Taylor Walker at 250 games: All the highs and lows of star Crow’s career
Taylor Walker is a Crows great, but it could have been so much different. We relive the highs and lows of his career in the lead-up to game 250 this weekend.
AFL
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A boy from the bush trying to find himself in the big smoke and the AFL.
He makes it and becomes one of the biggest names in both, but the journey isn’t all smooth sailing.
There are plenty of highs and lows, both on and off the field.
On Saturday, Taylor Walker’s story will have another chapter written when he becomes just the ninth Adelaide Crows player to reach the 250-game milestone.
Former Crows recruiter and development mentor Alan Stewart says the story of the man known as “Tex” could be used as a template for juniors coming through.
“His journey has not been an easy one in terms of his football career and off the field as well, it has been an incredible journey of highs and lows,” Stewart said.
“But the one thing with Tex that I found out very early is that he can handle feedback and he is good at responding and wanting to learn and grow and develop.
“And that’s with issues over his footy career but also issues off the field as well.”
Plenty has happened in Walker’s story since he arrived at the Crows as a 17-year-old.
He has become the Crows all-time leading goalkicker, was twice voted as the AFL player’s Association’s best captain, helped lead the club through the tragic death of coach Phil Walsh and has had a late career renaissance in the last couple of years.
He ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in 2013, was criticised for his speech following the 2017 grand final and his reaction to the fallout of the loss.
And then there is being suspended for racial vilification in 2021.
Stewart said it had been a journey of learning for Walker.
“I think he has matured greatly over the last two years,” Stewart said.
“He has had some really strong feedback from me over a long period of time and he responds to that very well.
“He is a great story in regards of the young footballer from the bush coming to Adelaide and not only developing his football to a very high standard but also adjusting to big city life and everything around it.
“You have to understand he is under the spotlight all the time in Adelaide. But he has achieved some great things in Adelaide.
“I’ve seen a lot of footballers in my 50 years in football in the SANFL and the AFL and he is probably the best two sided big man I have seen and I have seen many, many players.
“His skillset, his footy smarts, his ability to lead on the field. There are a lot of qualities for Taylor.
“He captained the club over a really difficult time for the club.
“It is a wonderful story, I reckon they could make a movie about him one day.”
There has been a fascination with Walker even before he arrived in Adelaide.
Playing against men as a teenager Walker shone in his home town Broken Hill.
He kicked seven goals in a best on ground performance to lead North Broken Hill to a flag in 2007.
A year prior he became the Crows first AFL NSW Scholarship player.
Even how he avoided the attention of other AFL clubs despite his talent was a memorable story.
After Mark Ross identified Walker as a 15-year-old at the Bert Green Cup in Griffith he was set to represent NSW at the under-16 championships in Sydney.
But two weeks prior he fell off a motorbike and broke his pelvis and continued to remain under the radar.
“He had undoubtable talent, his kicking as a kid was as good as it was now. His ability to take the ball off the ground for someone his size was excellent and he is just a really good reader of the game,” Ross said.
When he came to South Australia he was placed with Norwood in the SANFL.
Ross was at the Redlegs after departing the Crows and was determined that Walker be tied to Norwood.
“If you weren’t from SA already or from another state we actually had to align you to a local club,” he said.
“I think we had the third or fourth pick, Port Adelaide (Magpies) had the pick after us and I know they were going to take Taylor because I’ve spoken to Tim Ginever about it.
“But all the other clubs in front of us went with different players and when it was our pick and Taylor was still there we couldn’t select him fast enough.”
Despite still being a teenager Walker dominated for the Redlegs in the SANFL kicking 57 goals in his first season.
And so the fascination with Walker grew.
But Crows coach Neil Craig wouldn’t be rushed into bringing Walker into his side.
And when he did there would be times where he was dropped to work on his deficiencies, to the frustration of Crows fans and Walker himself.
“Yeah there was a bit of that but that is OK, you get that,” Craig said.
“That is just a judgment call that you make, we certainly internally saw that aspect but at that stage of his career and the status of our team at that stage we valued some defensive actions and to his credit he took that on board and tried to add it to his game which he has.”
