Richmond premiership defender Liam Baker driving more than 3000km to return to Melbourne

Emerging Tiger Liam Baker opted to drive rather than fly from WA to Punt Road. He reveals what he’s been up to on the long trip back by himself, including the sights and his questionable eating habits.

Lauren Wood

@LaurenHeraldSun

4 min read

May 7, 2020 - 6:30PM

Marsh Community Series. Collingwood vs Richmond in the Norm Winns Oval in Wangaratta. 01/03/2020. Liam Baker of the Tigers. Pic: Michael Klein

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It’s 3034 kilometres from Pingaring to Punt Road.

And Richmond premiership defender Liam Baker is driving every single one.

The young Tiger is on a journey he’s always wanted to take — driving across the Nullabor from his rural Western Australian home town to Melbourne.

“It’s been good fun,” he told the Herald Sun yesterday during his mammoth road trip.

“I’ve always wanted to do it … I’d missed out on the times that (my family) had been because I’ve been over east.

“You have to do it once, dad reckons, and this is my opportunity.”

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He’s listened to music — “classics in the morning”, “bangers in the afternoon” — smashed the ice coffees and waters and constantly offered up the biggest “must” of any long drive, the wave.

“It’s funny, I’ve been doing it the whole time we’ve been chatting now,” Baker chuckled.

“I love the one from the big truckies. They give you a pretty aggressive one, so I give the big aggressive one back.”

Baker, 21, is driving a new set of wheels, having bought a 4WD in WA, “two days before everything went down with the coronavirus”.

He sold his old Commodore to young teammate Will Martyn a few months back, “sad to see it go, but it was time to move on”.

Richmond player Liam Baker has been documenting his journey on social media. Not while driving, of course. Picture: Instagram

Initially, he was going to have the 4WD transported to Melbourne, but when things went pear-shaped, he saw it as an opportunity to fly to Perth and live in Pingaring for the next two months before driving it back himself.

His WA home has been one of the most remote locations of any other footballer during the hiatus, about 330 kilometres east of Perth with a population of a couple of hundred — on a good day.

It meant he needed more notice than most that footy training could be back next week, should the government give the tick.

“When I got the call from out list boss Blair Hartley … they said ‘yeah, we’re hoping to start training on Monday’ so we needed to start heading back,” he said.

“I had told them originally that I’d need a bit of time because I was driving, so when I found out, I had to get ready to go and took off (on Wednesday).”

Liam Baker watches the sun go down during his return journey to Melbourne.

His parents Kim and Karen oversee wheat and sheep, with Baker put to work, both enjoying the work and keeping fit at the same time.

“It was business as usual for dad, pretty much, work didn’t change for him,” he said.

“I loved it. I’ve never really been back at the farm at that time of year since I was growing up.

Liam Baker and Dustin Martin celebrate the 2019 premiership. Picture: Alex Coppel.

“It was pretty reasonable (physically). A few longer days, but I kind of enjoyed it. I enjoyed getting up and starting work at 7 o’clock and then working until later in the day when the sun was going down.

“That’s the one thing that I miss with footy — you don’t get to work that normal day, a bit.”

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He drove for 13 hours on his first day, including 146.6km stretch of dead-straight road on the Eyre Highway across The Nullabor Plain.

Liam Baker working on his family farm in Western Australia.

“I’d prefer to have other people with me, but I’m not too bored at the moment. Late (on Wednesday) I started to lose my mind a bit, but,” he said.

Baker slept in the back of his car, before Ceduna, on Wednesday night, saying it was “pretty squishy, but not too bad”.

He took the Herald Sun’s call on Thursday afternoon “about 30-odd k’s out of Port Augusta”, with the plan to make Adelaide last night.

Phone reception wasn’t easy to come by, and even then, scratchy.

All going well, Baker hopes to drive into Melbourne at some stage on Friday.

He admitted there hadn’t been much in the way of food options, not consuming much on the first day other than “drinking iced coffees and water”.

A Google Maps screen shot of Liam Baker's journey across Australia.

“Probably don’t ask that,” he laughed in regards to what he’s been eating along the way, having stopped at a roadhouse on Thursday morning for a feed.

A few podcasts “didn’t really do it for me”, he conceded, so it’s been “music the whole way” in an effort to keep sane, carefully curated depending on the time of day — and required energy levels.

“A bit of classic in the mornings,” he said.

“Then just some pretty good bangers later in the day when I’m starting get a bit (flat).

“I like this kind of stuff. This is what I do in the off-season, go away for new years and stuff like that. I love it.”