Every Word Sam Darcy said on his Pre-Season, Where He'll Play in 2025, and Golf

Throughout the course of the day on 1116SEN, the network were celebrating Western Bulldogs Membership Day, with some of the club's biggest names joining the premier programs throughout the day as Round 1 draws ever near.

On The Run Home, hosts Andy Maher and Andrew Gaze were joined by Western Bulldogs young star Sam Darcy, who is looking to build on a career-best season in 2025.

Andy Maher: Samuel, good afternoon and welcome to the program

Sam Darcy: G’day Andy. G’day Gazey. Thanks for having me. Some big calls early.

AM: Well, Gazey came out 18 months ago, Sam, and said what he said about Nick Daicos, that he’s probably going to be the best player the game’s ever seen.

Andrew Gaze: The trajectory he was on, he was going to become if he stayed on that trajectory, and since then, there’s been nothing to suggest that that's not the case.

AM: Well let’s ask Sam whether he can see a universe in which that comes to pass. Sam, you have deep DNA in the competition in a very high level, in fact the highest level. Is there a world in which Nick Daicos could end up becoming the best player in the history of the game?

SD: Oh yeah, absolutely. I don’t see a reason why not. Like you said way his trajectory has been and his first three or four years in the system has been unbelievable. So you never 

AM: I’ll tell you why not, Sam. Because you’re playing at the same time as him, and you’re probably going to be better than him.

SD: Who knows? I’m not really worried about all that stuff. (I) Just keep doing what I do and competing on the field and try and help my team. I’m not thinking about anything like that.

AM: Love it. Love it.

AG: That’s true. What about with the trajectory you’re on? It seems like from an outsider looking in that you did your time and things are starting to come together for you. Your performances last year were just superb, and the stuff we’ve seen pre-season would suggest that it’s only going to get better. Have you been pretty happy? Have you self-assessed how things have panned out for you?

SD: Yeah, I think just every year you want to keep levelling up and keep trending in the right direction, and with great coaches and great player around me to help me with my development and yeah, like you said with a taste of more AFL footy last year, you get more and more confidence the more games you play and hopefully this year I can have a bit more of an impact.

AG: I was just curious to see where the balance of what you’re doing. Andy and I were talking about how much time you might spend on the ball because your work up front of goals, the marking ability all that’s there, but are you expecting more diversification in your role as well?”

SD: Yeah, I do. I do enjoy going on ball and playing in the ruck. I really like keep developing that aspect of my game and I have been working on that over the summer so yeah wouldn’t be surprised if I’m in there every now and then throughout the season.

AM: Sam, the whole 360 degrees is something that young players are forever working on, but is there something you’ve identified in your own game that you would really like to focus on or are focusing on going into 2025?

SD: A big emphasis over summer has been that conditioning and getting stronger and being able to run out four quarters at a higher level, I think that’s a big thing when you first come into the AFL is to get your bodies right to be able to compete for four quarters at a high level, so I’ve put a big emphasis on that and continue to develop my ruck craft and my body craft to deal with key defenders. So I think all of that stuff has been a big focus so yeah all the defensive side of the game, the running and chasing as a tall player is something I want to keep developing so, yeah I’ve had lots of different focuses going into the year.

AM: So you talk about your conditioning. I mean you carry no extra condition whatsoever. We live in an age now where we don’t know the player’s weights for all of the obvious reasons that have been stated by the PA and all the rest have got a view on that. But have you put on substantial weight from a strength perspective between ‘24 and ‘25?

SD: Not a substantial amount. I think around that post-season after the year finished I put on probably 2-3kgs, and then obviously (I) come back into the full swing of pre-season it can be hard to put on weight because we are doing so much running and conditioning and burn so many calories. But what you find during the season is that it can be a good time to keep putting on weight as well, certainly I’ll try and maximise that once the running loads go down, you’re mainly just getting up for games, but yeah I think it’s trending in the right direction my body mass, but yeah it’s still a big focus on mine.

AM: Do you feel much stronger?

SD: Yeah, I do./ I think if you get a gauge competing against the really great defenders at our club and you hold your own in contests, yeah I do feel that I’m getting stronger for sure.

AM: And how much of the running do you do? Do you do all of the running? Are their groups within the team that over the pre-season where, ‘Oh, you big blokes you go and do that while the midfielders you sort of do a bit of it’? Or is it all in? You have to all do the same component as one another?

