The 26 year-old experienced one of the toughest days of his football career on Saturday after he was forced to play two games within two hours of each other.
Hale spent Saturday afternoon in the ruck, throwing himself into packs in the VFL for North Ballarat and also kicked a couple of goals.
"I played on a pretty muddy ground down in Port Melbourne and spent about one minute on the bench so was pretty sore after that," Hale told kangaroos.com.au.
But Hale’s body was about to receive even more of a battering.
Named as an emergency for North Melbourne’s clash with Essendon, Hale arrived at Etihad stadium and began to get pretty comfortable in the stands with his teammates.
"I got to the game after doing all of my recovery, munched on a few rolls and had a couple of cokes. I then went up in the stand and the game had started.”
With two of the club’s emergencies already activated after Nathan Grima and Daniel Pratt pulled out, Hale was the last available name on the team sheet should anything go wrong. With just minutes before the opening bounce, something did go wrong.
With his last kick of the warm-up, Daniel Wells injured the quadricep muscle in his right leg and was ruled out by medical staff.
“As I sat, ready to watch the game a few officials came running towards me and told me to get the kit on," Hale recalled.
"I said to the fitness guys 'Nathan O'Keefe is here, he's fresh and I've played four quarters of footy so it's probably more ideal that he be on the ground and give a bit more than I would…but they came back and said 'no it's you, you've got to play.'"
With the clock ticking down and the game already underway, Hale raced down to the change rooms while his wife ran to the car to retrieve his playing gear.
Minutes later Hale emerged from beneath the stadium and began warming up on the sidelines, with a full stomach and tired legs.
“It was incredibly tough, not only physically but mentally as well. I had to switch on right away and get ready to compete.”
While his impact on the game was limited, there could be no doubt about Hales commitment and courage.
"The body's pretty sore. It's probably not been since under 16's when I have played two games in an afternoon."
While he's been in strong form at VFL level, Hale is the first to admit he faces a tough road to regain his senior spot permanently.
"Hamish McIntosh and Todd Goldstein have been playing well. Goldy's coming along in leaps and bounds. It's all about getting a team balance, if you play three ruckmen you're probably going to be too top heavy."
But there's no questioning the loyalty of the 26 year-old, in his eighth season at the club he says Arden Street is home and he's desperate to repay the faith the club has in him.
"I'm hoping to get back into the team next week and play the next five games. If we have to sit down after that and figure out what's going to happen then that's what we do but at this stage I'm a loyal North Melbourne man."
