Ocean Grove’s Wayne Walsh, Father Of Sam, Recognised As AFL Barwon Coach Of The Year
Following an outstanding accomplishment on the regional level, the patriarch of a well-known Blue band received recognition for his work. He thinks back on the honor as well as the peculiar trip he took to Brisbane to watch his kid play.
Wayne Walsh's Saturdays were just as hectic as everybody else's.
Walsh, who coached the whole Ocean Grove under-16 team and included his son Tommy on the Division 1 side, would begin his day at 8:15 a.m. near Geelong.
Walsh was as committed to his older sons' teams as he was to the Grubbers' junior program, catching a few minutes of the Div 3 or Div 5 game if it was on before racing off to see Blues star Sam play for Carlton or to drive to Lismore to see Henry play in the Mininera and District Football League.
On a handful of instances, Wayne and his wife Jacque were able to watch both of them on the same day without any problems.
"Yeah, there were a couple of weekends where we did all that," Walsh remarked with a chuckle after completing the sentence.
It felt really nice the majority of the time, but there were times when we had three matches in a day, which was pretty hard work, especially when we were playing at 8:15 in the Geelong area and trying to travel to the next game and the next game. On those instances, it was pretty difficult to work. But you only have to go through this process once, don't you?
Walsh was able to guide the Grubbers' Division 1 team to the championship despite the fact that he also works as a teacher and has a very busy schedule.
Their second team won the championship in Division 3, and their third U16 squad reached the championship game.
As a result of his efforts coaching the team of 78, he was named Football Coach of the Year at the AFL Barwon Community Awards.
Shaun Stow, who has been the U16 coordinator for Ocean Grove for three years, received an award in recognition of his hard work and dedication.
All of those kids would have felt Wayne's leadership because he was so welcoming to them. The group as a whole had tremendous turnout for training. Stow gushed on how the team benefited from his "really, really fantastic" overall football knowledge and experience.
As a jumping off point, he establishes a wonderful rapport with the children. They hold such a high regard for him.
"He likes to joke around with them before practice, but when it comes time for practice or game day, they are all aware of what is expected of them."
Walsh, who will not return as head coach after next season, credits his assistants for the team's success.
He doesn't know what his role will be at the club next season, but he hopes to contribute in some way.
After all that effort, I suppose the reward is secondary. After three years of coaching Ocean Grove's team, Walsh can confidently say, "We have seen unbelievable growth from the players we inherited.
The players' willingness to put in extra effort in practice and competition has been the coaching staff's greatest success.
It was great that he was able to coach and play with Tommy, but I really loved his coaching the most.
I've probably given the lads all the ideas I can give them in three years. I'm always willing to provide a hand; teaching and coaching a few other football-playing lads have left me with little spare time recently.
SAM’S HELPING HAND
Despite the fact that Sam's schedule was packed with football games, he made an effort to spend as much time as possible with his father and younger brother.
The Blues ball-magnet even made an appearance at training on a couple of occasions, which is something that any young person of that age would consider a dream come true.
Sam went to perhaps half a dozen Grubbers games over the course of the year, one of which being the Grubbers' victory in the premiership. During the celebrations that followed, Sam served as a taxi driver for Tommy and his colleagues.
Sam supported Tommy at a lot of his games and was present at the championship match as well. Even on the night of the championship game, he drove the boys around to the various festivities, as Stow pointed out.
WALSH CLAN’S LONG DRIVE
The Walsh family is used to making long travels on Saturdays, but they upped the ante for the quarterfinal.
The Walshs and their six pals chartered a bus to make the grueling 1835-kilometer trip to the Gabba.
Bernie Harris, a former player for both the Brisbane Bears and Fitzroy, was one of the members of the crew that made the trip to the Gabba to watch the nail-biting final.
Even though the Walsh's didn't receive the result they were hoping for, Wayne noted that he was thrilled with Sam's fantastic conclusion to the year after recovering from injury. Sam went on to win the Gary Ayres Medal as the best player across all of the finals series.
"It was nice for Sam to finish the year well because he battled a bit of injury for most of the year," Wayne said. "For him to finish well was nice."
"He continued to play, but just coming off his back injury was quite a big thing, so we were always hoping he'd be able to get through the season, which he was able to do okay, so it was good to see him finish off well. "