AROUND 15 years ago, Nick Maxwell and Tom Reynolds crossed paths for the very first time.
They were 14 years old, and Reynolds had just moved from Colac to Geelong with his family.
He'd been enrolled at Geelong's St Joseph's College and didn't know what football team to play for.
Enter Maxwell. The future Collingwood premiership captain convinced him to sign up at St Joseph's, and a lasting friendship was struck.
Fast-forward to 2012 and their lives are vastly different. The paths they walked from their days playing footy as schoolkids in Geelong have taken them to very contrasting places.
Maxwell is Collingwood's skipper, has been since 2009, and has played 161 AFL games.
He'll play in his seventh Anzac Day match on Wednesday in front of an expected crowd of around 90,000.
And Reynolds will be there, but as a representative of the Australian Army after enlisting in 2007.
"We've gone in different directions. He took his career to a great height so it's good inspiration to take your own career to a high," Reynolds told AFL.com.au this week.
Reynolds and his wife of three months Tamie are in Melbourne to visit Maxwell and attend the dawn service and clash at the MCG.
They've come over from Adelaide, where Reynolds is based as a corporal in the 7th Battalion, based at RAAF Base Edinburgh.
Since they went their separate ways, Reynolds has lived in Wagga Wagga (at Kapooka, where he completed his basic training), Singleton, Darwin and Adelaide.
He's also done a tour of Afghanistan, and says he'd do another.
After finishing a carpentry apprenticeship out of high school, Reynolds decided to act on a childhood interest in the military and join up.
"It's what I've always wanted to do," he said.
"I've always watched the old World War 1 and 2 movies, and it was just a natural progression of something I liked as a kid.
"I love it. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't do it."
The last time the two saw each other was in January, at Reynolds' wedding in Geelong.
Reynolds met his wife, who went to school with his sister, at his homecoming party when he returned from Afghanistan.
Tamie says being the wife of a serving member has its challenges. Reynolds is away a lot - "field time and courses" - and it can be lonely, especially in a new town.
She works for the Bendigo Bank and has been lucky enough to transfer between states when they've moved.
But she doesn't allow herself to think about the next time he deploys.
"When he gets on the plane and he leaves, that's when he leaves, and I won't stress about it until we're at that point," Tamie said.
"It's like with any army thing; sometimes they're due home and they won't come home until the next day. He's home when he walks in the door.
"You try not to stress about it too much until he goes, until he's on the plane and he's taking off because it plays on your mind too much otherwise."
There might be differences between the lives of the Maxwells and Reynolds, and what they can expect in the future.
But Reynolds says if you look closely, there's a definite link between what they both do for a living.
"A group of guys working as a team and they're all doing it for each other," he said.
"When the game starts, it's just them doing it.
"They train and sleep and do everything together and they're all best mates and they all work together for the same purpose."
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs.
Jennifer Witham is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow her on Twitter @AFL_JenWitham.
