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| Jeremy Walker (right) in Action for the Melbourne Heart at the weekend. He now as two proffesional first team caps to his name, with more to come in the future. Who will be the next Tasmanian in the A-League? |
Jeremy Walker has made no mistake taking his opportunities in the A-League side this month. Coming into the Heart starting XI after Michael Marrone was selected in the Socceroos squad for the Asian Cup Qualifiers.
Marrone will return from national duties this week, which will more than likely cost Walker his spot, but the youngster from Ulverstone will have time on his side, and will surely be back to play at this level in the not too distant future.
I was fortunate enough to get to the match on the weekend and watch Walker first hand, and at first I was a tad dubious, thinking maybe this level is still beyond the local talent of Tasmania, but I soon realised, for Walker at least, it is not.
He was solid without being outstanding, and I can assure you, I would like to coin the term “outstanding” to sum up his efforts, as in my eyes he was, but by comparison to the rest of the players on the park, realistically you could sum up his game fairly as being solid!
The match against Glory was Walker’s second start in as many games, keeping his spot after his side’s 0-0 draw with the del Piero led Sydney FC.
This week he completed the entire 90 minutes in front of a disappointing but vocal 4500 fans, of which 100 or so were their to support Perth.
Walker has flair, great first touch control and a cool head with the ability to read the game perfectly.
He was rarely out of position against Glory, and keen to get forward and set up chances. He could have easily backed himself to shot on one occasion but squared up a nice ball for Fred, who ultimately missed the opportunity.
His first touch is always out in front of him, allowing him to take on the opposition.
When defending, his body position is spot on with a low centre of gravity, but his small stature makes him easy to skip past, which the Glory left side did on a few occasions.
Walker will become the next Jimmy Jeggo of the Heart side I’m sure, a couple of seasons in supporting roles before he becomes a house hold name of the A-League, and the perfect inspiration for the young talent we have about to embark on the States next chapter of the state wide completion.
If you are young and rate yourself as a half decent player, and you want to give yourself every chance of playing professional football, make sure you are playing with a Victory League Club, even if you are not in their 20 man squad. Give it time, work rate will ultimately decide your fate, and for the love of the game, don’t go missing training sessions to play touch football or go camping, there are enough players with those regrets winning George Dale Medals.
great write up donk!!
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ReplyDeleteThat was removed by accident nigel, pls re post, im working off my "not so smart phone"
Deletethe whole idea of a state league is to have the best plzyers in it, those "best" kids should b at victory league clubs, im not saying mine! Just saying.
I argued that "If you are young and rate yourself as a half decent player, and you want to give yourself every chance of playing professional football, make sure you are playing with a Victory League Club, even if you are not in their 20 man squad." was not a fair comment, yes V League will hopefully get more scouts looking at Tasmanian football, but this post implies that every young player needs to be there, not true, Jeremy Walker certainly wasn't and many young players do not have the finances to play at this level. Many players are club proud and will not want to play V League,
ReplyDeleteI also made the comment that V League clubs need to be careful of how they treat NPL clubs, at the moment most NPL clubs are supportive of V League, however this can change.
I understand at this early and uncertain stage that Ulverstone and Somerset may lose 4 players each to Port and maybe 1 each up North. Now taking the 5 best out of Somerset especially a couple of youngsters and combined with other senior player losses, you severely undermine Somersets ability to fulfill NPL committemnts, then you talk of encouraging several other talented youth players to also move to V League club even if not in 20 squad and you will effectively shut down NPL clubs.
You are already pulling 1 extra team from an area devoid of players and coaches and then expect everyone to simply fall in line.
I have said before that V League is built on very shaky foundations, with huge costs to both players and clubs, poor rosters, little in coaching pathways, all of this means that more than ever the "big boys" had better support the "battlers" or it may just all tumble down.
I beleive that V League is the way of the future, just remember that its given 3 years to acheive results, and numbers of "best kids", but it desperately needs NPL club support to be successful.
There is no cost for victory league players Nigel.
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