan Mourish and Claremont player Jamie Merillo, five votes behind another Tiger, Rhys Croxford. Claremont fans would have been looking at the Budget to check out number three when he had East Fremantle's Shaun McManus taken off him in the opening game of the 1995 season, followed by the removal of  Jarrod Schofield in the Subiaco clash a week later. Not a bad effort from a bloke who'd only taken the game up as a serious sport three years previously. A State Athletics representative during his teens, Ferguson was a leading middle distance and cross country runner for ten years, winning State Championships in those events. Becoming bored with athletics, he went along to Wembley Amateurs with a few mates, and found himself immediately in the A Grade side, initially under the coaching of former West Perth player, Dan Foley, then in 1993 and 94, Eagle Murray Rance. It was in 1994 that James won the B J Giles Medal, as fairest and best at Wembley, and played for Western Australia in the Australian Amateur Carnival in Melbourne.  Claremont stalwart, Roger Barns, was assistant coach at Wembley, and it was he, along with former Tiger Adam Clarke, who convinced the twenty three year old wingman to try out at Claremont Oval. Training hard over the summer of 94-95, Ferguson made sure he was at the peak of fitness for his crack at league football, and he certainly hit the ground running.  At five foot nine and seventy seven kg, Ferguson was an extremely quick player off the mark, with good goalsense and footskills, and he became an influential player in Claremont's premiership combination of the 1996 season. Third to Brendan Green in Tigers fairest and best voting, he made his State debut the following year in Hobart against the Tasmanians.  At the end of the 1998 season, Claremont were set to become the host club for the West Coast Eagles. The proposal became the catalyst for a group of players to leave the club, and James Ferguson was among that number. “I didn't like the setup,” he said. With Darren Payne, he made the move to Joondalup and became a Falcon, under coach John Dimmer. It turned out to be a wise decision, because 1999 proved to be a premiership year for West Perth, and Ferguson continued his State duties with a win over Tasmania in the return match at Kalgoorlie. As it turned out, the arrangement between West Coast and Claremont lasted twelve months.   At the end of the 2002 season, after playing in a losing grand final, James Ferguson retired. “I felt that I was playing well enough to keep going, but at the age of thirty one, I reckoned it was time to go,” he said. Despite being a late starter at twenty three, he had notched up eighty games with Claremont and sixty for West Perth, for a total of one hundred and forty WAFL appearances. Lining up with country club,Dowerin, for the next four years, Ferguson grabbed another premiership in 2005, before finishing his football where it started, at Wembley. The only club he had played for without winning a premiership flag, success came agonisingly close in that year of 2007, when the Magpies lost to the powerhouse outfit, North Beach, by six points, after being in front inside the final two minutes.  Returning to West Perth as fitness coach for two years, under Darren Harris and Todd Curley, Ferguson decided it was time to concentrate on his golf, whittling the handicap quickly down to five.  Brendon Logan, who later became a team mate at West Perth, received James's vote as hardest to beat, while Claremont Tiger and West Coast Eagle, Chris Lewis, was his pick as best he'd played with.  A fireman for fifteen years, James saves his football appearances these days for the annual Fireys v Police match at Fremantle Oval, and enjoys reunions with old footy mates. James Ferguson was a late bloomer, due to a successful athletic career, but became one of the WAFL's leading midfielders over a career of eight years, a premiership player at two clubs, and a State player. The trip to Claremont Oval in 1995 was certainly worthwhile.