The footy community can, at times, feel a bit like professional wrestling; everyone hates each other, but for the most part, it’s not real. Callan Ward is loved. This adoration from those who inhabit the game is rare. Players so tough are rarely as kind and empathetic in equal measure.
AFL 2025: The Lachie Whitfield kiss that said everything about GWS Giants warrior Callan Ward
Published 2 days ago• 3 minute read
, who had crumpled onto the grass the night before, his season done, his career in the balance. “Ah footy, shivving footballers in the kidneys for over a hundred years,” was how a good mate once put it to me. It rang true at that moment.
I’ve known Cal since he was a boy, and he’s always been a tough footballer. More than that, he has always been achingly sincere.
My favourite story of Cal, in the vein of half-truth, was not the right memory for the moment, but it’s where my thoughts went.
It’s said that on this day, then Giants coach Leon Cameron was seething about his team’s treatment from the umpires and sent his captain, Cal, to have a word with them to get that message across.
Cal stood in front of the umps and was a few minutes into a spirited plea on behalf his coach when a smirk ran across one of the umpires’ faces. “Cal, we’re the boundary umpires, the field umpires are over there.”
Approaching the umps is not the instinctive thing for a leader to do.
Nor is it instinctive to stand in front of your teammates at the three-quarter-time huddle and plead with them to find a little more when your knee is torn apart just like your heart, but that’s what Cal Ward did on Saturday. That’s who he is, and I am in awe of him.
It wasn’t what he said – Ward wouldn’t be the first footballer to implore his teammates to play their roles – it was the fact he was selfless enough to say it in that moment, on crutches, knowing his career might have just ended.
Cal’s teammates are in awe of him, too. All that emotion, sealed with a Lachie Whitfield kiss. Ward was lying on his back in pain, wiping his eyes with a towel when Whitfield hugged and pecked him on the cheek. It said everything.
Loading
The Giants currently sit seventh on the ladder, after hauling in a significant deficit in the last quarter to beat the Tigers. They’re now up to their eyeballs in the premiership race.
That is due in no small part to the heart and goodness of Callan Ward and all that he has given them and the game.
The privilege of wearing the orange and charcoal jumper just got heavy with significance. Watch out.
Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.
