Tragedy steels skipper
THREE years after Taylor Walker was surprisingly handed the Adelaide captaincy by then-coach Phil Walsh he has the chance to pay back the faith in spectacular fashion.
If the key forward can hold the premiership cup aloft at the MCG today he will become just the Crows’ second premiership skipper — behind Mark Bickley in 1997-98 — to lead their side to victory on grand final day.
Named the best captain by the AFL Players’ Association in each of the past two years, Walker has just one thing missing from his captaincy CV — a flag.
To captain the Crows to a premiership after the trau- matic events the club has been through in recent years, including Walsh’s tragic death midway through his first season as coach in 2015, would cap off an amazing ride for Walker and the club.
Privately Walker would have thought about the possibility of the moment. Publicly he is keeping things close to his chest, refusing to outline his personal dreams.
Not until the job is done anyway.
“That [captaining a premiership team] is something that you probably look back on once you’ve conquered something like that, something I can look back on once I retire,’’ Walker said.
“Obviously he [Walsh] started the journey but this is Pykey’s [coach Don Pyke’s] team now. I’ve got the utmost respect for Pykey because he’s done an amazing job and hopefully tomorrow afternoon Pykey and I can be up there holding the cup up.’’
While Walker won’t allow himself to reflect too much on his own journey, he said what the players had been through had brought them closer together and created a steely resolve to have success.
“We’ve come here [to Melbourne] to win,’’ he said.
“Obviously we’ve been through a fair bit and a lot has been spoken about that.
“But our group is so strong, so resilient, and I’ve got a lot of faith in the 22 who are going to run out and I’m confident that we’ll get the job done.
“But we won’t speak about it at all [what the club has been through] as a group pre-game, it’s all about what we need do to beat Richmond.’’
Walker said the Adelaide players had enjoyed grand final week and “embraced the opportunity’’ to win one more game. Likely to be matched up by the Tigers’ All-Australian captain Alex Rance, Walker said he would have to be on his own personal game while also keeping an eye on the key intercepting backman.
“It will either be him [Rance] or David Astbury on me but we know that he is one of the best in the competition at reading the play, but we’ve got some plans in place up forward for that,’’ Walker said.
Walker’s key forward sidekick Josh Jenkins described his captain’s journey as “different’’ and said he had loved watching him mature as a skipper.
“He’s a different kind of leader but he’s developed a lot,’’ Jenkins said. “He’s a larrikin, he’s the biggest prankster and joker at the club, but he’s very demanding.”