#15 Sam Taylor (Pick 28, 2017 National Draft)

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kulak

kulak

Premiership Player
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May 16, 2006
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Welcome Sam Taylor. Sounds like a trusty lockdown key defender.

With pick 28 in the 2017 NAB AFL Draft, the GIANTS selected Sam Taylor.

Taylor is a graduate of the NAB AFL Academy and is a tall defender who is strong overhead and very composed when under pressure.

He uses the ball well when setting up play from defence and is team-oriented.

GIANTS National Recruiting Manager Adrian Caruso said: “He’s a key defender from WA with speed and competitiveness.

“He’s got enormous upside and the mentality to do the hard work.”

Had a fantastic NAB AFL Under-18 Championships for Western Australia, winning All Australian honours.

http://www.gwsgiants.com.au/news/2017-11-24/pick-28-sam-taylor

G0I18U7P7.1-0.jpg
 

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A few words from Sam on joining us
Taylor said he was proud and honoured to join the club and is looking to learn from co-captain Phil Davis. “He’s an amazing defender and hopefully I can just work with him and build my game, hopefully he helps me along the way,” he said. The quietly spoken Swan Districts product said he was ready for a big summer and hoped to get an opportunity to debut in his first year.
Click to expand...
https://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/a...r-getting-drafted-by-gws-giants-ng-b88671439z
 
Orange Agent said:
6 siblings and from country WA. I mean we have had luck holding onto kids like this in the early years but bit of a risk.
Click to expand...

I'd kinda rather he was actually from country WA. Bullsbrook is only 45 minutes from Perth. Country boys have often already moved away from home which helps with them heading anywhere.

OTOH plenty of references in https://thewest.com.au/sport/afl-dr...id-who-will-turn-into-a-monster-ng-b88664115z to not wanting to be the centre of attention, which bodes well for staying in Sydney instead of being an AFL footballer in any of the southern states.
 
dlanod said:
I'd kinda rather he was actually from country WA. Bullsbrook is only 45 minutes from Perth. Country boys have often already moved away from home which helps with them heading anywhere.

OTOH plenty of references in https://thewest.com.au/sport/afl-dr...id-who-will-turn-into-a-monster-ng-b88664115z to not wanting to be the centre of attention, which bodes well for staying in Sydney instead of being an AFL footballer in any of the southern states.
Click to expand...
Can confirm that Bullsbrook is not country.

It’s literally a few minutes from Ellenbrook
 
www.afl.com.au

Taylor-made: Giants defender shoots for the stars

Sam Taylor has quickly emerged as one of the best defenders in the game, but he plans to be THE best
www.afl.com.au www.afl.com.au

AFTER nine years in charge of Greater Western Sydney, Leon Cameron chose to sign off with a tribute to Sam Taylor at his final press conference in mid-May. "He's a beauty. He's the ultimate defender. He hates getting beaten. And I love watching him play and that's why our club will be fine," Cameron said. "I think that’s a good one to end on."

Amid a litany of high-quality key defenders in the AFL at present, Taylor sits right up there with the best of them. Eventually he wants, in his own words, to be "the best back in the game". Right now, he's in the midst of another supreme season, as the centrepiece of a backline in a team that has won only five games for the year. He leads the competition in spoils and is fifth for intercept marks.

A first All-Australian blazer for the 23-year-old from Bullsbrook, on the outskirts of Perth, is looking more likely by the week. The encouraging news for the Giants is that as it stands, he harbours no intentions of heading back to Western Australia. "No, no. Sydney's a great place to be. I feel like once we get a few things back in order, we can be a really great team again, and we can push for that top four next year," Taylor told AFL.com.au

And we appear to have missed recording in this thread his re-signing last year, out until 2025!

www.gwsgiants.com.au

Taylor Extends

Sam Taylor has extended his contract until the end of 2025.
www.gwsgiants.com.au www.gwsgiants.com.au

[PLAYERCARD]Sam Taylor[/PLAYERCARD].png
 
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www.gwsgiants.com.au

Kelly and Taylor Named in All-Australian Squad

After outstanding individual seasons, Josh Kelly and Sam Taylor have been named in the 2022 Australia All-Australian squad.
www.gwsgiants.com.au www.gwsgiants.com.au

An All-Australian jacket would be a fitting reward for Sam Taylor, who has been in career best form this year and has quickly emerged as one of the best defenders in the game. In 2022, he led the league in total intercepts and intercepts per game, ranked second in spoils, and averaged 15.2 disposals – playing in all 23 games for the GIANTS.

