Round 2, 2007

Solace – who wants it? No one! Well…if you are offering it – OK! Let’s think about the bright spots despite a pummelling at the hands of the Cats - Walker, Gibbs and Murphy – each performing admirably in a wonderful sign of the future. The young champs are coming through very nicely, and none more so than Andy Walker and the drive he is providing off half-back to the Carlton Football Club. Mike & Dan caught up with Walker whilst he was finishing his ‘target’ tapes for the upcoming game against the Bombers.
This week’s Play of the Week came down to your goal in the third quarter – a long streaming run out of defence, pass to Ackland on the 50 and receive and launch through the sticks. Nice.

Well, as I play in the back line I don’t get to kick a goal that often but I like to give it a bit when I’m in front of the goals. It’s a real pity we were down by so much at the time otherwise the goal may have meant something more.

You also nabbed a great goal last week against the Tigers where the pass of Scotland beautifully fell between 2 Tigers. Were you surprised it got to you?

A little – it was falling between Richo, and Hyde I think, and it fell into my hands. I gave it a little pump of my fists - I said to my Dad the night after the game ‘I don’t normally like to celebrate goals that much’ but I enjoyed that one.

That's 2 pretty nice goals Andrew. At times last year it looked from afar as though you were pretty scratchy in front of goal. Is that right? Has anything changed?

I was probably down for a bit last year – after all, I’ve been playing back all of my life so it hasn’t been the main focus for me. I think it has a lot to do with confidence. I’m a lot more confident now. I’ve got my rhythm right, even on set shots after working with the Assistant Coaches over the summer, and now I’m more than happy to take a shot on goal. As long as you’ve got the rhythm right it doesn’t matter whether it’s a shot on the run or a set shot.

In 2006 you seemed to be our defensive go-to man, with roles on whoever was causing the most pain - Farmer, Croad, Robertson, Goodes, Brad Johnson. Was your job to mind Chapman?

Yes, I’ve been given a few roles over the past few years. I think sometimes that’s where I play my best footy – where I mind someone and they take you to the ball. Last week it was Patrick Bowden, and yes, this week it was Paul Chapman.

Gibbsy seems to have taken on that mantle as having to go back on whoever is a hard match up - like Pettifer last week?

Gibbs did really well last week – he seemed fine back there and did well to mind Pettifer. We all talked about it after the game. I guess you’ll see him at times back there in the last line of defence – he’s very capable of doing it at this level.

It seemed from the outer that every single Cat was firing on Saturday night. For a time it seemed as though we were matching them, but then fell away. How did it feel out on the ground?

It’s obviously very hard to come back after 3 to 4 goals are scored quickly against you – the confidence gets shot. The confidence took a hit and we couldn’t recover. We have to be up for this week – we have to show the competition that we’re different to last year.

Tell me about what goes through a players mind when say 5 of your forwards in the I50 are being covered by 8 defenders. Do you think ‘Hey, I can squeeze this in?’ or even ‘I might try and pot this from 55m?’

It’s all about weighing up options. Fevvy is a very good target, providing so many leads and always screaming for the ball. As you run into the forward 50 you have to look at hitting up Fev, or Fish, or Kennedy, or any of the others – or even consider whether you can take a shot yourself.

Hey, just on kicking – you’re a right footer but it seems to me you’re more than happy to rock onto your left. Which boot do you trust more?

I’ve obviously had to do a lot of work on my disposal. It doesn’t phase me on my left because I bounce with my left hand – I run that way anyway so it’s fine on my left side. I’ve really focussed on my disposal this year. It’s very important in the game these days to make sure the kicks are right.

The Cats have blooded 3 youngsters already this year, the Blues 1 plus Ackland and Cloke. As a senior player in the team these days, do you look forward to a player making his debut? Who is your tip for next debut player?

It is interesting from your own point of view as well – you want to see how they cope at this level; whether they’re nervous, whether they make mistakes. You see someone like Bryce Gibbs come straight in and take a big first step in his AFL career.

It’s always interesting to see who is coming through. We’re all disappointed that Grigg has hurt his shoulder as we were all hoping he would come through and play soon.

My pick? I’d say Ross Young – there’s a spot available now and he keeps on playing well for the Bullants.

After a game like that, which followed a great pre-season including a solid win over this week’s opponent, how do you prepare yourself mentally? Do you just write it off or do you focus on some of the problems from the game – particularly the third quarter?

I try to get it out of my head by the Tuesday. I’ve done all my videos now, I know who I have to focus on for next week. I prefer it to be the same routine – week in, week out. All the players have their information by the Tuesday and now all of us are focussed on this week’s game.

We're noticing you in the stats a bit more this year, with Saturday night being your highest stats count to this point in time (28 disposals and 7 marks). 2006 was already a break through year for you from 2005, but this year again you seem to have risen to a higher level. Is there anything we can put that down to?

I guess I just had one of those days. The ball was always coming to me – and my opponent. It’s funny – you don’t know how many stats you get sometimes until after the game.

I spoke to Denis in the pre-season who asked me whether I was comfortable to play a midfield role through 2007. I told him ‘Yes, definitely’ and said that I could also play down back. I’ve worked very hard to get my fitness up over the pre-season to the level required to play midfield in this competition.

There was a bit of talk that you were struggling for fitness at the end of 2006, requiring surgery. Is that something you have to manage game on game?

No, I haven’t felt one problem with it all year. I had an adductor release in my leg, and it was the best thing to have ever happened to me. Not one problem at all.

Sure, I had a modified pre-season to help me get back into it, which required a lot of running. But through that I’ve had a very hard pre-season and worked closely with Paul Ford to get myself ready, despite the injury.

The Bombers have been impressive in beating two Top 8 teams from last year. They didn't seem that impressive pre-season - have their wins surprised you? How can we beat them this week?

They’re red hot. People forget though that we’re not in bad form ourselves – we have to be mature about our loss on the weekend and bounce back. For us to win we have to go back to the pressure we applied like in the Richmond game.

Finally, you turn 21 later this year and you’ve already played almost 60 games. How are you planning on celebrating?

We’ve got a Friday night game a few weeks before the game – on the Saturday night after we’re all going back to Echuca for a bit of a celebration. I never really celebrated my 18th so it should be a good one.

So which Bomber is going to get the Walker Target Practice this week? The usual suspect is James Hird, with Stanton taken by Russell and someone hopefully minding Monfries after his efforts in the earlier Carlton v Essendon game this year. Such is Walker’s fitness and flexibility, there’s half a dozen other Bombers he could find himself on. But in the end, we’re all hoping for a Blue win and yet another dominant ball-winning performance from our emerging midfielder.