HAYDEN Collard had been in transit almost 30 hours by the time he touched down in Johannesburg with the AFL Indigenous Youth Team.

So when the 15-year-old from Dowerin, more than two hours' drive from Perth, saw all his teammates had collected their luggage but his bag was nowhere to be seen, he thought something was up.

“They didn’t send it from Sydney; they didn’t put it on the plane at all,” Collard said.

“I arrived and had no clothes at all apart from what I was wearing.”

That was on Wednesday, and while any passenger with misplaced luggage hopes for a speedy return of his gear, Collard had to wait. And wait. And wait.

So much so that when game day against the South African Buffaloes came around on Saturday, an SOS had to be put out to find someone who had size 13 football boots to fit the teenager.

Enter Brendan Fevola.

While none of Collard’s teammates could accommodate his request, the Blues spearhead, who wears size 13 boots, wasn’t playing in his side’s match which followed the Indigenous Youth Team’s hit-out.

So Collard was a relieved, and excited, youngster to learn he would get to wear the boots of one of the AFL’s best in his South African debut.

“Brendan said I could borrow a pair of his and keep them,” Collard said.

“That was great. It was a privilege to wear boots that an AFL star wears.”

While Collard was hard to miss in Fev’s fluorescent orange boots, the Western Australian said the colour didn’t bother him in the slightest.

“I usually wear white boots, white or blue boots,” he said.

“It always makes a person stand out.”

Fevola later signed the boots and posed for a photo with Collard – who is a West Coast Eagles fan.

But it appears Collard has little desire to keep the boots tucked away in a safe place.

“I think I’ll keep wearing them, I can still say they’re his,” he said.

And as for that luggage?

“It arrived Saturday night after the game.”