It’s a dusty road to football’s hallowed turf for some of Adelaide and Port Adelaide’s biggest names
AS SOME of Adelaide and Port Adelaide’s biggest names prepare for AFL finals under bright lights in sold-out stadiums, they haven’t forgotten where they came from — SA’s country towns.
AS THE Crows and Power prepare for the AFL finals in front of sold-out stadiums in capital cities next month, country footy clubs across the state are preparing for their own tilt at the holy grail in towns where you can still park your car around the oval and the kid running the scoreboard is paid a bucket of chips.
But while some of Adelaide and Port Adelaide’s biggest names now look right at home under the bright lights of Adelaide Oval and the MCG, they also had very humble beginnings and haven’t forgotten where they came from.
TAYLOR WALKER
Adelaide captain
Town: Broken Hill, NSW
Current population: 20,000
Team: North Broken Hill Bulldogs, Broken Hill Football League
Last A Grade premiership: 2016
“We think we have a really strong junior program which leads to good senior player retention and last year we had three players drafted. We still see Taylor every time he comes home and he runs a training session for us.” - President Justin Hoskins.
WHEN Taylor Walker finally got home sometime after leading North Broken Hill to the 2007 premiership he asked his mum if he could go with his teammates to get a tattoo to celebrate.
He’d probably earnt one to be honest. What other 17-year-old kicks six goals in the semi-final then seven in the grand final and walks off with two medals – one for the premiership and the other for best-on-ground?
“I remember I went home once we’d finished our celebrations and I said to Mum ‘can I get a tattoo?’” Walker recalls.
“And she said ‘no you can’t’, so I rang Dad and said ‘can I get a tattoo’ and he said ‘yeah it’s something I wish I did when I won a flag’.
“So I said ‘seeya’ and went out and got one on my ankle with a mate.”
The tattoo on Walker’s ankle represents the only senior premiership he has ever won in his career and is a constant reminder of why he plays the game.
“It’s my most favourite memory. You get to play with your best mates on the big day and I haven’t won a flag since,” he said.
The youngest captain in Adelaide Football Club’s history, Walker’s journey started in the NSW mining town where as a kid every weekend in winter was spent at the local footy.
“I was North Broken Hill through and through,” Walker said. “Me and my brother started playing when we were four and my earliest memory would be wearing my footy boots until they were like runners, till they had no studs anymore.
“We were footy all the time because Dad and Pa played it. My Pop played for South, Dad played for Central and then made his way over to North as a player-coach and obviously me and my brother played at North.”
Every Saturday was the same. They’d get there early and sit through the thirds, reserves and seniors then play juniors on a Sunday.
“They were great days, we wouldn’t ever want to get out of our footy gear, we’d watch reserves, watch seniors, go into the rooms,” he says. “My brother is back there and he’s got a couple of little boys now so I love getting back, it just brings you right down to earth and you can fit straight into the community because it’s so united and tight-knit.”
Walker played his first senior game with North Broken Hill at 15 and the following year was signed by the Crows on a scholarship while he was living and playing at home.
“I remember my first goal (in senior footy) – one of my brother’s mates kicked it to me and he lives here (in Adelaide) now and every time I see him he reminds me of the goal assist he gave me. He got my career started he reckons.”
KEN HINKLEY
Port Adelaide coach
Town: Camperdown
Current population: 3000
Team: Camperdown Magpies, Hampden Football League
Last A Grade premiership: 2000
“Kenny coached our last premiership in 2000, he coached the club to back-to-back flags in 1999 and 2000 and we haven’t won one since. On field we’re not setting the world on fire but off the field we’re kicking goals and the support we get from the town and our sponsors is bloody sensational.” - President Kevin Russell.
KEN Hinkley played 132 VFL/AFL games, won a best-and-fairest at Geelong, was an All-Australian, finished third in the Brownlow Medal and is now into his fifth year as Port Adelaide coach.
