Goalkicking legend makes a habit of making grand finals

GRAND finals have a knack of following Matt Walsh.

It is not to say they do not follow Geelong Amateur also, but the veteran recruit’s numbers are ridiculous.

Over 20 years playing senior football, Walsh will line up in his 13th grand final tomorrow after overcoming a fitness test to return to the side.

Walsh has not played since his team’s Round 14 win over Drysdale, but his impact in 13 games and his experience makes him a valued commodity in the Ammos’ line-up.

“I was just on the lead, bent down to mark the ball which was down near my ankles. I took the mark, got a bit of a push and sort of hyper-extended it and gave it a nice rip down low. It was a grade two 50 per cent tear,” the 37-year-old said.

It was Walsh’s first hamstring injury, but the former Cairns champion has overcome it to line up in his 13th decider.

“Champion” might be an understatement.

Walsh is regarded as one of the all-time greats, having booted more than 1000 goals in a 10-year career for the Cairns Saints to go with six premierships and multiple league best-and-fairests. The leading goalkicker award in the AFL Cairns competition is named for him.

His other premiership came at Redan in the Ballarat Football League in 2003.

“Obviously I’m very grateful for the career I had in Cairns and the career I’ve had so far,” Walsh said.

“I feel very privileged. This is my 13th grand final in 20 senior years this weekend and a lot don’t get to play in one, so I feel very fortunate.

“With my experience as a forward, I’ve come in and brought some ideas to the team, structured up the boys during games and contributed that way.”

A special diet has been key to a long career, although it does not stop him copping some flak from his teammates.

Walsh eats dinner at 4.30pm most afternoons and nothing else until breakfast the next morning.

“Obviously I’m getting on in age, nearly 38 now, so I’m looking at other ways to prolong my career and I do a bit of fasting and that works for me,” he said.

“It’s an early feed and I eat the right foods, so it’s helped me a lot — I’ve lost about three or 4kg this year.”

And it has been a key to his form — 46 goals in 13 games putting him top five in the BFL goal kicking this season.

“I think it took the team a while to get going this year; we’ve got a lot of new players in the team and once we found our groove, as a forward I started to get the ball a bit more and we worked out our style of play,” he said.

“You probably look back through the results, if one of us was down, another bloke would bob up and kick the goals, so once we worked out our structures it worked really well.

“Playing up there with some great players like ‘Zapa’ (Damien Zaparenkov) and ‘Daysy’ (Mitch Day) made my job a lot easier getting the second or third defender.”

Walsh said another premiership would mean the world to him and his teammates.

“It would be another highlight. The club has welcomed me with open arms and that’s why I’ve enjoyed my footy so much here,” he said.

“We’re just a bunch of mates playing footy together and if we can win the flag together, it’s just a lifelong memory.”