Quiet achiever Ward rates Giants life membership his greatest achievement
As a young pup at the Western Bulldogs, Callan Ward watched in admiration as others received life memberships. He wondered what it would be like to receive such a prestigious honour.
He was not at Whitten Oval long enough to follow in the footsteps of his Bulldogs teammates. Instead, he carved a path of his own in football's final frontier in western Sydney for others to follow.
On Friday, on the eve of his 150th game, the man who was the club's first captain, kicked its first goal and won its first best and fairest became the inaugural Giants player to be inducted as a life member.
"It means a lot, I think it's my greatest achievement in life to be honest so far," Ward said.
It marks new ground for the Giants. The club's board only ratified 150 games as the mark for life membership on Friday morning. There is likely to be several more inductions in the next two years.
The presentation took Ward and many others at the club by surprise, as they had thought the fanfare at Greater Western Sydney's Sydney Olympic Park headquarters was to recognise the Giants reaching 25,000 members for the first time.
"I knew at the Dogs if you played 150 games it was life membership. So I said to [chairman] Tony [Shepherd] last week "what's the story, is it life membership when you get to 150?"" Ward said.
"He didn't know, because it hadn't been done.
"I remember a few of the guys who were inducted as life members at the Western Bulldogs and the speeches they made, I remember thinking if that was me one day I'd be so, so proud ... but now to do it at a club I've been at from the very first day is an achievement I'm very proud of."
If the Giants' first life member, Kevin Sheedy, is seen as the "father of the club", then Ward is their heart and soul. Shepherd said he typified what it meant to be a Giant.
When the critics circle the Giants, they often say the team with a raft of early draft picks lacks substance, only wants to play pretty football and does not roll up its sleeves to do the hard yards. That cannot be said of Ward, for whom discretion has never been the better part of valour.
"Head over the ball, never surrender, fight every inch of the way," Shepherd said.
Despite his uncompromising style, Ward has missed only five games since joining the league's newest club for its first season.
"He brings a smile to my face because he's hard at it, everyone knows," Giants coach Leon Cameron, who used to take a 17-year-old Ward for one-on-one sessions after school when the pair were at the Bulldogs, said.
"There were some clear comments in the past few months about Ward sitting in the bracket of [Joel] Selwood and [Luke] Hodge and those sort of players.
"He's a great captain of our club, along with Phil Davis, and he's grown every year.
"He was a reluctant captain early because he didn't know how he would handle it. Kevin Sheedy made a fantastic choice to put those two boys in, they've grown every year.
As Cameron noted, if Ward was at a Victorian club there would be more headlines praising his on-field deeds.
"But I don't think he wants it any other way. He's a quiet achiever," Cameron said.
"He would have been very humble today in receiving his life membership award at this footy club. That's universally why so many people love him.
"His footy does the talking."