Adelaide midfielder Brodie Smith praises the leadership of former captain Taylor Walker after the Phil Walsh tragedy
Adelaide midfielder Brodie Smith has spoken about Taylor Walker’s leadership in 2015 following the death of Crows coach Phil Walsh, praising the former captain for how he supported his teammates during the tough time.
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Taylor Walker stepped down as captain last year but the way he led the Crows in 2015 will never be forgotten at the club.
After the tragic death of Phil Walsh – the man who appointed him as skipper – Walker showed a level of care and compassion teammate Brodie Smith says he hasn’t seen in many others.
“Tex is a guy who has so much care for everyone around him, you’ll struggle to find someone better in that regard,” Smith told a special edition of the Lowdown Podcast.
“To be the captain of the group is a lot of responsibility at any time but in those difficult circumstances, the care he shows for others really shone through.
“He had a good read on the group, whether we were having a bit of a down week or guys were feeling good, he knew.
“He had everyone’s back, always made sure everyone was OK and found different ways to get us through the situation.
“The way he can manage people, know how they are feeling and look after them is probably something that stood out the most.”
Walker, in his first year as captain, not only held the group together but led his side to an emotional elimination final victory over the Bulldogs at the MCG, booting three goals and setting Charlie Cameron up for the sealer with 90 seconds left.
His leadership wasn’t just recognised internally either with Walker’s peers voting him the best captain in the competition for the next two seasons.
“To still be able to go out and train and play hard as skipper in those times, he did a fantastic job,” Smith said.
“He’s just a guy you wanted to play with and follow because you know he’d have your back no matter what.
“He definitely has the respect of everyone who was around at the time for what he did that year.”
But given the gravity of the situation, it wasn’t just Walker, with Smith acknowledging Adelaide’s leadership group as a whole played a big part in guiding the club through a difficult journey.
“For Tex to be able to lead a group through that period, there’s no doubt he had a lot of help from the leadership group at the time,” Smith said.
“The best thing about leadership groups is you’ve got a lot of different people with different traits in there that can help and I think we’ve had that throughout the years.
“I don’t think one person alone could’ve got the group through what we did that year.
“With the likes of (Rory) Sloane and (Patrick) Dangerfield at the time, who are both very good people in terms of managing others, we had a great leadership group.”
‘Writing was on the wall’: Rocky talks losing Brisbane captaincy
Port Adelaide gun Tom Rockliff has backed Ollie Wines to again lead the Power, in his own right, after he was dumped as co-captain of the club following a fierce member backlash.
Wines and Tom Jonas were appointed as co-captains of the club, ending 149-years of tradition, when Travis Boak decided to give up the sole skipper mantel at the end of the season.
Wines, now a vice-captain, had an injury plagued year in 2019 - first dislocating his shoulder wakeboarding and then suffering a niggling finger injury.
On The Lowdown podcast, Rockliff said this would stand the 25-year-old in good stead for another tilt at the position at some point in his career.
“It was a really tough year for Ollie, first year as captain, shoulder (injury) and he had numerous things that just went wrong so disappointing for him on a personal front and there is no doubt he will get another crack at it before his career is out,” Rockliff said.
Rockliff said Wines loomed as the natural successor to the 29-year-old Jonas.
“I’d imagine Ollie would be the right man for the job and I think his experiences in the leadership group and in the job will stand him in good stead,” he said.
Rockliff said the co-captaincy came about after a leadership ballot to succeed Boak had Jonas and Wines as the two standout candidates.
“We obviously didn’t have the season we wanted but I still think it was the right decision,” he said.
“There was no doubt there was a lot of upset fans about it, the huge tradition of No. 1 is something I think that treasured dearly.
“As a playing group we were comfortable where it sat and still really comfortable where it sits.”
Rockliff also revealed that he wasn’t too shocked when he was replaced as Brisbane Lions captain by Dayne Beams for the 2017 season.
“Nah not really, I think the writing was on the wall there a little bit,” he said.
“We had leading teams there at the time so we had all seen the votes. It was a pretty close count if I can say that.
“It was neck and neck and we sat around as players involved in that and the coaches and decided on what the best method was and who was the right guy to lead us forward at that point.
“I was OK with at the time, it was going to be a big year for me and I just wanted to get back playing good footy and a bit of the microscope off me.
“But if I had remained captain I would have given it everything I had, obviously a little bit disappointing to lose it but I think I had preparation from a while out that it was heading that way.”
Traditional home and away season preferred over hubs
Brodie Smith and Tom Rockliff say a more traditional home and away season, albeit under highly controlled conditions, is their preference over the widely speculated quarantine hub model to get the AFL season back up and running.
But the Crows leadership group member and Power star say they are prepared to go into a quarantine hub as the AFL starts to refine its plan.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan has written to the leaders of the states and territories to determine what locations could be a hub to resume the football season.
South Australian premier Steven Marshall has instead raised the possibility of a more traditional home and away AFL season, where players would be flown in to a state and quickly out to their home state under controlled conditions, could have a similar risk profile to the hub model.
He has asked the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee to consider the risk profiles of both ways back, and advice is due on Friday.
On The Lowdown podcast Smith and Rockliff said their preference was Mr Marshall’s idea.
“I think traditional would be ideal but I guess at the moment any positivity to a football season starting and any way we can get that done we have to look at and consider,” Smith said.
“It is obviously not ideal (the hubs) but if we can get footy underway then it is something you have to look at.
“In an ideal world we would get back to a sort of more normal season set up where we fly in and out.
“Obviously it would be under pretty strict guidelines but that would be the ideal way to get things up and going again.”
Rockliff echoed Smith, but said he was preparing for the hub model to be the way the AFL returns.
“Ideally it would be as normal as we could be but I think initially it is going to be a hub,” he said.
“There is enough noise around that to suggest that we will end up in a hub of some sort when we return to train and the first few games back so I think most players are willing to do anything to get footy up and going again.”
On the weekend Crows captain Rory Sloane said it would be tough for him to leave his wife Belinda and seven-month-old son Sonny at home and go off to an interstate hub.
Rockliff who is in Adelaide with just partner Sharna and young son Jack, said if players were asked to be away from families for 10 to 12 weeks then it could be a challenge.
“Ideally you would have your family there (in a hub) but if that is not the case my partner Sharna is a nurse so she has to go to work at this time,” he said.
“There will be things thrown at us, but I think we are living in a year that will be like no other where you sort of have to roll with the punches a little bit.
“If you have to go away from your family for a little bit of time whether that is four or six weeks I think that is manageable, if you are asking us to go away for 10 to 12 weeks I think that is a bit challenging.”
It is now over five weeks since Round 1 and the suspension of the 2020 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Crows and Port player have had to train at local ovals in pairs and Rockliff said there were times when the motivation levels were being tested.
“The challenging thing at the moment is the no real clarity of a return to play date,” he said.
“So hopefully we can get that soon and we can start to work towards something.”