The full interview will be published in the official Collingwood Match Day Program each week.??
This week, collingwoodfc.com.au spoke to a man well known to Collingwood supporters, for both his prodigious talent and dreadful misfortune with knee injuries. Lee Walker, who played 16 games for the Magpies in five seasons at Victoria Park, now works as a firefighter in his native Western Australia and still remains in contact with former teammates the ilk of Scott Burns and Stephen Patterson.
On what he's up to in 2012...
I’m in the fire and rescue over here in Western Australia as a firefighter. I’ve been doing that for five years now. It’s a full time job. I’m married to Natalie and have three beautiful little girls. Apart from that, I still surf regularly and get out on a surf ski and out on the mountain bike. That’s really about it.
On playing alongside some of Collingwood's true legends…
The likes of Gavin Brown, especially, he was always one of those guys that didn’t really say much but I absolutely idolised him and it was just mind-blowing. It was just a very surreal experience. Going in the space of pretty much two years, playing with the Augusta-Margaret River Footy Club down south over here to playing with East Perth and being on the Eagles’ list to playing in round one in 1995 against Carlton at the ‘G in front of 95,000 people was pretty amazing and very surreal.
On his two coaches, Leigh Matthews and Tony Shaw...
Leigh didn’t really say a whole lot to be honest. I think he sort of got the older guys, that was how he coached at that stage, he went through the older guys and didn’t really say a whole lot to the younger guys and let the older guys lead the younger guys, I suppose. Where as Shawry was very big on the communication side of things with everyone right across the board. I think Lethal, being the type of guy he was, even though he didn’t say much to us, whatever he did say you certainly didn’t forget it. With Shawry, on other hand, he was very vocal with the whole playing list. Again, I enjoyed both immensely, so it was a good, enjoyable six or seven years.
Walker lines up a shot at goal on debut against Carlton in round one, 1995; marks on the lead against Footscray in round 17, 1996; takes on Essendon's Peter Somerville at a boundary throw in during the famous ANZAC Day draw in round four, 1995.
On the experience of moving to the other side of the country...
I was lucky enough to move into Coventry House, which was the club house at that stage. When we first moved in there I think we had about six or seven players in there. I met the likes of Scotty Burns who I ended up living with for the seven or eight years I was over there, Brett James, Jason Wild, Mark Orchard and others who I made some very good friendships with. We had a very memorable six months while we lived in Coventry House. But again, yeah, it was the culture of Melbourne and the feel of football in Melbourne that was certainly a hell of a lot different to what it was in Perth because people lived and breathed it every day, but over here in Perth, footy’s certainly important but not to the level that it is over there in Melbourne. I absolutely loved it because footy was everything to me. It was eight or nine years that were amazing.
On his fourth knee reconstruction in 1997...
It was the fourth knee reconstruction that I’d had. It was obviously devastating. With all the work you put in and to have the dream of continually playing the game ripped from underneath you again because of something so simple that happened out on the ground, it was obviously devastating. It was one of those things where you obviously accept it and move on as quickly as you can and get on with things. Certainly everyone says that there’s always life after footy, but you don’t really want to think about it while you’re playing because footy is absolutely everything. You have to somehow move on from it. There’s still not one moment or one day that goes by that you wonder how things could have been different, but again, that’s the way it goes and you move on.
On the highlight of his career...
Probably number one was actually pulling the jumper on for the first time. It’s a moment you never forget when you play your first game. Especially when it’s Collingwood v Carlton at the MCG with the amount of people that were there. The other one would be the first ANZAC Day game, which was a draw in round 4, 1995. And I would also say the ‘97 game coming back. Even though I did me knee in it, it was a pretty special moment to be playing Port Adelaide for the first time when they broke into the AFL. But number one would be pulling on the jumper for the first time.
Walker took centre stage on the cover of the In Black and White magazine in April 1996, shaking the hand of Tony Shaw after his first win as senior coach against Melbourne in round two.
