BEING signed to an AFL club from a suburban team in this current day and age is extraordinarily rare.

Throw in being born in Singapore and spending the first six years of your life in China, before joining Port Adelaide at the age of 19 while bypassing the Talent League, and you've got Josh Lai's remarkable rise to the top.

"It's definitely been a big last year-and-a-half for me, but to finally run out with the boys twice now has been an unreal experience," Lai told AFL.com.au after Port Adelaide's win over Richmond on Saturday.

"Never really played high-level juniors or anything, so never played at the 'G, or Adelaide Oval last week, so that's been good fun.

"It was unreal. Off the back of last week, playing in Adelaide, starting with the song and all that, it was unreal. Then today playing at the 'G, it was something else, it was great fun."

Lai (pronounced "lie") and twin brother Sean were born to a Singaporean father and Australian mother.

The boys had picked up soccer in their early years in China, and then adopted footy when they moved to Melbourne, playing juniors with East Sandringham and Hampton in Melbourne's south-east, and won a senior flag with Cheltenham in 2024.

The Lais had a brief experience with St Kilda's NGA program during their teenage years, and Richmond's VFL team showed some interest in signing the twins, but Port Adelaide kept its interest in Josh on the down-low, before inviting him to spend the 2024-25 pre-season trialling for an SSP position.

He spent the 2025 season as a Power rookie, playing 15 games in the SANFL, before he was elevated to the primary list at the start of this season and made his debut against West Coast in round three. 

"I always had aspirations to play AFL, but especially where I was, not playing any high-level footy, just playing amateur footy, it definitely felt a fair way away. I'm fortunate with the way things unfolded to be able to be at Port Adelaide now," Lai said.

"Probably the big one was Miles Bergman. When I came here, he took me in for the first pre-season block, and I lived with him. He's been great for me, especially with the way he plays and the way he defends, just giving me feedback and what to work on. Then all the boys and leaders, when they see something, they'll tell you what you need to know and how to improve.

"The intensity and how everyone goes about their preparation and the way they play really surprised me. I used to just rock up to local footy 40-60 minutes before, and then just roll out there with minimal warm-up. But it's great fun being amongst it and it was definitely a shock to the system, the first few weeks of pre-season when I came here. But I finally feel like I'm part of it and just happy to be a part of the team."

Lai caught the eye against Richmond playing in defence and pushing up to the wing, recording 14 touches and five marks.

It's a far cry from what he was doing to make a wage two years ago – doing odd jobs at Mentone Grammar and playing local footy with mates.

"I was just working, I'd deferred uni. I was working at my school, they gave me a job just doing maintenance – I was setting up for functions, some groundskeeping and whatnot, then my local footy," he said.

"This is far better."