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Being the son of a former Collingwood champion doesn’t faze new Magpie Jaxson Barham, he just wants to enjoy his footy and make his mark at the Lexus Centre.

The 19-year-old son of Ricky Barham, who played 151 games in the black and white stripes between 1977-86, was told by the club he would be selected with the 61st overall pick in the recent AFL Draft on the first day of trade week, and has been working hard at the Lexus Centre ever since.

“So far it’s been really good. Everyone’s been really welcoming, I’m enjoying the training, and I’m loving it so far,” Barham told CTV on Thursday.

Despite his fine football pedigree, Barham hasn’t always had his heart set on making it at the highest level, and it was only during the 2007 season while playing for the Geelong Falcons in Victoria’s TAC Cup Under 18 competition that it started to click.

“I grew up on the coast, around Barwon Heads and Lorne, just pretty much surfing and playing local footy, and just chilling with my mates.

“I decided to take footy a bit more seriously when I was at school, at Geelong College, and from there I got offered to play Falcons last year, and had a reasonably good year.

“I felt like I went alright, and everyone was saying ‘you’re going okay’, so it boosted my confidence, and yeah, I’m here now, it’s worked out really well.”

An encounter with Collingwood head scout Noel Judkins was confirmation for Barham that he was in the mix to be on an AFL club list come 2008.

“Juddy approached me and just said ‘we’re kind of interested, if you keep going well with your season’, and that was more confidence building, and I suppose it just went on from there.”

Like his father the younger Barham is an explosive midfielder who can break the lines with his pace, and while happy to have emulated his dad’s feat of being on the Collingwood senior list, he said there was never any pressure to play AFL from within the family.

“He always wanted me to play footy, but he didn’t care what I did. I suppose Collingwood’s a great club, but I didn’t really care where I went, I was just happy to get drafted, because at the start of the year I didn’t even expect to be playing AFL footy.”

So now, six weeks in, Barham has had a chance to get a good feel for pre-season training, and establish some short-term goals.

“It (training) is not too bad. There are days when I wake up and feel a little bit sore or I’m a little bit buggered. But it’s good because the rehab’s great and the facilities are unbelievable, so I’m finding it not too bad.

“I just want to train hard and hopefully get a game in Dubai, that would be the best.”