Those closest to Josh Lai reflect on his unlikely rise to an AFL list spot with Port Adelaide

Plucked from the obscurity of Melbourne suburban football to join an AFL list Josh Lai is the feel good story of the summer. His local coach reveals one unlikely trait which could separate him from other wingmen in the AFL.

Josh Lai celebrates one of his two semi final goals this September. Picture: Andrew Keech.

Port Adelaide’s signing of Southern League footballer Josh Lai, who had never played a VFL or talent league game, has emerged as the feel-good story of the footy off-season.

There has been fanfare aplenty around the suburban footballer turned AFL player, and much has been made of Josh’s speed, strength and decision-making, as well as the absurdity of the story.

But now the 19-year-old’s Cheltenham coach, Justin Pickering, has revealed the one aspect of his game that has slipped under the radar amid all the hype.

“I reckon his marking goes unsaid … once he learns that craft, he’ll be very damaging at AFL level I reckon,” Pickering said.

“He does a vertical jump now but once he learns the craft of running and jumping and coming in from the sides of packs a bit better, he’s deceptive.

“With a match-up on a wing, his marking might be something that goes under the radar.”

Cheltenham president Adam King – who had a front-row seat to Josh’s blistering debut senior season while keeping Port Adelaide’s interest hush from the teen – said much was to be said for Josh’s identity as an out and out winger.

“He’s got the attributes of speed and acceleration, he’s a wingman and sometimes AFL clubs try and manufacture players to play on the wing but he’s a true wingman,” King said.

“His pace, his acceleration, he put his head over the footy and wasn’t afraid to take a backwards step, which for an 18 or 19 year old kid playing senior footy can be a bit intimidating.”

Josh Lai was best on ground for Cheltenham in the 2024 SFNL grand final. Picture: Andrew Batsch.

Port first came knocking for Josh after recruiters Geoff Parker and Brett Anderson happened to be in the crowd for his scintillating Anzac Day showing against Bentleigh, and kept tabs on him ever since.

Josh’s father Tim, and Josh himself, were none the wiser to the Power’s unlikely interest. For that, Tim will be “forever grateful” to Cheltenham president King.

“The last thing you want to do is hype up stuff that’s not really worth hyping up, he could just concentrate on playing footy and I just thought that that’s the best thing ‘Kingy’ can do for the young lad,” Tim said.

“The rest is history.”

It was a fractured metatarsal in Josh’s foot that had caused him to go unsighted by talent pathway programs and recruiters alike until that fateful Anzac Day showing.

He had played an entire school volleyball season for Mentone Grammar with the injury, before he missed the a large part of the 2023 season, including his year 12 footy campaign with the school.

That his son has so abruptly risen from such lows to reach an AFL list has left Tim bursting with pride.

“It’s just a wonderful outcome for a guy who has experienced adversity in the past two years,” Tim said.

“Having to sit out his final year for school footy, that was one of the hardest things I’ve seen as a parent having to see that.

“I’m proud of him to be able to fight through all that adversity, he didn’t know he fractured his metatarsal, he played about 12 volleyball games with a fractured metatarsal, the pain just didn’t go away.”

Josh’s courage wasn’t limited to the volleyball court however, with Pickering lauding the bravery he showed from day dot with Cheltenham’s senior outfit.

“What I really loved about him is that he wasn’t afraid to stand under the ball and cop a hit and really be aggressive at the football,” Pickering said.

Cheltenham Seniors coach Justin Pickering (left) holds the trophy aloft after winning Southern League Division 1 with Cheltenham. Picture: Andrew Batsch.

“That really just complimented the other things he had which were his speed, he was a great grab, beautiful, he really was the whole package and no doubt I wasn’t the only one who noticed that.

“From a team point of view those guys that can do those hard things are really important for a team.”

Although a quiet character, Josh’s level of self belief is something that has struck those fortunate to cross paths with him.

“He’s a very quiet young man but very confident in himself and his own abilities which is what you want,” King said.

“You want to know that he’s confident and fits in. He’s gone to Port with a lot of self belief and hasn’t taken a step back.

“He might not be the most verbal player at 19 but he’s got the confidence to go about it.”

Tim added that even before Josh put pen to paper, the experience of training with Port had been a valuable one – even though updates were hard to come by.

“In the past three months he’s grown three years, moving out of home, going to Adelaide, having to train with AFL players, it’s very daunting but he obviously did well,” Tim said.

“To be honest, he hasn’t given us a lot, we only learn about things from the internet, third hand, a recruiter may call us and give us an update but that’s as much news as we get until we got the call last Friday that he got on the list.

“He’s just a quiet focused, young chap, he knows what he wants and that’s great, and as parents we just give him room to do what he can do.”

Twin brothers Josh and Sean Lai after this year's Southern league grand final.

Josh’s twin brother Sean has been by his side at every step of his footballing journey – while the two were so competitive growing up that they had to be removed from the best-on-ground voting at Tim’s request – and 2025 will be the first season they spend apart.

To cap off a special week for the family, news filtered through courtesy of Paul Amy on Wednesday that Sean had earned a VFL deal with Richmond, where he had spent pre-season training.

“It’s lovely to see (Josh and Sean) work together and they’ve played in so many teams together,” Tim said.

“I think being separated, I don’t really know what the outcome’s going to be, I think we’ll let fate and destiny take its course.

“Interestingly, I think (Sean) is just as good and sometimes better, but different positions and that’s the luck of the draw.”