Opponents consider Casey Scorpion James   Taylor such a pest that  you suspect some consider slipping a can of Pea Beau into their socks and  giving him a spray as he enters the fray.

Taylor, short but strong,  is not easily rebuffed. He plays it tight, applying equal measures of physical and  mental pressure.

 A  bit of niggle? For Jimmy, how sweet it is.

``Part of the job,'' he said last Wednesday night. ``I'm not the most gifted footballer. I have to work at it. That's the only way I can keep my spot.''

He so frustrated Geelong in 2005 that two Cats were reported for striking him. Both got two weeks.

A VFL general manager recalled a reserves practice match last year in which the Scorpions were trailing by 25 goals.

Taylor, he said, continued to try to upset  his man  all the way to the final siren. The crowd got on his case, calling him Crusty the Clown (he lacks a little hair),  but Taylor  wouldn't back down.

``I'll give  him this: he's 150 per cent committed and that's why he's playing senior football,''  the general  manager said.

``You've got to admire blokes like that.''

``Oh well, that's good to hear,'' Taylor said  when told of the comments.

He  came through as a tagger under Peter Banfield  but this  season   coach Greg Hutchison  has  put  him in a back pocket or  a back flank and  let him  pick up whoever, taking his place in a settled defence led by James Wall and Alex Silvagni.

 ``We just send him out and let him  play,'' Hutchison said.

He plays it hard.   The Casey  coaches   hold Taylor up as example of  a player prepared to put winning the ball above personal safety.

``He's an old-fashioned player, a bloke who gets the job done and  gets the most out of himself,'' Hutchison  said.

``He's very coachable, he trains genuinely hard, prepares  properly  and gives himself every chance to  play well each week.''

Hutchison  noted that there was a fine line between playing close and giving away free kicks, and Taylor had found it.

``His discipline has improved, definitely, and he's playing better footy because of it.''

      Taylor is from Phillip Island and popped up on the Scorpions list in 2003 (he is the only player left from the squad). Casey president John Sharkie had got to  know Taylor's parents, who run a restaurant  on the  island, and put out the welcome mat for their boy.

There is always a glint in Sharkie's eye when he sees  his little mate perform a heroic act. ``That's my boy,'' he says.

In his second senior game, in 2004,  Taylor slotted four  goals against the Northern Bullants. Supporters sensed a goalsneak, albeit an unfashionable one.

``That was a day out. I thought I was going to end up forward my whole life,'' he said.

But his ticket to a  regular senior game  had more to  do with  desire than a bag of tricks.

Banfield played him because he  loved how he would crash into bodies, giving hits and taking them.

``The sort of bloke you'd   go to war with,'' Banfield said.

``He'd sacrifice everything for his mates. He's a bloody tough unit.''

Taylor  took 2006 off football, going overseas for a while and then starting a plumbing apprenticeship.

``Don't know if it was a good thing or bad thing for my footy, but I got to do things I didn't usually do,'' he said.

He resumed in the VFL last year. It was tough going.  He'd started training only in January and shoulder and knee injuries restricted him to four senior games.

This year he did a full pre-season.  ``That's when you get the results, when you've done all the work,'' he said.

 Taylor is   a plumber on the island and spends a lot of hours on the road driving to  training and matches. It's a hectic schedule.

``It kills me,'' he said. ``I have to do it to play at our level. When you get a game and   some good wins, it's worth it, definitely.''

With such a dedicated    approach, it's no wonder Scorpions  people sing the praises of James Taylor.