CONSISTENCY and continued improvement.

These are the two things driving Sam Walsh as he heads into his second pre-season at Carlton.

On the back of a dream debut year, which saw the young midfielder collect the NAB AFL Rising Star award and the AFLPA Best First-Year Player, Walsh quickly earned the respect of his peers as he was voted into the 2020 leadership group.

A nod to his own personal drive, Walsh is approaching his preparation for 2020 with a desire to learn from his teammates and peers have more consistency in his game.

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Walsh keen to step up

Sam Walsh joined Daniel Harford and Adam White on SEN 1116 to chat about his desire to lead by example in 2020.



“I’ve got a lot of coaches and players that I can go to within the Club and they’ve been great for me,” Walsh told SEN.

“From the start of pre-season I’ve had my focus on what I’ve wanted to improve on from last year.

“I learned a lot of playing off the back of playing senior footy last year and the biggest thing for me is probably in the contest to become a bit stronger.

“That’s a natural progression through your gym program and being around the footy more and getting used to those bigger bodies and getting a bit more power.”


The Blues get their first chance to put the hard work of the pre-season to the test when they take on the Pies in a practice match this Thursday at Ikon Park.

Kicking off at 4pm, the practice match will also be a good opportunity for senior coach David Teague to see how his game plan has been adopted.

“I’m still learning a lot on and off the field, so I feel as though there can be massive growth in my game with a strong pre-season hopefully put my best foot forward into having a good second year.”

- Sam Walsh



Like many of his teammates, Walsh also echoed the praise for Teague during his first pre-season in charge.

“Teaguey’s been great so far,” Walsh said

“The thing with Teaguey is that he honestly hasn’t changed that much. He’s had more time to plan and put through a few more things that he wants to implement in the Club.

“Off the back of last year, he’s really smart with the game plan side of things, but also the relationships that he’s been able to build with players.

“Being able to have a full pre-season under him we’re getting a lot more continuity with how we want to play.

“That’ll be crucial for us heading into practice matches starting to nail how we want to look as a team.”