THIS season he has represented Queensland Country and kicked 100 goals.
On Saturday, he added to that, breaking the AFL Cairns goalkicking record for most majors kicked in a season.
But Matt Walsh’s 131-goal haul is not the icing on the cake.
Sure, the Saints full-forward recognised it as one of his more special achievements. But for it all to really matter, he wants a premiership, too.
The 32-year-old rewrote the record books at Griffiths Park on Saturday afternoon when he kicked his seventh goal, just shy of three quarter-time.
He marked strongly in the goal mouth and when his opponent hit the ground immediately after, Walsh played on and blasted the Sherrin through the big sticks with glee.
That gave him his 129th, one more than former Saint Ken Rainsford had managed during the 1999 AFL Cairns season.
His teammates converged and onlookers at the bar gave him a justified ovation.
Walsh finished with nine, as they blew aside fourth-placed Cutters 29.22 (196) to 6.3 (39).
South Cairns made sure he didn’t get there easily, defending with a physicality that left Walsh battered and bruised yesterday.
"I’m pretty sore; they brought me down hard a few times," he said.
"But that just made it sweeter, I think.
"Getting those individual accolades is nice, but it’s finals time now, and we want to win one (grand final)."
Walsh said he would have been happy with his efforts regardless of the final tally.
But the fact his teammates did not stop talking about the record mark all week had made him nervous.
"They kept saying, ‘No, you’ll be right; go for it, you’ll get there’," Walsh said. "It was more of a relief than anything, to get there after that." South Cairns president Lance Dixon publicly congratulated Walsh on his efforts post-game, while Souths’ players shook hands.
"That was really impressive – that’s what it’s all about," Walsh said.
The Cutters will feature in next weekend’s finals, where they meet Manunda Hawks in what will be an elimination battle.
To be any chance, they must improve on Saturday’s showing that was full of fight, but lacked polish.
Rarely did they link three clean possessions together, as Saints’ pressure proved too much.
"We applied it to them, made sure we had the numbers and are pretty happy with that performance," Walsh said.
"But we all agreed after the game that we could lift it another notch."
Saints will get their chance to prove that against Norths in a semi-final final on Saturday afternoon at Cazalys, where the winner has a direct path to the AFL Cairns grand final.
AFL Cairns – Finals, week 1:
1.00pm – 1st Semi Final: Manunda v South Cairns at Cazalys
3.30pm – 2nd Semi Final: Cairns Saints v North Cairns at Cazalys
Last Modified on 25/09/2012 14:35