Hayden Ballantyne may be relishing life off the football field and spending more time with family and horses, but he still admits to getting consumed by white line fever when watching Freo from the sidelines.
In the latest Old Bull Young Buck episode with hosts David Mundy and Griffin Logue, Ballantyne spoke about having to hold himself back when he saw Nat Fyfe outnumbered in a tussle during Freo’s clash with Sydney a fortnight ago.
“Me and (former Freo players) Brock O’Brien and Anthony Morabito, we try and get to plenty of the home games,” Ballantyne said.
“We were playing Sydney the other week. It was Fyfey…he dropped someone and then three or four Sydney players went to him.
“I stood up like I was going to jump the fence cos it looked like no-one was going to help him. I was thinking ‘get over and help him boys!’ I was gritting my teeth to not get over there.”
Logue would have loved seeing Ballantyne back up his former teammate, despite it being a terrible idea.
“Imagine that, jumping the fence with one beer in hand and coming in and screaming ‘get off him’,” Logue laughed.
“You’d be banned for life but it would be worth it!”
Ahead of Fremantle’s retro round clash against Melbourne, the Freo Life Member reflected on the Club’s first ever retro game, which was the farewell game for both him and his good friend Aaron Sandilands when Freo played Essendon in 2019.
“The last game we played together, it was a pretty special moment,” Ballantyne said.
“I played my whole career with him and it was pretty special.”
Ballantyne was asked by Mundy if he had planned ahead of time to get on Sandilands shoulders as they exited the ground.
“We walked our lap with the kids and were about to go off. I think you (Mundy) were walking over to pick one of us up and Aaron goes to me ‘get on my shoulders’ and you don’t argue!” Ballantyne said.
“You helped me get on and there’s a photo from behind and all of the Freo and Essendon boys are lined up and the crowd, it’s a pretty surreal photo when you look at it and think how cool it was.”
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