But all he ever wanted to do growing up was play senior footy for Camperdown.
“For me it wasn’t about trying to play VFL football, I just wanted to play football for Camperdown – that was the biggest thing in my life,” Hinkley said.
“I played my first year of senior footy at 16 and played under a coach, Alan Woodman, who played for Geelong.
“In my first year we were quite young, we had a lot of under-18 kids in a senior team against men in the days when it was a bit rough and tough and you got done what you had to get done.
“I think you always have memories of playing for your local team – when you’re growing up that’s the big thing.”
Hinkley was one of five boys at home with two older and two younger brothers either side of him which made for a pretty competitive childhood.
“I would have been a five or six year-old little fella running around.
“It was freezing cold sometimes. Camperdown is a little spot at the foot of Mount Leura (in southwest Victoria) and it was an active volcano many, many years ago and the cold and wind is typical of the western districts – it could be very cold or very hot.
“We had a strong under-14 type program where we’d go and play on a Saturday morning. Country communities when I was little we had cricket and tennis in summer and footy in winter and everyone was a part of it.
“I was a skinny, lean, tiny little fella and probably lucky I had four brothers and you got used to being in a bit of a contest all the time so it wasn’t so much of a drama.
“That’s where it all started.”
After retiring from AFL in 1995, Hinkley returned to Camperdown in 1999 where he started his coaching journey with back-to-back flags, the first as a playing-coach.
And even now as a senior AFL coach with the Power, he still has an affinity with the town where his parents sharefarmed for about six years when he was a kid.
“I always check on them (Camperdown), still to today you have contact with people – me and my wife’s family are still there or not far from Camperdown.
“You always have a great connection to your community and that’s the wonderful thing about it, you go back and it’s still there.
“There are blokes there that have kids playing in the senior team who I played senior football with, so you see the generations continue.
“Albeit they’re shrinking because they were bigger communities back then, there was more farming going on and now unfortunately the farm sizes have got bigger and the numbers have got smaller.
“There are bigger properties and less people, the dairy farms went from being 100-cow dairy farms to now 300 and 400 cows or 800 (cow) farms.”
MARK RICCIUTO
Adelaide board member, club legend
Town: Waikerie, SA
Current population: 4000
Team: Waikerie Magpies, Riverland Football League
Last A Grade premiership: 2016
“There are only two players in our A Grade side at the moment who haven’t played junior footy at the club, which is a pretty good stat, and we have a lot of lads who have moved away for work and university but are coming back to play. So we’re in good shape.” - President Henry Crawford.
AS A kid watching the senior footy, it didn’t take Mark Ricciuto and his mates long to work out at which end of Waikerie Oval they should stand.
“If someone kicked a big goal at the river end the ball would end up going in the river, so we’d catch a ferry across the other side to get the new Sherrins – and not all of them went back,” he said.
Ricciuto grew up on a fruit property in the Riverland where the driveway was the border between Waikerie and Ramco. The house was in Waikerie and the shed in Ramco.
His dad played for Waikerie and “Roo” was just 15 when he played his first senior game for the Magpies.
“I played everywhere, started in the forward pocket, the middle, full back, on the ball, I tagged (current Crow) Jono Beech’s old man (Mick) one game when he was playing for Barmera,” Ricciuto said.
“My old man used to coach in the under-10s, I used to play there and go to Ramco some weeks in the mini-league.
“I also used to be a boundary umpire for the seniors or do the scoreboard and used to get a pastie and a can of Coke.
“I’d be at the footy all day and go around the ground collecting bottles to buy something at the canteen, the same as all country kids used to do.”
Ricciuto, a Brownlow Medallist, captain and premiership player with Adelaide, is also one of the greatest players in the game’s history.
And he bookended his career with premierships at Waikerie. Firstly as a 16-year-old in 1991 and then as a 33-year-old in 2008, which was the club’s centenary year.
Before his AFL career started he joined West Adelaide in 1992 while still living in Waikerie and like a lot of country kids, clocked up thousands of kilometres in the car every week.
