Send you congratulations to Andrew Walker who will play his 100th Game for the Carlton Football Club this Saturday night against West Coast.
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Andrew Walker says he’ll seek out a picture framing place within the next few days. He’ll come armed with two dark Navy Blue guernseys - the one he wears into Saturday night’s match with West Coast at Subiaco - the other which he donned some 99 games and seven seasons past, in what was his first game for Carlton, again involving the Eagles, at Princes Park.
That was the Anzac Day round of Saturday, April 24, 2004, when “1AW” turned in one of the more spectacular first-up showings.
“I kept my jumper from that day and I then got it signed,” Walker said this week. “About a month ago I was looking at the names on that jumper and I could only find three or four of today’s group who were actually playing that day,” Walker said.
“I’ve been waiting to get my 100 games up, so that my 100-game guernsey can go up alongside it.”
In reflecting on that maiden showing, Walker revealed that “the thing I remember the most about my first game was lining up on another Echuca boy, Michael Braun”.
“That stands out because he [Braun] started on a wing and I lined up next to him. I knew him pretty well from back home and at that time he was the only Echuca bloke playing in the AFL.”
Carlton took Walker with its first selection (he was one of the three priority selection from that draft) at No. 2 between Adam Cooney (Western Bulldogs/Footscray) and Colin Sylvia (Melbourne), and the boy from Echuca will be the 12th 100-gamer to emerge from that draft.
Cooney (whose 150th game came against Carlton in Round 15) has chalked up the most senior appearances with 151 games, with the least the Blues’ Chris Johnson (taken by Melbourne as a father/son selection at 36) with 44 games.
Of the approaching milestone, Walker was first to admit it had been a real graft, particularly in the latter stages as he battled to overcome the much-publicised shoulder and collarbone complaints. “I got to 75 games so quick, but it’s taken me three years to play the next 25, so it’s a pretty big relief,” Walker said this week.
Refreshingly candid when interviewed this week, Walker rated the first 99 appearances as “a tough 99”.
He’s seen the cloud, but also the silver lining. As he said: “Injuries aside I’ve seen two wooden spoons and seen our side at the bottom of the ladder, but I’ve also started to see the development of the side and it’s going to be two years in a row where we’ve made finals”.
“I guess I was pretty lucky in my first four years, but everyone gets injuries at some stage and mine seemed to come all at once. It’s a bit disappointing, but I’ve got to 100 games, which is good,” Walker said.
“Last year I was battling to get out on the training track, and now I get upset if I miss one session and I get more upset if I miss a game.”
Walker becomes the 158th Carlton player to reach the 100-game milestone since the VFL’s inception in 1897, and at 24 years and 67 days the club’s 22nd youngest. He was but a 17 year-old when he first turned out for the Blues, on a day in which the players recorded a convincing 49-point victory.
For the record, current Carlton players there when Walker first ran out are Heath Scotland, Ryan Houlihan and Bret Thornton, while Chris Judd was chasing the leather for West Coast. Another five currently-listed Carlton footballers - Andrew Carrazzo, Brad Fisher, Kade Simpson Jarrad Waite and Simon Wiggins - were senior listed Carlton players in 2004.
The club’s statistician Stephen Williamson has determined that of the 70 players drafted (including Walker) in the 2003 National Draft, 31 are still AFL-listed players in 2010, with 19 still bound to the club that drafted them.
