They’re best mates now, but it’s a far cry of how Hugh McCluggage and Jarrod Berry were when they first met as teenagers in Ballarat.

“He was one of the big dogs,” McCluggage told The Roar Deal.

“He was always pretty big in stature; I was always pretty scared of him to be honest.”

Both had come to board at Clarendon College in Ballarat. McCluggage moved from his home town of Warrnambool and Berry was from Horsham.

“I moved to Ballarat in Year 11, when I was about sixteen, mainly for a schooling opportunity,” McCluggage said.

“I really liked what they did academically, that really interested me.

“I also knew that the Rebels [North Ballarat] had their facility there.”

Both would go on to play for the Rebels in the TAC Cup in their draft year. McCluggage won the Morrish Medal as the league’s best player.

The pair became best mates while boarding and schooling in Ballarat and found themselves both drafted to the Lions in 2016.

On Saturday they will return to the town which started their careers and play in front of old coaches, friends and loved ones.

“It is a bit weird. It will be a little bit different since I played there,” McCluggage said.

“Looking forward to it, having all of our friends go down.

“The surface is really good, oval is really good, obviously I can’t forecast the weather. You’ve probably got to expect the worst.”

You can listen to The Roar Deal on Spotify, the Apple podcast app and the Lions website. A new episode is uploaded each Wednesday.