By ADEM SARICAOGLU
GUY Walker knew the decision between football and cricket had to be made sooner or later.
What he wasn’t counting on was making that choice before his 18th birthday.
The 17-year-old gun sportsman and Maribyrnong College student was on tour with the Australian under-19 cricket team in New Zealand when he found out Cricket Victoria had made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“I was in New Zealand on a rest day, and we got back to the hotel and got an email from Andrew Lynch, the talent manager for Cricket Victoria,” Walker explained.
“They offered me a rookie contract for two years – I couldn’t believe it when I saw it.
“I was like ‘gee, I’m still in school and I got a contract’, and I couldn’t believe it, I just had a smile on my face for ages.
“I wasn’t expecting it at all.”
Exciting as the news was, it meant accepting the offer had to come at the expense of a promising footy career.
Walker made the final cut on the Calder Cannons TAC Cup list for 2013 despite missing a large portion of preseason training while he donned the whites for Premier Cricket club, Footscray-Edgewater.
It was to be his top-age year after back problems kept him from making an appearance for the Cannons in 2012.
Though cricket was always going to win out over footy, Walker admits it was still hard to walk away from the winter game having never had the chance to test himself at TAC Cup level.
“I wanted to get back into it so badly,” Walker said.
“I watched a few games over the last month or so, and even in the practice matches I just wanted to get out there, so it was a big decision.
“I would have loved to have played a practice match at least, just to see how fast the game is and just to see the standard of it and see whether I could be to it again.
“But I think in the end cricket was always going to (win).”
As a contracted rookie, Walker will spend time with the Bushrangers as he finishes Year 12 at Maribyrnong College and commences his second year with Footscray-Edgewater this coming summer.
“It’s more like a development year, so I’ll be around the Bushrangers and trying to train once or twice a week with them and getting around that system,” Walker said.
“Then obviously the main thing is to still finish school and pass Year 12.”
