Number one pick in the 2018 National Draft Sam Walsh has put together one of the best seasons compiled by a first-year midfielder in recent memory.
He has averaged 26 disposals, five marks, four clearances and 10 contested possessions per game so far this season, but even more impressively, he’s played every game and gets better after every week.
Garry Lyon was full of praise for the NAB Rising Star certainty.
“(Walsh’s) numbers in that game (against Adelaide), your eyes go to Cripps, Walsh has had 30 and seven clearances himself,” Lyon told SEN Breakfast.
“He’s in his first year and at a time of the year where first-year players are supposed to be running into a brick wall, he’s having 30 and seven clearances.”
Tim Watson agreed, putting Walsh above every other first-year player in the AFL.
“(Carlton has) got the best first-year player in the competition in Sam Walsh, he was extraordinary on the weekend,” Watson said.
The Blues have won three games in a row under caretaker coach David Teague and will be looking for a fourth straight for the first time since 2011 when they take on the Eagles at Marvel Stadium.