Australian Football Players Surprise Water Boy With Down Syndrome
Sam Moorfoot is a 29-year-old man living with Down Syndrome. He is also the head water boy for the Geelong Football Club from Victoria, Australia.
The team is also known as the Cats. Sam loves his team, and recently, he had a wonderful experience when he was picked out of the crowd while at the AFL grand final day and was brought up to join the team.
According to The Courier, the Geelong Cats recently went up against the Sydney Swans and ended up winning the cup in the AFL Grand Final. For those who don’t know, the AFL Grand Final is like their version of the Super Bowl. It was a big moment – especially since they had won!
And after the fame, the captain of the Cats, Joel Selwood, saw Sam in the stands and asked him to come out and join the team on the field of the Melbourne Criket Ground in order to be a part of the celebrations.
According to The Courier, Sam said to the AAP, “I’m very proud of my boys to win a premiership. Joel said he wanted to get me on the ground. That was the moment of my life, what an honor.”
It was a huge moment for Sam as well, since he’d been a lifelong fan of Geelong, and had been the club’s head water boy since 2015.
34-year-old Joel has been the AFL’s inaugural Disability Inclusion ambassador since last year. Earlier before the match, Joel ran through the team’s banner accompanied by 3-year-old Levi Ablett – the son of former teammate and a legendary Geelong player, Gary Ablett Jr. Levi is living with a rare, degenerative disease. The AFL shared a video of “Sammy’s moment” below:
Sammy’s moment 🥹#AFLGF pic.twitter.com/OK4GhdJQHV
— AFL (@AFL) September 24, 2022
Recently, Joel announced that he would be retiring. But he’ll be leaving behind quite the legacy, being the only Cat in history with four premierships. The coach for the Geelong team, Chris Scott, spent 12 years coaching Joel, and described the midfielder as “irreplaceable” – both on and off the field.
According to The Guardian, Chris said of Joel, “The thing that continually struck me about Joel was his ability to care for others and prioritize others. When you take everything into consideration, he’s the best player I’ve ever seen and the best representative of the Geelong footy club that you could possibly imagine.”
Check out the video below:
