Carlton’s Sam Walsh is emerging as the midfield superstar fans have been expecting ever since he was chosen with the first pick in the 2018 AFL draft.
In the Blues’ extraordinary finals run, the first post-season action of Walsh’s career, the 23-year-old is showing he is made for September football.
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Some players shy away from the spotlight of cutthroat finals, others relish it, and Walsh is clearly among the latter.
One of the Blues’ best in the week one win over Sydney with 28 disposals and six tackles, Walsh took his game to a new level in Carlton’s comeback victory over the Demons on Friday night that kept their premiership hopes alive.
A final stat line of 34 possessions, a whopping 618 metres gained, eight tackles, six marks, two goals and a game-high 140 AFL fantasy points put the midfielder head and shoulders above every other player on the ground.
Yet anyone who has been watching Walsh’s career unfold wouldn’t be that shocked by his emergence in the finals.
What would have surprised some, however, was a small detail he revealed when he celebrated kicking each of his two goals for the match.
For a footballer who grew up in the small town of Cobden in southwest Victoria, and also spent time in Darwin and Ocean Grove on the Bellarine Peninsula, fashion labels surely wouldn’t be the first image that springs to mind.
But when Walsh opened his mouth and raised a fist in celebration, there was a clear word seen on, of all places, his mouthguard.
That word was “Dior”, as in Christian Dior, the luxury French fashion house.
Not surprisingly, there were some curious reactions on social media.
“Is that….a Dior mouthguard?” sports journalist Marnie Vinall wrote on Twitter.
“He’s so cool,” was one reply.
“No he’s not” replied another, with a series of crying laughing emojis, showing you can’t please everybody.
Doing a search online for Dior mouth guards yielded very few results, so we’re yet to verify if the mouth guard is actually produced by the fashion house.
It would be an odd addition to its standard line of clothes, shoes and cosmetics.
We have contacted the Carlton Football Club in an effort to confirm the mouth guard brand.
The closest we could find was another luxury brand mouth guard, Balenciaga, worn by fashion trendsetter Ye, formerly Kanye West, at the 2023 Paris Fashion Week.
While many were impressed by Walsh’s choice of mouth protection, of course you also get replies from those that really don’t care, which always begs the question – why comment?
Still, we’ll applaud the creativity at least from user flibble24 on Reddit.
“And (Sam) Docherty sleeps nude in an oxygen tent. Why should we care?”