Marcus Walker is this week’s Hull FC Academy Player in Focus as we profile some of the Black & Whites’ future stars throughout pre-season, in association with academy partners G&J Staffing.
Thanks for sitting down with us Marcus. Can you start off by telling us how you first got involved with the academy?
I started off about three years ago – I was asked to go along to one of the development days when it was the City of Hull Academy. In 2018, I was asked to go on trial with the academy, which was great, and then I’ve had contracts for the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
Rewind just a bit more – where did you first start out as a rugby league player?
I went down to Beverley Braves when I was about four-years old I think. I fell in love with the game from there really and I played at Beverley for a good ten years. Then I moved to Heworth in York for two years and eventually I ended up here at the academy.
You live out in Pocklington and a few of your team mates are from York – does that show the measure of ground the academy covers in the area?
Yeah like you mention a couple of lads live right in the middle of York, which means they have a long way to come into training.
It’s good because we’ve got players from all over the place. You’ve got people from right out in York, some are from the main Hull areas, others live further out towards the coast and some come from the surrounding areas too, so it’s fair to say we cover quite a big area, which is great because you can source so many quality players.
Can you tell us a little bit more about yourself as a player?
I play halfback and I’d like to say I’ve got a decent pair of kicking feet on me!
It’s been quite a period of transition over the last few years, with the academy coming back underneath Hull FC’s roof as well as the formation of the Centre of Excellence. How have you found that?
It’s absolutely class because I’ve supported Hull since I was born! It has a really strong feel-good factor about it when you can represent the club in some way. I’m loving it and it’s going to feel brilliant being in Black & White!
The academy isn’t training at the moment, but can you give us a bit more insight into the day-to-day routine at the academy during normal times?
So we arrive at about 8:50 in the morning and we go straight into the hall, where we go straight into rolling and stretching, preparing for the morning session.
From about 9:30 we’re in the gym working for about on hour on building our physical strength, and then we move out onto the field.
We cover a lot out on the field. It might be a wrestling session, or sprints, skills, set plays etc etc.
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