\n Will Hayward joined the Summer Sessions podcast to chat about his first pre-season in Navy Blue.\n <\/p>\n
\n By Cristian Filippo, Carlton Media\n <\/p>\n
\u201cI LOVE the place.\u201d<\/p>\n
October was a stressful time, one that now seems like an absolute world away for Will Hayward.<\/p>\n
With February on the horizon, Hayward is on the cusp of pulling on the Navy Blue guernsey as a Carlton player for the first time\u2026 something which, had the cards fallen a little differently, could\u2019ve been the case 12 months ago.<\/p>\n
But now settled in Melbourne and bringing a new energy inside the four walls of IKON Park, Hayward can\u2019t wait for that opportunity, having been \u2018blown away\u2019 by his first months at Carlton.<\/p>\n
The events of last year\u2019s trade period have been oft-told, but for Hayward, he has fit like a glove after an off-season of change for both himself and his new club.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was always drawn to Carlton, if I was to play anywhere else. I told them [Carlton’s list management team] that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I was put up for trade anywhere else, I would\u2019ve said absolutely not. Luckily I landed here – everything happens for a reason. I\u2019m settled in and I love the place.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t wait to get out there and get into the fun stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the \u2018fun stuff\u2019 is around the corner in terms of games, Hayward has relished the chance to get to know not only his new teammates in training, but also immerse himself in the Carlton way of life amongst the passionate supporter base.<\/p>\n
His first interaction with a Blues fan – before even settling in Melbourne – said it all.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy fianc\u00e9 Vic and I were driving down from Sydney, car full. I got pulled over by a cop and breath-tested – obviously I was fine! – and then he just goes \u2018welcome to Carlton, mate\u2019. The cop!<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the first interaction, with a police officer. I was thinking that I\u2019m barely in Melbourne, but I certainly felt the love very early.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got informed about the fans here, but it wasn\u2019t real until that first open training session\u2026 the fanbase has embraced me, hopefully I can do them proud with what we do on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
He may have felt the love from the day he became a Blue, but that wasn\u2019t exactly the case on 2023 elimination final night, which was the most recent time the Swans played the Blues in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Safe to say, he\u2019s keen to be on the other side of that equation going forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never felt an away crowd intimidate a team like they did to us, that was crazy. When I got traded, I remember saying to Ollie \u2018remember that time we played them, and that crowd?\u2019. I almost felt like the stadium was going to fall over.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Will Hayward joined the Summer Sessions podcast to chat about his first pre-season in Navy Blue. By Cristian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-450683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}