From the bush to the big time: The life, career and controversies of Crows star Taylor ‘Tex’ Walker
As Taylor Walker cements his legacy as a Crow for life, we take a look back at the life, career and controversies of the boy from Broken Hill.
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Today, we learnt more about Tex Walker’s future, with the in-form veteran re-signing with the Crows on a one-year deal, cementing the forward as a Crow for life.
Here are a few things you might not know about his past.
EARLY YEARS
Taylor Walker was born in Broken Hill in April, 1990 and went to Willyama High School. The 32-year-old is affectionately known as “Tex”.
Walker was a champion sportsman in school, arguably as well-known for his trademark mullet as he was his prowess on the football field.
FOOTBALL CAREER
Walker started his junior footy career with North Broken Hill, where in 2007, aged just 17, he helped the team to a flag, kicking seven goals and winning best-on-ground.
In 2006, Walker became the Adelaide Football Club’s first AFL NSW Scholarship player and was officially drafted in 2007 with pick 75.
Mark Ross was working in the recruiting department at Adelaide in 2006 when he was sent to to NSW to look for a player the club could recruit as part of the AFL’s NSW scholarship program.
“There were no other AFL clubs there but I noticed him (Walker) straight away,” Ross told The Advertiser ahead of Walker’s 200th game in 2020.
“Then three weeks later we went to a carnival in Sydney and all the recruiters were there but he couldn’t play because he’d fallen off his motorbike and broken his pelvis.
“But I spoke to James and Kinnear Beatson (fellow recruiter) and said he’s as good as any kid I saw in Sydney that week.”
A Crows-mad kid who watched the club win the flag in 1997, then again in 1998, landing at Adelaide was clearly Walker’s destiny.
“I was a Crows-mad man, I still remember watching it with a couple of mates,” he told AAP in 2017 ahead of the Crows’ grand final clash with Richmond.
“I could imagine what a little kid would be feeling like next Saturday. Like I was back in ’97-98. It’s exciting.”
Walker has played 232 matches for the Crows and kicked 520 goals, including 63 during a breakout season in 2012.
Walker is a five-time leading goalkicker for Adelaide and a three-time All Australian nominee.
Walker captained the Crows from 2015 to 2019, sharing the captaincy with Rory Sloane that year, before Sloane took on the captaincy in his own right in 2020.
That same year Walker played his 200th game for the Crows in round 18.
PERSONAL LIFE
Walker is married and he and wife Ellie welcomed their first child, a boy named Hugo, in 2019. They had a second son, Louis, in 2021.
THE FAMOUS MULLET
Walker’s splendid mullet is the stuff of legend in the AFL, but was cultivated long before he was drafted to the national competition.
As The Advertiser reported in 2012, Walker’s mullet was a divisive topic in his own city of Broken Hill, with his hairdresser mum Marg refusing to comment on her son’s hairstyle and other members of the community, who knew the promising young sportsman during his formative years, expressing their own strong opinions on it.
“I don’t like the mullet … that doesn’t suit him at all,” Willyama High School canteen manager Chris Boatswain said at the time.
“He needs to sort something out about his haircut … that’s giving a bad name to Broken Hill”.
But Broken Hill football legend Wayne Walker said Tex’s haircut was simply an expression of his character.
“He’s a 22-year-old kid enjoying himself,” Walker said. “The mullet … it’s just him being an individual”.
But if Walker’s remarkable mane was a polarising entity in Broken Hill, he would soon find a fraternity where the mullet was not shunned, but celebrated - the AFL.
In fact, Walker even made The Herald Sun’s list of the 27 greatest AFL mullets of all time.
CHARITY WORK
Walker’s mullet has not only inspired generations of young footy fans. Over the years he has also put his lustrous locks to work for a good cause. In 2013, he promised to shave his head to raise $50,000 for the Leukaemia Foundation after meeting Lily Block, a young girl who was battling the disease.
Walker reached his goal less than three days after taking on the challenge and raised a total of $66,000 for the foundation. Making good on his promise, he had his hair cut live on TV on Channel 9’s The Footy Show. Later in 2013, Walker served as an ambassador for the foundation’s Light the Night twilight walk to raise money for leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma research.
In 2018, he mobilised again, organising a fundraiser for a mate who was fighting melanoma.
TWITTER SPAT WITH NICK KYRGIOS
In 2015, Walker was involved in a social media spat with tennis bad boy Nick Kyrgios as the pair traded insults over Twitter.
The spat started when Walker called Kyrgios “a dead set flog” for his behaviour during a tournament in Shanghai.
“When is this absolute Galoot going to learn. What a dead set flog!!! Just suspend the peanut!!,” Walker tweeted.
I don't even know who Tex walker is lol
— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) October 14, 2015
Kyrgios soon fired back, tweeting “I don’t even know who Tex Walker is lol”.
Speaking on radio after the incident, Walker, who was captain at the time, revealed the club had spoken to him about the back and forth with Kyrgios.
“They just said probably don’t go over the line, leave it there. I probably got a little bit carried away but you know me … I like to voice my opinion,” he said.
RACISM SCANDAL
In August, 2021, Walker and the Crows were plunged into a racism scandal after it was revealed Walker directed a racist slur at Indigenous North Adelaide player Robbie Young during a SANFL game. Walker’s remark during the game on July 17, 2021, was reported by a Crows official.
Walker subsequently was forced to take time away from the club after being banned for six games, ruling him out for the rest of the season.
He was also fined $20,000, which was donated to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Program in SA.
A few days after news of the scandal broke, the Crows released a video of Walker, with Young alongside, in which the former Crows captain apologised for his conduct.
“You’ve shown huge courage and support for me. I want to apologise to you and your family, to the Adelaide official and his family, to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and their communities for the pain, hurt and disappointment I have caused,” Walker said.
“What I’ve said was racism and it is totally unacceptable. I’ve lost trust and respect from everyone and I know that and I have work to do.
“I’m going to take some time away from the football club to let people heal. I’m now going to educate myself which is going to take some time.
“Because I want to be better for it and I want to influence people around me because there is no place for racism in society.”
AFLW star Erin Phillips, who was playing for Adelaide but had since joined Port Adelaide, at the time described Walker’s slur as a “huge stain on our club that may never go away”. Walker’s journey back to the Crows after the scandal back in November, 2021 when he returned to West Lakes to train for the first time since his suspension.
He finally returned to the competition in April, 2022 when the Crows played Essendon.
CROW FOR LIFE: TEX CEMENTS HIS LEGACY
Just 12 months ago, in the wake of the racist slur scandal, the question of whether Walker would return to the Crows remained open-ended.
When Walker finally did return, speculation turned to the champion’s longer-term future.
Today, that issue was finally settled with Walker re-signing with the Crows on a one-year deal. A contract he said had special meaning because it would make him a Crow for life.
“As one of the older blokes going around, I am also very proud that I can still contribute both on and off the field,” Walker.
“While it has been a difficult period for our club on the field, I get a real buzz from helping the younger guys improve and we are making progress.”
Originally published as From the bush to the big time: The life, career and controversies of Crows star Taylor ‘Tex’ Walker
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