“We did 52, 400km round trips in one footy season. I was very lucky my parents were willing to sacrifice a lot of time and energy for me,” Ricciuto said.
“Kerls (Neil Kerley) was coach that year so it was a pretty good experience to play under Kerls.”
Ricciuto’s family still lives in Waikerie and he gets back there whenever he can.
“I always check the Sunday Mail for their results every week,” he said.
“I can’t say they are the best country footy club in South Australia but if it’s not the best then it would be one of.
“Its culture, it has a beautiful oval and their success rate from 1991 to now has been amazing.”
JACK HOMBSCH
Port Adelaide defender
Town: Roxby Downs
Current population: 3500
Team: Roxby Districts Miners, Far North Football League
Last A Grade premiership: 2016
“We’re going for five (flags) in a row this year and we’ve had the ability to keep a young side together for a few years. We’ve got a pretty good base of young blokes who live and work up here. We’re probably the only club in South Australia who don’t pay players, it’s just been a rule here and it’s stayed so it’s good.” - President Mark Telfer.
GROWING up playing junior footy in Roxby Downs you were either a Bulldog or a Hawk and Jack Hombsch was sometimes both.
“We were a medium-sized country town but we only had two teams in junior footy, so we played each other every week, 18 times then the grand final,” Hombsch said.
“So you made the ‘granny’ every year and it was good fun.
“At the start of the year, we’d have two captains who’d pick their team and if one team won by 80 points you’d swap some players over.
“I’d play in the morning then do a bit of boundary umpiring in the seniors for a bit of pocket money, so I’d be there all day and have a couple of hot dogs and pies at the canteen.”
Roxby Downs didn’t have a hospital so Hombsch was born in Port Augusta but lived in Roxby until he was 15 when he went to boarding school at Rostrevor in Adelaide.
But he got his start in the mining town 560km north of the place he now calls home.
“My brother and I and all my mates we loved it, we played all our sport,” he said.
“The grounds were pretty good because it was a mining town and the mine pumped a bit of money into the council.
“We trained once a week but I went down to the oval with my mates most nights after school anyway and kicked goals.”
Hombsch never played senior footy but trained with Olympic Dam, which was where his dad played cricket,
“I was only 15 when I left and I was a very skinny kid as well so I think mum and dad were a bit worried about me playing seniors,” he said.
Hombsch didn’t take footy too seriously until one night when Sturt’s football manager Duane Massey – now a recruiter at West Coast – spotted him at training.
“He got me to Sturt and did a lot for me early days, I owe him a lot,” Hombsch said.
“When I was in Year 8 and was just turning 14 he came to town for a clinic and Roxby was a bit of a dead zone because we didn’t have an affiliation with any SANFL club.
“That night he called my dad and said ‘Would Jack be interested in playing for Sturt in the country cup?’ I didn’t even know it existed but said ‘Yep’ and then when I went to boarding school I kept playing for Sturt and it started there.
“At that point I hated the extra training stuff and it wasn’t until I got picked in the AIS when I got fitness and gym programs because I’d never done any of that, but I dived head-first into it and didn’t mind it.”
Hombsch was eventually drafted by GWS where he played nine AFL games before being traded home to Port Adelaide in 2013.
SAM JACOBS
Adelaide ruckman
Town: Ardrossan, SA
Current population: 2500
Team: Ardrossan Kangaroos, Yorke Peninsula Football League
Last A Grade premiership: 2004
“Even as a senior colt Sam was very tall, very unorthodox though, but we are very proud of what he’s gone on to do and he always keeps in touch with us which is good. Absolutely he’d be welcome back.” – B Grade coach Dwayne Werfel.
SAM Jacobs started his football career at Ardrossan on the Yorke Peninsula and that’s where he will finish it.
The Crows ruckman is now one of the game’s biggest stars but remains a personal sponsor of his country footy club and has vowed to see out his playing days there when he’s done in the city.
