WERE he not coached by Kevin Sheedy, Kevin Walsh could as easily have been a fleeting blip on football's landscape.

He might never have played much AFL football. He almost certainly would not have played in two premiership sides, played for Victoria three times and might never have won All-Australian selection.

Ungainly and unloved. He was a player only the coach seemed to love. And Sheedy loved him.

Sheedy made a career of adopting certain players and through sheer persistence, perhaps pigheadedness, furiously refused to be swayed. He appeared to enjoy the contrariness of his insistence that he had seen something that others had not.

Some, like Walsh, vindicated his faith. Others, did not. "It is pretty obvious he had a major influence on my career," Walsh said yesterday.

"A lot of people say I got a lot of opportunities that perhaps other players didn't … but at the same time it opened me up to criticism in that I wasn't as prepared as I might have been.

"I think to some extent if you were a coach and had backed a player who came through, it would be like backing a horse in the Melbourne Cup, wouldn't it?

"You would feel good about it and think you really picked someone there that perhaps other people couldn't see.

"I wasn't the sort of player that people liked. I wasn't pretty to look at and what I did was really just what people might refer to as the dour defender's role, just getting a hand in, spoiling a forward and having enough pace to keep up with the forwards but at the same time people would look and think, 'Well, goodness me, that bloke is a battler isn't he?'

"And then for somebody like me to play in premierships and play in state games as well, I was rapt certainly because I never expected it, but he must have been rapt too because he put those opportunities in my way, so full credit to him and I thank him for that and I was able to latch onto them."

Did he think his career would have achieved such success and longevity (162 games in 10 years) had he encountered another coach?

"That is a very distinct possibility, who knows?" Walsh mused. "You might have come across somebody who was looking for a polished all-around player and they would have cut me. "

Walsh was the most famous Sheedy pet project and possibly his greatest success. Another in a similar vein remains at Essendon now as an assistant coach. Dean Wallis was a player Sheedy found more in than others suspected was there.

A premiership medallion was again vindication for coach and player. It was, however, a selection that was not without its heartburn, for Derek Kickett who had played every game that year was dropped to make way for him. Kickett never forgave Sheedy for dropping him.

Sheedy also had a keen belief in resurrecting a talent he thought unfulfilled for one reason or another — normally an errant type prone to off-field distraction.

His desire to turn the lost soul Ty Zantuck into a player was ambitious, but failed.

THE CHOSEN FEW

Kevin Walsh: 1981-91, 162 games, 20 goals, premiership sides 1984, 85, Victoria 1985, 86, 87. All-Australian 1986

Dean Wallis: 1987-2001, 127 games, premiership side 2000

Ed Considine: 1986-92, 49 games, 12 goals

David Flood: 1986 - 94, 54 games, 36 goals

Chris Waterson: 1982-86, 31 games, 11 goals

Dean Bailey: 1986-89 & 1991-92, 53 games, 19 goals

Mark Bolton: 2000-07, 123 games, 48 goals

Aaron Henneman: 2000-06, 58 games, 5 goals