Josh Wallen + Matthew Crooks

I have always believed that it takes a special something to play as a semi-pro the things that drive you are many and sometimes complicated.

Unlike professional sports people your life is not spent living in bubble where every moment of your day is focused on your sport and being the best you can at the chosen sport. You can be some what disconnected from the world around you. For the semi-professional sports person you still need to find ways to make ends meet while also trying to pursue your dream of one day playing football full-time at a professional level. 

As we are well aware COVID-19 has meant that attempts to make plans for 2020 has almost become a sport in itself. I’m sure if you spoke to Matthew Crooks and Josh Wallen at the end of 2019 about their plans for 2020 they would have viewed things through a completely different lens.

Matt wrapped up the 2019 season with his team the Bentleigh Greens winning the NPL Victoria Premiership. For Josh it involved the relocation to another country and a foreign city to play for Bentleigh. Things were looking good. Within months the impact of COVID-19 would turn the season on its head after five rounds the season would first be postponed then cancelled. 

As time passed and attempts to re-start the competition progressed Matt and Josh like the majority of players would face the prospect of not playing further in 2020. In this case they would go from being team mates to one of them signing for another club while at the same time jointly establish a Football academy only to see everything be paused for what seems to be an indefinite period of time. 

Community Shield

Football is.  The season started with the Community Shield game. If you think of that first game, would you have ever imagined that you would be where you are now?

Matt  Crooks

Definitely not! I don’t think I would have thought that they would be in the position they’re in today. However, during this lockdown, I’ve definitely learned a lot more about myself and found new hobbies that I enjoy. I think the hardest thing to do right now for everyone is trying to create a structure of what you’re going to do throughout the week. Because it’s so limited with everything that we can and can’t do. 

Josh Wallen  

Well, yeah, it's been quite a strange experience a time to reflect a lot. In terms of football its definitely a very confusing period. A lot of uncertainty moving here from the UK in November, to play for Bentleigh, with such excitement for the new season. We only got five games in and then everything came to a halt. However, it's been an important time to get amongst great people like Matt Crooks. We've taken it upon ourselves to keep training to keep working. I think it's been a great way to keep sane. I was thinking about this yesterday. 

If I could tell myself, would you imagine that in a few months you’d be in lockdown and the world would be flipped upside down? Never in a million years. 

If I think back to that community shield game I would never believe that in a few months time, I'd be at a different club.

Football is. When Bentleigh decided not to participate in the proposed season, where did that leave you?

Matt 

Annoyed is how I felt. I can speak for a lot of players it was frustrating. All I wanted to do was play. I understand why they did it — for reasons of too many unknowns, but at the same time all the other clubs were in the same boat and intended to play on. 

I guess you’ve got to take yourself out of it and look at it from the point of view of the coach’s or the board. It must have been stressful for them. Sure, it annoyed me, but at the same time I understand why they did it. It was what it was, you can’t change it and you can’t go to the board and say why did you do that? They call the shots, we are players, we just play. It’s as simple as that and when it happened it was a shock.

It’s hard to believe that Ten months ago we won the league and then Ten months later we pull out of the league because of COVID-19. If you look at it now is not too bad because the seasons not going ahead. 

Josh

It left a lot of the Bentleigh players in a weird predicament, especially myself. With the league going ahead and Bentleigh out. So first and foremost, my priority was to find somewhere else to play for the remainder of the season if the league was going ahead. To simply to sit on the sidelines because my club pulled out that's not something I wanted to do. So when they pulled out I got contacted by South Melbourne who wanted to have a chat first of all. And straight away they made it clear that they weren't looking to sign me or anyone just for a short six months or to the end of the year.  They're looking to build something for next season as well. So the more we spoke, and the more I learned about the club and the vision of the club it really sold the idea to me.  It was hard to leave Bentleigh in those circumstances, because we only just got started. And we never got to really realise the potential of the team. But you know, football and life is just a game of chance. If a great opportunity comes up at the right time I just felt it was the perfect time to join them not only for the remainder of what was going to be this season, but for next season as well.

I would also like to make clear how grea a club Bentleigh is. From the first minute we started to organise me to sign everyone at the club, John Iannou, the Gaffer Nick Tolios, Bryan and Andy the medical stall and all the boys make me feel at home. Nick is not only a great manager but also a really top bloke and I will stay close with a lot of people from the club regardless of if we are playing together. I wish them nothing but the best for the future. 

Lockdown forces a club change

While Matt has stayed with Bentleigh, I spoke to Josh about his decision to take an opportunity to play for South Melbourne and what drove his thinking when he decided to change clubs and ultimately stay in Melbourne. 

Football is. Obviously, a few players have gone interstate. Did you consider that as an option at any point? 

Josh

I spoke to a few people and just logistically it was going to be too hard with the uncertainty around how it would affect the season down here with south. Whether we would start training earlier. I know some clubs were talking about potentially having a round robin or some friendly tournament's towards the end of the year in Melbourne. I just want to be ready for it as soon as we get the green light here to start from day one at south. 

There's so many risks moving interstate. I need to think about my job here, my girlfriend's got a job here. You're looking at leases on houses and the headaches around that. Of course, my family's in northern New South Wales, for example, if I went to Queensland, that border is shut now they're outside of the bubble. So obviously that would affect it. It’s just so much more complicated.

Football is. When you decided to move to South Melbourne how did it feel when arrived at your first training session?

Josh

As a player all I want to do is to play in the best stadiums in front of the most people and there's no disrespect to Kingston Heath, but when you walk into a stadium like South’s it’s impressive.  The first time I went there it was evening training, the lights were on, the backdrop of the city gave it a special feel. And straightaway it felt different. I’m not sure if it’s they're set up in the change rooms or the walk to the pitch from the players race. I was like, Okay, this is a real club. It's got real potential here. I mean, I'm fully aware of what this club was in the past.

