Will Hayes carving out a career with the Western Bulldogs, despite his horse racing roots
The son of a hall of fame horse trainer, Will Hayes destiny might be at the racetrack but, after thinking he’d been overlooked in the draft and contemplating retirement, the clever midfielder is carving it up for the Western Bulldogs.
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Will Hayes looked up at his bedroom ceiling and contemplated retirement.
It was November 23 last year and Hayes mistakenly thought had been overlooked in a sixth consecutive national draft.
There was a three-hour wait until the rookie draft and the clever midfielder wanted to spend them with his eyes closed.
“There’s no better way to take your mind off things then to go punch out a few Zs,” Hayes said.
“If I didn’t get picked up because it was probably going to be retirement and going into the horse racing industry. Then I came to the living room and everything changed.”
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Western Bulldogs used the final pick in the national draft on the 181cm player, putting Hayes’ destiny as a horse trainer on hold.
“I couldn’t imagine my life without horses,” Hayes said.
“That’s (horse training) where my future is heading for sure. I’ve been very lucky that my parents have allowed me to pursue football and I managed to get drafted.
“As soon as I’m done with football I’ll be heading to racing straight away.”
Hayes felt like a nervous parent on Melbourne Cup day, given race favourite Constantinople was trained by his father, Hall of Fame trainer David Hayes.
The kid who spent his childhood building tree houses on a Hong Kong racecourse – where the family lived – so he could watch the races said attention to detail was the secret to success as a trainer.
“Essentially you’re training athletes that can’t speak back to you,” Hayes said.
“So the feedback you get is through their behaviours and their actions.
“A lot of the physios at Bulldogs probably wish that us players couldn’t talk and complain, but with the horses we’ve got to figure it out ourselves.”
Hayes, 24, learnt Mandarin growing up and now has an advanced diploma of languages in Chinese.
“I wouldn’t go as far as saying I’m fluent, but I could get you a hamburger anywhere in China,” he said.
“If I was lucky enough to train myself there at one point in my life I’d count myself as lucky because it’s the No.1 racing circuit in the world.”
Some players spend their off-seasons getting home at 4.30am. But for Hayes – who returned from a holiday in Europe in time for the Cox Plate – that was when his alarm went off so he could get to trackwork.
The Euro trip was a rare luxury, given in previous years Hayes has dived straight into work at the stables after VFL seasons.
There’s no shortage of horse whisperers in the Dogs’ locker room.
Teammate Tory Dickson – who “has got quite a good eye for the form” – made it along to trackwork some mornings while Lachie Hunter hit the jackpot with stakes in Merchant Navy and Super Seth.
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It was only when the Hayes family returned to Melbourne that footy entered his life.
“I’d just turned 11 and me and (twin brother) JD signed up to the Glen Iris Gladiators to try and make a few friends,” he said.
Fortunately, Hayes proved to be a stayer. After 76 VFL games he finally got his AFL chance and now he’s working on his wing craft with Ed Richards and Hunter.
At pre-season training last week he tipped the scales at 81kg and he can’t wait to play his 10th AFL game in 2020.
“I’m up three kilos, my Dexa scan (bone strength measurement) was good and I’m running pretty well,” Hayes said.
“I’m pretty happy with the nick that I came back in and more importantly the coaches are happy, too.”