After a dominant season that saw him claim golden boot and player of the year honours on the way to a Wolves National Premier League premiership, Thomas James is determined to kick one more goal.
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Lead Wollongong to national glory in Saturday's NPL final against Queensland premiers Lions FC.
For all the individual accolades he has collected throughout the season, James said it's team success that he craves the most.
"The team comes before anything," James said. "Individual accolades are a bonus, but I have a job to do and that's what my coach wants me to do. I've done very well, but as a team, team success is more important.
"It would mean a lot for the entire team if we were crowned national champions. After all the hard work we've put in, it's been a very successful season and this is a chance to prove we're the best team at this level in Australia."
James arrived in Wollongong last October with a reputation as a goal-scoring maestro and he didn't disappoint.
Working in tandem with fellow striker Lachlan Scott, and playing off the creative Takeru Okada, the Englishman scored a stunning 22 goals in NPL play this year. The Wolves scored just 23 goals all season in 2018.
Despite the regular season success, Wollongong fell short in their quest for a premiership-championship double, Luke Wilkshire's side bundled out of the semi-finals with back-to-back defeats.
The Wolves returned to their winning ways in recent weeks, claiming victories over Canberra Olympic and Perth SC to progress to this week's national final, and James said the side is determined to finish a successful season in winning fashion.
"It was disappointing losing the semi-final, but we also had more success in the league, which is the preferable cup to win.
"To have a chance to be crowned NPL champions puts the icing on the cake. We've forgotten about the semi-finals, that's not something we're dwelling on too much. We've moved on, we have bigger things at stake now and that's to become NPL champions."
This year's success marked a stunning turnaround for Wollongong, with Wilkshire building an NPL powerhouse in just his first year at the helm.
With both Wilkshire and James likely to return in 2020, James said the team must work to build on this year's success and remain one step ahead of their rivals.
"The intensity and the work rate Luke expected from everyone, everyone then applied that to their game," James said. "There are new standards that we've set now.
"To win the league in our first time asking, we'll be expected to do that again. We're going to be pushed harder and harder and we'll be a hard team to stop.
"We have to keep improving, to get better. This is our first season together, for us to win the league by nine points and be in the final of the NPL championship, this is just the beginning of something very special."
