By Marcus Uhe
Over the Christmas period, the Journal’s sports team will be re-sharing some of the most popular stories from over the course of 2023.
Thank you for supporting our newspapers over the course of the year. We hope you enjoy the selection and have a wonderful holiday period, however you choose to celebrate.
Lachlan Wynd knows the weight of pressure that sits upon his broad shoulders each and every week.
And he wouldn’t have it any other way.
The Rowville spearhead sits head-and-shoulders above his next most-successful teammates on the Eastern Football Netball League Premier Division’s leading goalkicker tally, with 54 from his 17 appearances in Rowville brown and gold in 2023, 23 ahead of Maverick Taylor’s 31.
In the second semi-final against Vermont last weekend, a thrilling one-point win that secured direct qualification into another grand final for the precocious Hawks, Wynd’s bag of six goals helped his side push ahead during the middle periods of the game before holding on for the famous victory.
“I love the responsibility of taking the best defender,” Wynd said.
“Freeing up the other boys is good, the way that we play most of the time.
“We like to hit-up the short ones and that frees up the other boys.
“I find it a challenge playing on the best defender in the side.
“It makes me better and hopefully it makes the team better as well.”
Beginning the year with a bang, the 22-year-old’s summer of maturing and time on the track saw him slot 30 in his first six outings, holding up his end of the bargain as the Hawks made a stuttering start to the new campaign.
When he’s not towering over his opponent with his height and taking contested marks, the Hawks midfielders can find him darting around the forward 50 chest-out as a leading target, before showcasing his clinical set-shot approach.
Rubbing shoulders with fringe-AFL talent at VFL club Box Hill during the preseason, extra practice games compared to many of his contemporaries had him raring to go when he first took the field for the Hawks against Balwyn in round two.
“Last year I didn’t have the season I wanted and got injured,” Wynd said.
“I put my mind to having a big preseason, putting a bit of weight on, and working hard on my fitness.
“Then there’s the mental side; last year when you’re at a VFL club, you want to be playing VFL every week, and if you go back to local when you think you should be playing VFL, you get annoyed.
“That was me a little bit last year, so this year I’m trying to embrace wherever I’m playing, and play the best I can, put everything I can into every team I play for, don’t get angry if I don’t play VFL.
“Whatever team you play for, play your hardest.
“I’d say that being at VFL level, I probably played four practice games before I played round one.
“Having those four practice games and then playing intra-club, my body was pretty much ready to go before round one.”
In some ways, the 200-centimetre prospect was destined for success in Hawks’ stripes, with brown and gold pumping through the family bloodlines.
His father Stuart Wynd and grandfather Phil Wynd both played for Hawthorn, meaning there was no doubt in his decision to follow the Hawks, and was blessed with four premierships at AFL level during his teenage years.
A late bloomer of sorts, the heights of representative Coates Talent League (formerly NAB League) football eluded him as a teenager before hitting his stride in his early 20s.
But impressive performances at Box Hill saw him added to Hawthorn’s 20-player Covid-19 contingency list in 2022, placing him on standby for a potential call-up to the top level pending an outbreak at Waverley Park.
While the opportunity never arose, the time spent in the inner sanctum opened his eyes to the possibility and fanned the flames in his ambitions to take his footy as far as he can go, as his idols briefly became his peers.
“If you’re not trying to make it to the top level at the VFL, I don’t understand why you’d be there,” the apprentice electrician said.
“I didn’t know how training was before (training with the Hawks).
“I obviously wanted to make it and play AFL before, and then when I started training, it made it even better for me.
“Just being able to train and play the game you love everyday is pretty special.
“I remember the first time meeting Sam Mitchell I was pretty starstruck shaking his hand.
“Then the first few sessions, you’re talking to blokes I grew up watching win grand finals and admiring, like Luke Bruest, Jack Gunston, those blokes last year.
“I remember in the intra-club that we played, I kicked a goal from Luke Bruest, leading at him and he hit me lace-out, which was pretty cool.”
As the ultimate dream permeates in the periphery, the possibilities of the immediate future consumes Wynd, as history beckons for Rowville in Saturday’s grand final against Vermont at Bayswater Oval.
An eight-game winning streak since falling to the Eagles in early July, with a mix of blowouts and hard-fought grinds, has the Hawks firing on all cylinders, rested and confident after having the week off.
Lifting silverware would be Rowville’s first taste of success in the top flight of its respective football leagues, and after the heartbreak of last season’s conclusion, there’s no shortage of incentive.
“I think this year, we have talked about last year’s result and how it hurt and how we don’t want to feel like that again,” he said.
“Having those real close games where we just got over the line is going to put us in good stead, if its a grand final and it is a close game, I back myself and the rest of the team to know what we have to do, back the system and get us over the line.
“Personally, none of us boys have never won a flag together.
“It would mean the world to me and the club.
“If we win it this year, we’d absolutely love it and it would probably be the best day of our lives.”
