James Walker (born 15 January 1979) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who played for the

Fremantle Football Club The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers or colloquially Freo, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represen ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL). He mainly played as a midfielder or a small defender. He entered the University of Melbourne in 1997, where he was a resident at

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

, and in 2015, he gave the Cordner Oration at Grand Final Breakfast held at Trinity College.Cordner Oration
Walker was drafted from the

North Ballarat Rebels The Greater Western Victoria Rebels is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Talent League, the statewide under-18s competition in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. They recruit players from the Ballarat, Wimmera and Sou ...

with the sixth selection in the 1997 National Draft and made his AFL debut against Essendon at Subiaco Oval in round 19, 1998. He played over 150 games for Fremantle, the first Victorian born player to do so. When not selected for the Fremantle side, he played for the

Peel Thunder The Peel Thunder Football Club is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The team is based in Mandurah, Western Australia, with their home ground being Rushton Park. The ...

in the

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL "waffle" or "W-A-F-L") is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting f ...

, after initially playing for

East Perth East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that eas ...

. He won the

AFL Grand Final Sprint The AFL Grand Final Sprint is a sprint running race contested by AFL players as part of the on-field entertainment on the day of the AFL Grand Final. The sprint was held each year from 1979 until 1985 and again in 1987 (when the league was known a ...

in 2003 and 2004 and was noted as one of the fastest players in the AFL. He is the great-grandson of Collingwood legend

Gordon Coventry Gordon Richard James Coventry (25 September 1901 – 7 November 1968) was a former Australian rules footballer who played for Collingwood Football Club in the Victorian Football League (1897–1989), Victorian Football League (VFL). Afforded ' ...

. Walker was delisted by Fremantle at the end of the 2007 season and chose to participate in the 2007–08 Clipper Round the World Yacht Race on board the yacht ''westernaustralia2011.com'' for the race leg across the Southern Ocean between Durban and Fremantle.

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, James Fremantle Football Club players South Fremantle Football Club players Peel Thunder Football Club players East Perth Football Club players 1979 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Greater Western Victoria Rebels players People educated at Trinity College (University of Melbourne)