The Courier |
LIKE most 20-year-old men, Hayden Walters enjoys a beer.
But a distinct effort to steer clear of the drop has this year helped him become one of the Ballarat Football League’s most imposing onballers.
In what has been a breakout year for the East Point midfielder, Walters has been named best on ground for the Kangaroos in three of five games so far.
Combine that with a second best on ground against Ballarat and a fifth best against Bacchus Marsh and Walters’ rap sheet is already more than impressive in 2013.
Then there was the AFL Victoria Country Championships clash against Bendigo last week where Walters was (you guessed it) best on ground for the BFL.
Compare this to last season, when he played all season and was named best on ground once.
What does Walters put it down to? Fitness, mainly.
“They (the coaches) said if you get fit you can play on ball and that became a bit of a driving force for me to get fit,” Walters said.
“Working at Irish Murphy’s on Saturday nights keeps me, I suppose, intact a bit.”
A formidable size for a 20-year-old, Walters first came to the club as a junior in 2009.
He had spent all his junior days at Golden Point but when it became obvious the club would not be around for much longer, he made the move to Eastern Oval.
“It (Golden Point) was sort of on the way out and I could see we wouldn’t have much of a team so I came here, and we won a flag in the under-18s, which was great,” Walters said.
From there, Walters spent a year living in Canada as an 18-year-old, playing footy for the High Park Demons in the Ontario Australian Football League.
Upon his return for the 2012 season, he made catching up with mates a high priority.
“When I came back and caught up with a few mates we got on the sauce and sort of fell a bit behind the eight ball, as you do,” he said.
“It’s different this year though. You recover a lot better not being out on the drink, then you feel a lot fresher on the Tuesday training and it all flows from there.”
Looking forward to East’s blockbuster against Redan this weekend, Walters knows his side is in for a massive challenge.
“They are so experienced and they’ve been such a good team for so long,” he said.
“In round one we got a touch up against North but that is way behind us now and we’ve come a long way since then.”
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