“I’m definitely keen to go back there when I’m finished (in the AFL), no doubt, I’ve still got a few years left in me yet, but as soon as I’m done I’ll definitely go back and finish my career there,” Jacobs said.
“Mum and Dad and my brother are still back there, he (my brother) is heavily involved in the A and B Grade and still playing.
“I try to get back there when I can, I’m still a sponsor of the club and try to give back. I feel like they gave me so much and a real opportunity growing up, the most kick I get out of it is there are so many people who do so much for the club, hopefully they get a good feeling about me going on to play AFL.”
The Yorke Peninsula has long been a successful breeding ground for AFL footballers and Jacobs played against the likes of Bernie Vince, Jay Schulz and Scott McMahon growing up.
Jacobs started in the under-8s at Ardrossan and played through until under-15s before he moved to Woodville-West Torrens en route to Carlton and then Adelaide in the big league.
He played one senior game for Ardrossan, when he was 16 in 2004 which was the year of the club’s last premiership.
“It was against Moonta and I rucked against a guy called Brad Smith who used to play for Collingwood,” Jacobs recalls.
“And to me he was massive back in the day.
“My older brother played footy there and I guess the footy club is always the biggest part of the town, it’s what everyone does for 16 weeks every Saturday and you grow up with a footy club you spend so much time there in winter.
“I was always pretty active at the club, I used to run the boundary and did the scoreboard for the A Grade, that was my thing every Saturday. Obviously I’m a bit of a footy head so I was alright at it.
“Growing up the A Graders were the kings of the town so as a young fella I always looked up to them.”
MICHAEL VOSS
Port Adelaide assistant coach
Town: Orbost, Vic
Current population: 2500
Team: Orbost-Snowy Rovers (merged in 2003), East Gippsland Football League
Last A Grade premiership: 1999
“The Voss family is very well respected back here, in fact his dad, Garry, is coming back this year for the 50-year reunion of the 1967 premiership side. We’re going OK now, we had a bit of a lean patch for six or seven years, but last year started to come good and hopefully we’ll play finals this year.” – President Royston Nettleton.
MICHAEL Voss’ weekends were pretty set as a kid in Orbost.
Church on Sunday morning, play footy in the arvo and Saturdays were spent watching the big boys from the sidelines.
“My earliest memories are going to training with my dad who was coaching, hanging out in the sheds, present the awards, steal the lollies and sleep on the massage table,” Voss said.
“I boundary umpired a few games, got a couple of lollies and a packet of PK chewies for my trouble and that was my Saturday done. So I was pretty happy
“Then we’d go to church on Sunday morning and play junior footy after that – that was pretty much our Sundays.”
During the 1980s when Voss was growing up, the town in country Victoria was divided by two teams – Orbost and Snowy Rovers.
“They would play against each other and you wouldn’t walk on the same side of the street,” Voss recalls.
“If there were 3500 people in the town there’d be 3800 people at the game.”
Voss’ father coached Snowy Rovers for a while, but Voss ended up playing for Orbost.
“That was seen as being a bit of a traitor from what I can tell from the stories, but they managed to get a team going and the rivalry started.
“Sadly they’ve had to merge based on numbers, but I have some really healthy memories, the town was divided by the top pub and the bottom pub.”
And yes, Voss found himself in the pub at times as a youngster.
“We were always there, mate, Dad would give me a couple of dollars to buy a packet of Samboy chips and sit in the corner and be quiet and play the pinball machine,” he said.
“That was just small country towns, community based, everyone knows everyone’s business and that’s the way we operated.
“So even though they’re not all family, they feel like family in some ways when you’re involved in a football club in the country.”
Voss never played senior footy at Orbost with his family moving to Queensland when he was in his early teens, but he has fond memories of his junior days.
“We only had under-10s and under-15s, but when you’re six you’re playing under-10s and if you’re half-decent at 10 then you’re playing under-15s,” he said.