Craig said he was happy that Walker was frustrated at not being in the team.
“He was and I wanted that. You want that in a player to come in and have an impatience and an urgency to play AFL footy,” he said.
“You would be disappointed if they didn’t have that attitude.
“And Taylor certainly had that but he also understood why he had to wait a bit longer and went back to SANFL a certain number of times and was really diligent and put that into his game and that’s why he was such a joy to coach.”
Stewart said this tough love approach was good for Walker.
“He was a naive country boy from Broken Hill who loved playing footy with his mates and all of a sudden he is in the AFL playing with the big boys and you have to be patient you have to give some boys an opportunity if you can see the talent and see the willingness to work on and grow his game,” Stewart said.
“It took a lot of time and Neil at times lost patience with him and dropped him but it was good for Taylor to understand that you have to work hard if you are going to be a 250 game player.”
At times this naivety hurt Walker, such as when he was spotted having a beer at AAMI Stadium.
“The thing I like about him is that there is a bit of larrikin in him when he came to the club and he has maintained that youthful exuberance and that larrikin about him,” Stewart said.
But at the same time Walker developed into a respected leader at the Crows as he emerged as one of the best forwards in the competition from 2012 onwards.
Walsh saw enough to go with Walker as his captain.
It might have been a surprise to many, but not to those who knew Walker well.
“I remember saying to Walshy at the time I thought it was one of the smarter moves I had seen in footy because Taylor is a born leader,” Ross said.
“He is a bit like the old pied piper people just follow him.
“They got to a grand final but I still kind of think about what if Phil Walsh was still alive because his and Taylor’s relationship was so strong and how much they would have been able to produce together.”
Like the Crows in general the years after the grand final loss weren’t good ones for Walker.
The end looked like it was fast approaching when he only kicked 15 goals in the Covid-affected 2020 season and was forced to defend his spot.
But the last two years have seen Walker return to his best, despite being in the twilight of his career.
“To still be playing high level footy towards the end of your career I think it is a big tick, a big tick,” Craig said.
“What does that say, that says he has a really clear picture of what he needs to do in terms of his individual preparation from week to week.
“He has a young family as well, which adds not to the stress of playing but it is another responsibility so it is about making sure he has a balance with his home and football life.
“So in terms of what I call the performance wellbeing space he seems to have that really well organised and that allows him to play the footy he has been playing.”
This late-career surge was threatened when Walker made a racial slur towards North Adelaide’s Robbie Young while he was a spectator at a SANFL match.
Walker received a six-match ban and has conceded that it most likely will never go away but he was still learning from it.
Craig said he saw the leader in Walker in his response to that.
“What I saw from there was a young man that accepted responsibility for his actions, and that in itself is a leadership aspect,” he said.
“So when those situations occur people might say that player can’t be a leader, but what I saw was Taylor putting his hand up and saying look I am accountable and I am going to do something about it.
“I understand I have broken a bit of trust in some areas but trust can be rebuilt and to me I think it has been a really good little case study for someone who has made an error of judgment and then accepted the accountability of it and then tried to the best of their ability mend the bridges.”
On Wednesday Walker said at 33 this would most likely be the last milestone of his career.
Stewart said the boy from Broken Hill would go down as “one of the really great players we have produced in South Australia”.
“It is just so important to realise that this journey for 250 for Taylor has not been easy and it is a great milestone for him and one that he deserves,” he said.
“What he has done over the past two and a half seasons is a great reflection on Taylor Walker as a player and a person who has been on a long journey and learnt from the highs and the lows.
“He has earned the recognition as one of the great power forwards of our game.”
Originally published as Taylor Walker at 250 games: All the highs and lows of star Crow’s career
The 30 AFL players that remain in contract limbo
Ahead of a ‘Super Draft’, clubs are cutting their lists hard. With the total number of delisted players set to eclipse 100, there are still plenty of players nervously awaiting a call on their futures.
How AI is changing AFL – and why it’s making people nervous
Artificial intelligence is creeping into the AFL, begging the question could computer coach an AFL team one day? SHANNON GILL explores footy’s biggest change.