Michael Walters has played down talk of leadership group aspirations at Fremantle.
Earlier this week, teammate Michael Barlow complimented the brilliant forward as an example of a player outside of the club’s official leaders that was stepping up to the mark.
Most notable has been Walters’ willingness to impart advice on his younger teammates. He is often seen talking to them around the club or barking out instructions during games and at training.
‘Son Son’ was quizzed on Friday about a possible desire to gain an official leadership role at Freo.
But Walters said he was simply working on improving another facet of his game.
“If I’m having a bad game, I want to stand out by my leadership, by my talk,” he said.
“I don’t see it as being a leader, I just see it as giving advice and helping out and trying to make the younger players as good as they’ve ever been.
“For me to be giving advice, I don’t see it as being a leader, I see it as being a good bloke.”
Walters battled through the early years of his career after being drafted in 2008. He was banished to WAFL level in early 2012 for failing to meet the required standards of an AFL player.
But those days are well behind him now and his main focus was to improve both himself and his teammates as footballers and as people.
“I feel more confident than what I’ve ever been,” Walters said.
“I feel like I’ve grown as a person in footy and outside of footy.
“For me to give advice, I don’t even realise that I’m doing it.
“I’m known to be a bit of a big mouth, but I just want to get out there and give as much advice as I can and help out the younger boys.”
His senior coach Ross Lyon describes him as a "training animal", and following the frustrations of 2014 where he missed 17 weeks due to ankle surgery Walters returned to pre-season early to train with the first-to-fourth-year players despite not being required to.
"I felt I really had to do it," Walters said.
"I just wanted get back. I put in the hard yards early.
"The team is going to be harder to break into this year. We've got less boys in rehab at the moment so for me that was the main drive behind coming back early."
Walters suffered a slight setback in December when he needed minor shoulder surgery but he has experienced no issues since.
He is fit enough to have a bigger presence in the midfield this year but the Dockers' 2013 leading goalkicker says his main role is up forward.
"I'd like to go through the midfield and I'd like to stay down forward as well," Walters said.
"If I'm getting shut down in the forward line I'd love to go in the midfield and have a bit of a run around there, try and lose my opponent."
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