AFL 2020: Phil Walsh’s final words behind Carlton star Eddie Betts’ secret message

Eddie Betts has been one of the AFL’s most beloved and exciting players throughout his career but he’s revealed the heartbreaking message he carries with him.

Eddie Betts has been carrying the “Start Well” message on his wrist for some time.

Eddie Betts’ made a long anticipated return to Carlton for the 2020 season but the star has revealed he has a message on his wrist that he has carried since the devastating loss of Adelaide coach Phil Walsh in 2015.

The 55-year-old Crows mentor was killed by his then-26-year-old son Cy Walsh in one of the most shocking incidents in AFL history.

Kayo is your ticket to the 2020 Toyota AFL Premiership Season. Watch every match of every round Live & On-Demand. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >

A member of the Crows in 2014 to 2019, the now 33-year-old told the AFL’s The Bright Side that the Adelaide team in 2015 had to be mentally resilient to see out the rest of the season.

But he also revealed he has carried the final word the late coach passed on to Betts.

“If you look at my wrist, I‘ve got my kids names here (on the outside of his wrist), and then I’ve got ‘SW’ on here (on the inside of his wrist) and ‘SW’ means start well,” Betts said.

“Where that comes from is it was a Thursday afternoon 5 o’clock in the evening and we were all going home and Phil Walsh came up to me and said, ‘You need to start well this week. If we get off to a good start this week, no one is going to stop you’. He gave me a fist bump, and those were the last words that Phil said to me.”

Eddie Betts has been carrying the “Start Well” message on his wrist for some time.

Earlier this season, Geelong superstar and fellow former Crows star Patrick Dangerfield revealed the impact of Walsh’s murder on his career in the AFL’s Last Time I Cried series.

Betts added that the loss taught the Crows how to come together as a team and how to get through times of hardship.

The Crows won six from seven games after Walsh’ death and made the finals, making it through to week two of the finals series from seventh before being defeated by Hawthorn.

But Betts also admitted his final seasons at the Crows were tough as he found it “tough to find the drive”.

After plenty of denials and a horror 2019 season, Betts revealed in October 2019 he was returning to Carlton for the 2020 season reportedly rejecting a three-year deal with the Gold Coast Suns for a one-year deal with the Blues.

It hasn’t all be smooth sailing however with the AFL rocked in June by a racist troll who targeted Betts.

Unfortunately, it’s not a rare occurrence for Betts, who told The Bright Side he was “racially abused in Adelaide for six years and I was the oldest there and I was staying strong for the young Aboriginal boys”.

Betts taking a knee for the Black Lives Matter protest before AFL Round 2.

“A lot of these young kids, I believe they do get racially abused but they‘re just too scared to speak up about it because they think (about) what’s going to happen to them,” he said.

“One of the big things I‘m working on at the moment is getting Carlton connected with the Aboriginal community around Victoria to understand whose land we’re on, what language groups there is and what tribes we have around here in Victoria.”

Betts has also been outspoken in the wake of the Black Lives Matter campaign in the wake of George Floyd’s death, admitting he was “sick and tired” of the relentless racial abuse which has plagued his entire professional career.

Originally published as AFL 2020: Phil Walsh’s final words behind Carlton star Eddie Betts’ secret message