“It slowly fell away”: Can Carlton get the best out of Sam Walsh in 2025?

One of Carlton’s priorities this off-season must be finding a way to get Sam Walsh fully fit and back to his best, according to Josh Jenkins.

Walsh won the 2023 Gary Ayres Medal as the best player in last year’s finals series and was flying over pre-season training, before a back concern saw him sidelined for two months.

The same back issue has now troubled Walsh for a few years.

He ultimately missed the first five games of the season and while Jenkins believes he was at his best when he returned, that interrupted summer ultimately caught up with him by the end of the year.

“His health is the only thing that holds him back. He came in off limited preparation and exploded. We saw the very best version of Sam Walsh for six to eight weeks when he got himself going this season and then it slowly fell away,” Jenkins told SEN’s Crunch Time.

“I reckon missing that time in summer, he’s missed a couple of summers now over last four or five years, that does catch up with you.

“He just didn’t look like he was that same gut-running player. He tried so hard on Saturday night and laid a couple of big tackles and he got going when the Blues kicked a few in a row, but he just didn’t look like the same player.

“That’s why there’s so much interest around (their head of high performance) and the change there at Carlton next year and what that looks like.

“Their injury list has been long, it’s been sustained, it’s been repeat injuries to the same guys and I think that’s the keys.

“That’s the key. Any team can get unlucky with ACLs or contact injuries, but when you’ve got repeat soft tissues to Cerra and to Saad and to McGovern and a few others, that’s when you need to do a deep dive into your physical performance.”

Carlton has poached Sydney head of high performance Rob Inness, who will take over once the Swans’ season is completed.