Sam Taylor Biography

Sam Taylor is facing a delayed start to the pre-season after undergoing a wrist reconstruction.

Sam Taylor's sensational season for Greater Western Sydney has been capped off with his first Kevin Sheedy Medal as the Giants' club champion for 2022 in a glitzy awards ceremony.

Two days after claiming his first All-Australian blazer, the star defender's career-best campaign was given further recognition as he romped away to claim the honour with 156 votes, some 48 votes clear of co-captain Stephen Coniglio in second place.

"We've always known he's an incredibly hard-working and skilful player, but what he’s been able to achieve this season is nothing short of remarkable, particularly given the amount of work our backline had to do," Giants General Manager of Football Jason McCartney said..

Sam Taylor says his childhood hero, Lance Franklin, gave him a tip on how to be a better defender when the two were matched up on the field.

"The tip was just making sure I get my body closer to his body, because there was one incident in the last quarter where he pushed me over," Taylor said.

"He was like 'Do you want a tip? Just make sure you get your body, your hips closer to mine which stops me from pushing you over, stops me from using my arms to push you'.

"I obviously thanked him for it, and he was like 'Yep, use that'."

Sam Taylor will undergo ankle surgery and miss the next eight rounds of the 2021 AFL season.

Unable to walk at times in 2020, Sam Taylor has made a courageous comeback in 2021, tackling some of the game's best forwards.

Taylor is relishing every contest this season, having lost 10 kilograms and the capacity to walk during the low point of his struggles with a painful and debilitating bacterial infection in his wrist, ankle, hip and back last year.

"I was told it's very, very rare to happen to such a young and healthy person. To also happen in different areas of my body, the doctors said they'd never seen it before," he said.

"The club was extra cautious. It took me a good six or seven months to get through it all - get the weight back on, turn my glutes back on. It was a crazy journey."

Sam Taylor is finally back to full health after overcoming an infection that left him hospitalised, on a drip, and barely able to walk for months.

"It happened so quickly. I went from playing an AFL game, winning, and the next day not being able to walk and move properly," Taylor said.

"It was definitely the hardest patch of my life. The process took some time. It's never happened in the AFL before, an illness like this. The physios and S&C (strength and conditioning) guys had no idea how to treat it.

"I've grown from it, learnt things, become a better person, a better athlete. It's amazing to run again. I got back to training in January and began on the track again, I'm running around on air, it'd been so long. Sometimes I wondered if I was ever going to get back."

Sam Taylor details his incredible and painful fight with septic arthritis, the symptoms of which began to manifest after the Giants beat Collingwood on a Friday night back in round four.

"The pain was so bad it woke me up, it was like this sharp, piercing sort of pain. It was sore to walk, sore to touch and I was just in a lot of pain and I couldn't get rid of it. I got up and I couldn't even walk it was so bad. So for the next few hours I just tried to stretch it out and it took ages but finally I got back to sleep," Taylor said.

Taylor's wrist started to ache just as much as his back. His ankle, which he had slightly rolled a few weeks earlier, swelled right up. He would start to feel a bit better, then everything would get worse than it had been. The pain was intense, and he just felt off. He was sent for some blood tests, and there were some initial fears that he may have developed an autoimmune illness, something Taylor did not like the sound of at all.

"I was freaking out when the specialist said that. I was really freaking out, I couldn't believe it," he said. "That would have been long-term, and I would have been taking medication every day. He thought my body was attacking itself and he said if that's what it was then I would have it my whole life. But this infection, as bad as it was, it will be gone forever once I get rid of it."

Sam Taylor signs a two-year contract extension with GWS to remain at the club until the end of 2022.

Taylor says he's thrived on the responsibility he's been given in the back 50 playing on the opposition's key forwards.

"That’s the great thing about our coaches, I love that they give me the chance to play on these types of guys, so I can develop my own game," he said.

"I take things from each guy I play on and I love that the club has that trust in me."

Jeremy Cameron says spending the pre-season matched up on Sam Taylor has helped his footy.

"The whole pre-season he played on me and I'm sick of it to be honest," Cameron said with a laugh.

"He might be on the back foot in a contest, but the way he wills himself to halve it or even win it is just amazing.

"For someone in their second year to be able to do that is awesome for the team, and we're lucky to have him in our side."

Sam Taylor signs a one-year extension with GWS to remain at the club until the end of 2020.

Sam Taylor makes his AFL debut for GWS at Adelaide Oval with 9 disposals (2 kicks and 7 handballs) and 3 tackles in a 16-point win over Adelaide.