The final team of 22 will be selected as if to play a match and will be named on Wednesday, 24 August, as part of the AFL Awards.
 
Congratulations Sam Taylor, All Australian 2022.



2022 AA Team .png

 
Congratulations Sam on your first Kevin Sheedy Medal win.





www.gwsgiants.com.au

Superstar Taylor Wins First Sheedy Medal

The official AFL website of the Greater Western Sydney Giants Football Club
www.gwsgiants.com.au www.gwsgiants.com.au

Star GIANTS defender Sam Taylor has won the 2022 Kevin Sheedy Medal, taking out his first Club Champion award.

The award caps off a career-best season which saw him recognised as one of the best defenders in the competition, earning an inaugural induction into the All-Australian team on Wednesday night. Playing in all 22 games for the GIANTS, Taylor polled strongly across the count, taking the lead after round 18 and finishing the night on 156 votes from co-captain Stephen Coniglio (108 votes) and young gun Tom Green (104). Taylor powered home, polling votes in all but three games for the season, to be rewarded with his first Kevin Sheedy Medal in his fifth season. This season Taylor led the league in total intercepts and intercepts per game, ranked second in spoils, and averaged 15.2 disposals per game. Taylor’s victory caps off a remarkable return to the elite level, two seasons after he was sidelined for almost an entire year with septic arthritis which saw him lose eight kilograms and have to re-build his body again.

Drafted with pick 28 in the 2017 NAB AFL Draft, the West Australian native is signed with the GIANTS until the end of 2025. GIANTS General Manager of Football Jason McCartney congratulated Taylor on his win. “This is a wonderful effort by Sam and a much-deserved reward for an outstanding season,” McCartney said. “We’ve always known he’s an incredibly hard working and skilful player but what he’s been able to achieve this season is nothing short of remarkable, particularly given the amount of work our back line had to do. Sam has rare competitiveness, even by professional footballers’ standards. This season we’ve seen him step up to lead the backline and his growth and maturity has been fantastic to watch. We’re proud of the player and person he’s become and look forward to his continued development over the coming seasons.”
 
Decent summary:

www.espn.com.au

The AFL's 50 best players

Not valuable. Not skilled. Not must-watch. But who are the 50 best AFL players heading into season 2023?
www.espn.com.au

27. SAM TAYLOR

Club: GWS
Position: Key defender

Last season, Taylor saw his reputation skyrocket, providing the steadiest of defensive hands for a team that ultimately won just six games. By season's end he felt like the unanimous choice for the All-Australian full back position. No surprise, he got it. So what was it that made him so great? The rock-solid Taylor became the No. 1 intercept man in the league, averaging 9.5 per game (the next best had 8.5), and took more marks than any other defender. He defended the most leads in the competition (80) yet conceded a mark just 56% of the time, the third lowest rate of anyone. Taylor also ranked second in the league in spoils and gave away just 12 free kicks for the entire season, while also managing to draw 31 of them. That's a phenomenal effort for a full back! With respect to the dynamic Toby Greene, Taylor is proving to be the most valuable Giant. And at just 23 years of age, we know he's not even close to reaching his potential. Scary stuff.
 

The historical statistics seeing star Giant draw Rance comparisons

“I think we’ll be looking and celebrating him as one of the best key defenders we’ve seen.”
www.sen.com.au www.sen.com.au

Champion Data’s Daniel Hoyne is a huge fan of GWS defender Sam Taylor.

Coming off a maiden All-Australian campaign in 2022, the 23-year-old has gone to another level in 2023 and the stats back it up. Taylor has been so good in both one-on-one contests and in intercept situations that Hoyne went as far as to compare him to Richmond legend Alex Rance, a player he considered the most complete key defender of the last 15 years.

