AFL North West: James Mack becomes a father shortly after sweeping Gunnedah Bulldogs awards night

No, they were focused instead on his wife, Danielle, who was heavily pregnant with their first child.

"When we were heading down, we said 'I hope no waters break or anything crazy halfway through'," Mack said.

"But anyway, it didn't and it was a good night."

It soon became impossible for Mack to ignore proceedings once they got underway, as he picked up three awards for his efforts this season.

Much to his surprise, the Leading Goalscorer, Players' Player, and Best and Fairest awards were soon sitting on the table in front of him.

"I didn't expect it," Mack said.

"I thought I might have polled all right but I didn't think I'd win. There's a few other guys I thought that had really good seasons, and I thought it would be close, which it was."

With 41 goals for the year, Mack finished fourth on the AFL North West tally and was a consistently threatening presence among the forwards on field.

But of the three awards, he said the Best and Fairest is the one that means the most, simply by virtue of the other names on the trophy.

"If you look at who's won it previously, there's some really, really good footballers on there," Mack said.

"Guys that would run rings around me every other day of the week, so that's probably the big one."

2022 was the 32-year-old's first year playing in the forwards after spending the majority of his career in the back line, a change which occurred at the behest of his brother and team coach, Andy.

Although it was "definitely different", Mack soon found his groove despite a couple of "wobbly-boot games" here and there.

"Part of our game plan was just to try and get it in, and if I didn't mark it I wanted to make a contest and get the stoppage," he said.

"Just to give the backs a rest, because I know what it's like when you're not on the right end of results, it's like the ball never leaves."

Mack's good fortune was compounded soon after the presentation night with the arrival of his son, Cooper, late last week.

"It's good so far," he said.

"I've got a couple of weeks off work as we settle in, and he seems to be settling into a routine. We're going pretty well."

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