Cobden family links ready to celebrate potential AFL number one draft pick Sam Walsh

The Walsh clan will huddle around the TV and watch Sam Walsh live out a boyhood dream.

They won’t have to wait long to celebrate – the Ocean Grove-based teenager is considered the likely number one draft pick.

Peter, affectionately known as ‘Plumber’, has watched Sam’s journey closely.

He started in Auskick at Cobden during his father Wayne’s 2007-09 stint as senior coach of the Hampden league club.

He moved to Darwin when he was 10 for three years before the family settled in the Bellarine area.

Peter has strong football ties and could sense Sam – the second eldest of 17 grandchildren – had the attributes to make the elite level.

“He always had the skills but then you’ve got to do the hard work, which he has done,” he said. “I have seen him work hard. It’s at home, not just on the footy ground.

“Running and I mean real running – running 400s flat out and then stopping for two minutes and then you’ve got to go again and do another one. He was picked captain of the All-Australian under 18s and he won the Larke award for the player of the championships.

“He won the (Geelong) Falcons’ best and fairest too and he only played 12 games. He’s ticked off everything.”

The Walsh family’s football ties in south-west Victoria are strong.

Peter and his three brothers played for Cobden but the self-depricating father-of-five downplayed his own talent.

“I was pretty ordinary. I did a knee when I was 24 and that was it,” he said.

Peter’s sons Wayne and twins Leigh and Chris also represented the Bombers and his grandson Patty Smith, who played one game for TAC Cup club Geelong Falcons this year, is part of the current-day crop.

Chris is the Bombers president.

Peter said Wayne, who also coached Hampden league clubs Camperdown and North Warrnambool Eagles, played at centre half-forward, a different role to his ball-winning son.

“But Sam is bigger than him now, just,” he said.

“Henry, his brother, he is in the (AFL) Academy for next year so he’s following Sam. He’s only 16, he’s over two metres (tall) and then there’s Tommy to come yet.”

Peter said the entire family was proud of Sam.

“We are fairly excited for his sake,” he said of the draft.

“He’s got to go where he’s picked and that’s it. He’s got no say in that. They all say he’s going to go number one but there’s a lot of bloody good footballers.”