“We’ve gone back over the last 10-15 years and Alex Rance was probably the most complete defender key we’ve seen in the last 15 years,” Hoyne told SEN Sportsday. “In terms of he would take the best key forward each week, he wasn’t hidden, he was the best interceptor year on year and his one-on-one record was pretty much unrivalled. You look at what Sam Taylor’s doing, over the last two years, he’s the second-best player in terms of winning a one-on-one contest in the competition and he’s the hardest player to beat in a one-on-one contest. He lost his first one (one-on-one) contest of the year on the weekend. He’s been involved in 18 one-on-ones this year and he’s won 12 of them. No player has ever won 12 one-on-one contests out of 18, no one has ever done that.”

On top of Taylor’s historic one-on-one statistics, Hoyne is a huge fan of the GWS best and fairest as he’s doing it on the best players week-in-week-out. Those defensive skills plus his ball use has Hoyne predicting that he’ll one day become one of the best key defenders of not just his generation but across multiple decades.

“His ball use is fantastic,” Hoyne said. “One thing I also rate about him, like Alex Rance, he doesn’t get hidden. He’s played on Oscar Allen, Harry McKay and Darcy Fogarty. He’s playing on a team that’s getting bombarded with inside 50s week upon week and that team has conceded the fewest goals to key forwards in the competition – mainly because of the job he’s doing. Even though he’s 23, I look at him down the line in 10 years’ time, I think we’ll be looking and celebrating him as one of the best key defenders we’ve seen in the last 20, 30 or 40 years.”

Taylor also ranks first in intercepts and fourth in contested marks this season.
 
www.afl.com.au

How star Cat saved 'rattled' Giant from seven-week absence

After being told he faced up to seven weeks on the sidelines, Sam Taylor needed a miraculous recovery to take his place for the Giants against the Saints
www.afl.com.au www.afl.com.au

IT TURNS out Sam Taylor is a fast healer.

When the 2022 All-Australian strained his hamstring against Essendon in round 23, the scan results were bad. He was expected to miss at least five weeks and potentially up to seven. But Taylor missed only one game. The 24-year-old spent the pre-finals bye period sitting in a hyperbaric chamber, lying face down on the massage table, and undergoing red light therapy in a bid to win an unlikely race against the clock to be fit in time for the first weekend of the finals.

Taylor won that race and Greater Western Sydney won the do-or-die clash against St Kilda at the MCG – maintaining its unbeaten elimination final record – but only after former teammate Jeremy Cameron shared some secrets about how he recovered from a hamstring strain in time to play last September.

"Round 23 I got hurt and I didn't want to come off. I really wanted to play round 24. I love big games and I knew I'd done it, but thought I could get through it. But then we got the scans back and it was worse than first expected. It was supposed to be a five- to seven-week injury," Taylor revealed to AFL.com.au after the 24-point win on Saturday. "When I found out the news I was pretty rattled. Then I found out 'Jezza' did it around round 22, 23 and he got back and played and got through, so I sent him a message and he just gave me so much confidence. I was expecting to miss a lot more games. To know that he did it helped me. I was very determined to make it. To get through the game was surprising and such a relief because it was such a big injury. I trusted the physios and the doc and myself, so to get back in two weeks was unbelievable."

Part of the reason Taylor desperately wanted to feature in round 24 was the opportunity to play on Charlie Curnow, the Carlton superstar gunning to win a second consecutive Coleman Medal. That blockbuster match-up will have plenty of bouts to come, just like the one with Saints spearhead Max King. "He (King) moves really well for a big man. He is so good overhead. He is definitely one of the premier key forwards in the comp. He is already a special player, but I expect him to win a few Colemans in the next decade. The Saints are very lucky to have him," Taylor said after restricting King for most of the elimination final, although the 2018 No.4 pick still finished with three goals."

"I want to be the best key defender in the game, but right now, I'm more focused on the team and just being more available. I was very disappointed this year being injured. Your best ability is to be durable. You can get individual awards, but nothing beats playing finals with your teammates. That's more special than individual awards."

