‘Really bullish on his future’: How Collingwood debutant touted for national honours as a cricketer slipped back into footy

During the summer he was rolling out leggies against Pakistan. This Friday night, Wil Parker makes his AFL debut. This is the inside story of how a potential Australian Test player was lost to cricket.

The man who picked Wil Parker to make his debut for Victoria as a 17-year-old says the impending Collingwood debutant has the makings of a future Australian cricketer and is surprised the leg-spinner hasn’t had more opportunities in state cricket.

Just five months on from dismissing Pakistan Test opener Imam-ul-Haq in a tour match, Parker will on Friday night line up for the depleted Magpies against Fremantle, one of two first-gamers for the Pies alongside Ed Allan.

A teen prodigy in both footy and cricket, Parker was selected to play for the Vics while in year 12 at Norwood Secondary College.

Touted at the time as a likely second or third round AFL draftee, Parker committed instead to cricket, signing a rookie deal with Victoria and later joining the Big Bash League’s Hobart Hurricanes.

104 days after his last game of cricket, Collingwood AFL Rookie Wil Parker will make his AFL debut on Friday night in Perth. Picture: Collingwood FC

But having fallen down the pecking order with the Vics, Parker quit cricket in February, returning to football via the Category B rookie mechanism with the AFL reigning premiers.

A combination of strong VFL form and the Pies’ injury troubles paved the way for Parker’s senior debut only three months after joining Collingwood.

While pleased for Parker, 21, former Victorian chairman of selectors Andrew Lynch says he’d believed the tweaker had a bright future with the Kookaburra, rather than the Sherrin.

“He was a player that I thought was going to play for 10 years plus. He never panicked, he never dropped the ball short,” Lynch told this masthead.

“All I can say is we thought he was a great talent … we were really bullish on his future.”

Parker picked up match figures of 4-89 against NSW in a win at the SCG in February 2020, having been selected when Test spinner Jon Holland was sidelined with a finger injury.

“He was instrumental, got wickets in both innings,” Lynch said.

Parker played seven BBL matches for the Hobart Hurricanes. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

And yet that would prove one of just four first-class matches Parker played, the last of which came in November 2021.

He also played a lone one-dayer for the Vics, as well as nine matches for the Hurricanes, but was overtaken by Todd Murphy and later Doug Warren.

Parker played a tour match for a Victorian XI ahead of the Boxing Day Test, picking up the scalp of Imam, but just a couple of months later he was an AFL-listed player.

Asked if he’d felt Parker was a potential international player, Lynch said “absolutely,” noting that he was also a capable batter.

“There weren’t a lot of leg spinners going around,” Lynch said.

“I was really surprised he didn’t play a lot. I don’t know what happened. I was surprised he didn’t get more opportunities.”

Wil Parker’s Mum had just called our Player Development Manager to ask about tickets for next week’s VFL game at Marvel Stadium.

Wil called her back to tell her there’s a different venue she should be thinking about 🥹 pic.twitter.com/qbkFpuqisK

— Collingwood FC (@CollingwoodFC) May 21, 2024

Lynch departed Cricket Victoria in 2022 in the wake of Mike Hussey’s review of the state’s list management and selection processes.

The father of former St Kilda and Adelaide AFL forward and now North Melbourne VFL coach Tom Lynch, Andrew Lynch concedes that the sheer glut of professional AFL opportunities available relative to those in Australian cricket makes it challenging to win the battle for talent, a situation exacerbated by the high-risk nature of leg-spin.

“With footy it’s so much easier to get a spot,” Lynch said.

“We’ve been a bit lucky but we’ve lost a few too along the way.”

A medium defender, Parker was also courted by the Western Bulldogs – who had already landed ex-cricketer James O’Donnell – before choosing the Pies.

Wil Parker in action for Richmond. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Wil Parker has made a successful move to AFL.

Category B rules allow for players who haven’t played football for three or more years to sign directly with an AFL club, bypassing the draft.

Once listed by Gold Coast, now-Dogs defender Alex Keath signed with Adelaide ahead of the 2016 AFL season after he departed cricket where he had played for Victoria and the Melbourne Stars as an all-rounder.

Former Australian one-day player and ex-Victorian cricket high performance chief Shaun Graf said he was glad Parker had been blooded so young, allowing him to have a proper crack at cricket and still not to be too old for a tilt at footy.

“He was not fazed by the company he was keeping. I thought he was someone that had a very good mature head on his shoulders for such a young lad. And you’ve got to be like that with leg-spin, it’s so vitally important. That’s where Warney was above the rest,” Graf said.

“But unfortunately he hasn’t been able to fulfil that potential he showed so early.”

Originally published as ‘Really bullish on his future’: How Collingwood debutant touted for national honours as a cricketer slipped back into footy