SD: It’s pretty similar. It’s pretty much all-in, but there is different specificities for different players like the forwards and the mids have different conditioning blocks. We go into lines and do more individual stuff but for the most part we’re punching out similar k’s on the track.

AG: And what about Saturday night? You’re up against North. A lot of expectation or more expectation around what they’re going to bring to the table, but you’re facing them with some very key players that won’t be there for your first game of the season. Do you get a sense that you’re sort of patching things up at the start of the season to try and cover some of the very significant outs that you’ve got?

SD: Yeah like you said it’s disappointing seeing any member of your team go down with injury but I think over the course of the summer there’s been a ‘one man down, next man up’ kind of mentality so we’ve got plenty of people who are more than capable of playing the roles of guys who have gone down injured, and I think we’ve got a few who potentially come back as well for Round 1, which is exciting. But I think we’ve got an enormous amount of confidence in whoever we put on the field that we can have an impact against any team.

AM: Western Bulldogs Membership Day one of the young stars of the competition Sam Darcy joining us on the show. What fills up your time, obviously playing footy takes up a lot of time, but have you got time to be doing stuff outside of footy?

SD: Yeah, for sure. I try to have a good balance on and off the field. I’m actually on the golf course now, I think we famously got a hole-in-one at Mt Derrimut having a little afternoon hit. I love going down to the beach, hanging out with mates on days off so yeah I like to get away from footy when the time’s right.

AM: Sam, would you like to talk about that hole-in-one?

AG: No, everyone’s seen it, Andy. How are you striking it? What time of handicap are you operating with?

SD: Floating around the 12 region. Haven’t hit them too well to start today.

AM: Well we won’t hold you up for too much longer, because I know what it’s like when there’s a bloke on the golf course and the group are waiting for him to play. I did actually play - this is not to big-note myself or anything - but I did play a game of golf against your old man (Luke Darcy) in Dehli of all places. He’s got a strong connection with the bloke who owns the Dehli Daredevils or Kalcutta Knightriders or someone. And he owns a golf course and, back in 2010 at the Commonwealth Games he said “Luke, if you’d like to bring a couple of mates along…your old man? No good, in fact awful player, Sam, and a shocking temperament on the golf course. I have never seen, your old man was throwing golf clubs all over the joint, Sam.

SD: Yeah, I’ve definitely seen that first-hand. He’s committed since he’s finished up radio and commentary gigs, he’s committed to going to the range and applying himself to his golf now, but he’s got a long way to go for sure with his temperament and hopefully he hasn’t passed that down too much to me.

AM: Well, has he? Are you a clutch chucker or are you pretty good at that sort of thing?

SD: It occasionally gets the better of me, the golf. But we’re working on it.

AM: Sam you need to be better than that, young man. You need to be better than that.

AG: Well maybe, am I right in saying I heard he had a wellness facility in Bali?

AM: One of the greatest, apparently

AG: Wow! Have you experienced the services that they provide?

SD: I have, yeah. Just before we came back for pre-season I went up there flying solo which was really nice, and great facilities in Bali. Great food and massage treatment, yeah, a luxury to go up there, for sure.

AM: A little bit sort of “White Lotus”-type arrangement? Well that’s in Thailand which isn’t Indonesia, but have you been watching the latest White Lotus?

SD: No, I’m not across the White Lotus. What’s that all about?

AM: It’s a hotel in different settings around the world, and the latest operation is a bit like Luke’s family’s operation but in Thailand, not Bali, but Sam you can do all that sort of stuff, a bit of Zen stuff, and breathing, and bit of yoga all that sort of stuff.

SD: Beautiful

AG: Well, hit them straight, and hit them long

AM: Who are you playing with?

SD: Lachie McNeil. He’s got me covered at the moment but hopefully I can make a charge here in the last couple of holes.

AM: Ok, sink a few putts mate. And kick them long and straight.

AG: Are you in the comp today?

SD: Nah, we rocked up too late so they wouldn’t let us in. But that's alright

AM: Whose the best golfer at the footy club

SD: I think big Tim English played two or three and Bailey Dale’s up there as well, so there’s a good crew at the club who love their golf, which is awesome.

AM: Sam, good luck, we wish you all the very best, mate. We love watching you play your footy and we wish all the very best for 2025. Thanks for coming

SD: Nah, I really appreciate it guys. Thanks for having me.