Taylor signed a three-year extension in 2021, more than a year before his contract was up, taking him through to free agency in 2025. Despite being more than six hours from home, Sydney is now home.

"For the first four years, it was good to get back to WA because that's home. But Sydney is now home," he said. "I spend less time in WA. I love Sydney. It is a great place to be. I've built so many good connections. The playing group, there are so many good fellas here. I just feel like I've slowly made that transition over the last couple of years. This is home now."

more in the story
 
Some highlights of Sam Taylor in the round 1 game against Norths:

www.gwsgiants.com.au

Toyo Tires Gripping Play: R1

Sam Taylor takes this weeks gripping play with his consistent intercept marks during the GIANTS clash with North Melbourne.
www.gwsgiants.com.au www.gwsgiants.com.au
 
Sam Taylor in the news for the wrong reasons:

www.foxsports.com.au

Giants’ uplifting hospital update after Giants superstar’s ‘sickening’ collision with Saint

Giants’ uplifting hospital update after Giants superstar’s ‘sickening’ collision with Saint
www.foxsports.com.au www.foxsports.com.au

Giants defender Sam Taylor is being monitored at Canberra Hospital, but crucially cleared of any major concerns, after a “sickening” on-field incident against the Saints. The superstar interceptor collided with St Kilda midfielder Jack Steele in a marking contest during the first quarter of the Giants-Saints clash at Manuka Oval in the nation’s capital.

After initial heavy contact in the contest itself, Taylor’s head made secondary contact with the ground in what appeared a whiplash motion. The collision with Steele left Taylor unresponsive and with blood spilling from his chin.

The concerning incident stopped play for a significant period as Taylor, required an oxygen mask while being treated was attended to by GWS’ medical staff. The All-Australian defender and Giants 2022 club champion was immediately taken to hospital but thankfully he has recovered as well as possible considering the circumstances.

“He’s fine, he’s in hospital at the moment being monitored but it would appear that everything’s okay there. That’ll be concussion protocols obviously,” said Giants coach Adam Kingsley.
 
An in-depth interview of Sam Taylor by Cal Twomey:

www.afl.com.au

Taylor on 'awful' health battle, 'Slammer' nickname and his future

Sam Taylor chats with Cal Twomey about his season, health scares, his future and much more
www.afl.com.au www.afl.com.au

Some snippets:

Do you see yourself staying at the Giants long-term?

Definitely. I love the club and I want to win games. I'm surrounded by great people and I don't think there's any better place to be so hopefully we can get something done but I'll leave that to my manager.

Who first called you 'Slammer'?

I think it was (Harry) Himmelberg. He claims it. It was him or Harry Perryman. At first I was like 'What is this?' because I had a nickname from school – 'Serge' – and I was like 'I want my school nickname' so I was like 'What's going on here?' They kept at it and obviously if you resist it sticks a bit more. I like it. But when I'm outside the footy club and someone says 'Slammer' it does feel a bit weird from non-footy world people.

What goes into your preparation to play on the best key forwards in the AFL?

Now it's a bit easier because I've played for a few years and I know every key forward. I don't like changing the way I play. I like being aggressive and just trying to beat my opponent every contest. I don't watch too much vision otherwise I can change the way I play. I go in with a lot of confidence I can win and not thinking about it too much.

Some players will study, study, study vision. How do you develop the art of stopping them?

When you come up against a good forward you want to know if they're good at leading for the ball, if they're jumping, you want to cancel that out. But you don't want to totally change your game to suit them. You can't just go away from your strengths. You have to use them to the best of your ability. I tried studying a lot and changing my game but I ended up playing a worse game. I did that once and I was like 'Nup, I'm never doing that again'. That was against Aaron Naughton a few years ago. I tried to be more locked on and watched him more carefully but I lost my intercepting and my feel and instincts so I stopped doing that. It does change for key defenders but I think whatever suits you best is my recommendation. I go in with confidence I can win and when you start having doubts that they could beat you then that's when you lose.
 
Congratulations on achieving 100 games, Sam Taylor.

 
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