Football is. Do you feel the history that sense of history there?

Josh

Yeah, for sure. The guys explained straightaway that this is a club that's got really strong roots and really a pioneer in Australian Football. It is not just an NPL club it has had a bigger significance on football in Victoria and in Australia.  I think we can feel that straightaway whether it be from memorial plaques in the change rooms to the social media presence or if you just do a simple research. I was made aware of that straightaway.

Football is. What was it like going into a new group under those circumstances where things are still a little uncertain when the season was re-starting?

Josh

Marco Jankovic from Bentleigh came over to south as well. They were training from pretty much as soon as we were allowed to train. So as soon as we came in you could see the team were well on their way to already working up to that first game. They had friendlies planned and it was really refreshing coming into Lakeside Stadium a night time. Because they were working to the first game and not doing training drills. The mentality is completely different. So that was really refreshing.Their whole mentality was it's going ahead, we need to be ready so that was refreshing.

The future

How we perceive a situation is different depending on who we are and what drives our everyday life. When you find yourself at the mercy of a pandemic how do you view the same situation. Perspective is a point of view. Is it an opportunity or does it present itself through the lens of pessimism?  

Football is.  What's different about this lockdown to the first time around for you?

Matt

What is different this time round?

I started University, I’m going for my Bachelor in Exercise and Sports Science.

Hours have been dropped at work at Rebel. Which is a bit unfortunate, but at least I can focus a bit on myself and university.

I’m coaching, I’m not coaching with Josh at the moment as we can only do one on ones. I’m doing PT’s one on one outdoors. 

I gained a girlfriend during COVID (laughs) Na, that was way before that happened. 

Josh

To be honest the first time around I was still very energised. It was new, I trained on my own or with Matt Crooks most mornings. I had a different outlook on it. I was still very energised. One of the amazing things that came out of the first lockdown was to start a training Academy with Matt Crooks. So with the absence of team training, a lot of juniors were still looking to train so coming out of that first lockdown, we were able to get some amazing players in every way keep training them. It was amazing for myself like every day, every Saturday we'd have15 kids into training or one on one sessions. But with stage four now obviously, we can't do that at all. That's completely shut down. Luckily I've got a I've got a job as well. I work for a fitness brand so in a week that keeps me busy, but it feels a bit like Groundhog Day at the minute. 

This time has hit a little bit harder for sure in terms of the uncertainty around how long this will last and will a season get back, When will that come back? For football and for general life? I think it has definitely hit a lot harder this time.

Football is. How do you think this year will end?

Matt

I think we are going to look back on this year and think wow a lot has happened, because we had the bushfires, COVID-19, it’s crazy. I hope it ends well? It’s got to end better than it started. It can’t get any worse surely. But that’s what we said with the first lockdown. I just hope everybody realises and will learn from this lesson. We don’t want this happening again.

Josh

I was anticipating a breakthrough moment but I've come to grips that this is \ going to be a more prolonged easing of this pandemic. When it first happened I kept thinking I would wake up one morning and whether it be a vaccine or everything opened. But I think at Christmas or January next year things will still be very similar in terms of a lot of restrictions. For me my main focus is that we can get on top of this especially in Victoria and then just plan for not only being able to see family at Christmas but plan for training to come back in so we can start the season on schedule, early 2021.

Football is. Outside of football, What's the thing you’re looking forward to?

Matt

It’s hard for the interstate boys like myself. You miss your family, the company, you miss talking to them. My mum is my biggest supporter 100%. She’s always been there for me since day one. My dads my step dad so he’s there for me always but especially my mum we have a good bond.

If I got asked one thing I could do right now, it would easily be to see my family. At the click of the fingers and I think it would be for most of the boys in this situation.

Josh

The importance of family. Seeing my family for sure is something I am looking forward to. It's been weird because at 16 I left home by myself. And I'd only see my family in the offseason in the UK.  And so then coming back to Australia I was thinking this will be great every month I'll be able to go home to my family. Then the lockdown happened. It's been weird being so close but still not been able to see them since last year. So yeah, definitely going home to see them will be the thing I'm most looking forward to. 

Football is. Where do you see yourself this time next year?

Matt

Hopefully, playing football, enjoying it, enjoying my life, being around people again.

I think everybody has found this lockdown stressful.

This time next year I want to be playing the best football possible, being with the boys again, working on the business. Obviously I’ll be a year through my degree. 

Enjoying spending time with my friends, seeing my family more often. I want to see my family. I want to see my parents (they are on the Gold Coast, QLD). I haven’t seen them since December. So, it’s been about 7 or 8 months which is pretty sad. I have two dogs up there which I was pretty close to. I’m pretty close with my dogs. But especially mum and dad as well. I could go up and get an exemption. But I may have to go isolation in hotel which I would have to pay for, pay rent down here, I’d have to worry about my job. So, I think the best thing is to stay here, keep my legs ticking over.

Josh

This time next year, I see myself coming into the final series of South Melbourne. And a really, really good emphasis on an FFA Cup run and personally an amazing season. I had a similar feeling to this when I did my ACL when I was playing for QPR (Queens Park Rangers). I missed a lot of football. You try to not take things for granted. Even just being able to kick the ball with your friends or let alone playing a match. It just has a different feeling to it. So I hope many players feel the same and when we're able to play next year the league is going to be on fire because we know it can be taken away from us so quickly. It’s a cliche but hopefully everyone will leave everything on the pitch. Yeah, I expect a really good season next year from myself individually and the team.

In general terms outside of football going to see my family, going for a coffee, going for dinner. We can complain a lot. It’s put a lot into perspective about how much we have in Melbourne and then in Australia.

- Please note interviews took place in July and August 2020