Not surprisingly Voss, who went on to become a three-time AFL premiership captain and Brownlow Medallist at Brisbane, often played above his age group as a kid.
“And I was up against it when it came to playing footy because you were challenged a bit with size and height,” he laughed.
RILEY KNIGHT
Adelaide midfielder
Town: Clare, SA
Current population: 3200
Team: South Clare Demons, North Eastern Football League
Last A Grade premiership: 2005
“We’ve had a lot of juniors transition into senior football this season, which holds the club in a strong position. We’re hoping to be playing finals footy in A Grade... (we’re) currently third on the ladder and the B Grade are second and we’ve got good junior numbers as well.” – Football director Matt Dare.
EARLY winter mornings can get pretty cold in Clare, but even as a skinny little kid kicking the morning dew off the grass, Riley Knight didn’t wear a long-sleeved guernsey.
“The old dew kickers we would have been playing in 4-5 degrees some mornings, there were a few times there was still ice on the top deck but that’s all part of footy in the mid-north,” Knight said.
“It’s funny now, going back you see the mini-colts running out and they’re that excited to be out there they don’t even realise how cold it is.
“I was a skinny little runt at 15 and playing against men was a bit intimidating but that’s just what we did, play senior colts in the morning and B Grade or A Grade in the afternoon.”
Knight played all his junior footy at South Clare before he was recruited by Woodville-West Torrens in the SANFL and would make two or three round trips to Adelaide every week.
He always had a hunger to improve. At just 14, as well as tacking on the end of senior training he would often run home afterwards.
“We lived about 6km out of Clare and I used to run in, train then run home, so it was a good little top up for the fitness,” he said.
“I started doing that when I was about 13 or 14, I loved running as a kid and found it really peaceful so it was a good way to do it.”
Clare is another town with split football allegiances, where you’re either North or South.
“It’s good to have a rivalry like that in a small country town and it’s a big day when the derby is on,” Knight said.
“A lot of the crowd comes over and watches and the same goes with the netball, it’s really strong as well.”
JAKE NEADE
Port Adelaide forward
Town: Elliott, NT
Current population: 350
Team: Elliott Hawks, Barkly and District Football League
Last A Grade premiership: 2005
JAKE Neade was only three when he picked up a footy for the first time but to play the game he and his family faced a four-hour round trip in the car.
Neade started out watching his dad play A Grade for the Elliott Hawks in the Barkly AFL where games were 250km south of their home at Tennant Creek.
“My dad played footy, so I tried to follow him,” Neade said.
“He was a midfielder and I remember travelling up most weekends until I was about 13.
“You had to be a certain age before you could play footy and I had to wait until I was 13 when I played my first junior game for Elliott.
“I think we just did it for enjoyment and we had that rivalry between the country teams and town teams.”
There are seven teams in the competition and Neade won a junior flag before he left for boarding school in Ballarat. But his proudest moment was playing one senior game for Elliott before he was drafted to Port Adelaide in 2012.
“That’s something I’ll treasure because I always wanted to play for Elliott Hawks,” he said.
“Obviously my footy went a bit further than my local comp back home, but I was just happy to at least get one game in before I left to come down and play for Port.
“I try to get back there for my Christmas/New Year’s break, usually once or twice a year.
“There’s heaps and heaps and heaps of talent out in the communities, people who can kick the footy and play the game, but they just don’t get the opportunity or go down the wrong path.”
When Neade played for Elliott his entire team was Indigenous except for one player.
“He was the teacher at the time and we don’t judge anyone by their colour, if they can play footy and want to come down and play we’re more than happy to give them a chance,” he said.
He said the oval at Tennant Creek would get pretty cut up after a round of footy and some players would go barefoot.
“The ground would be ruined afterwards but still pretty green, the boys were happy to play on anything just to have a kick,” he said.
“Early days, we weren’t wearing boots and there are still some back home who don’t wear them, but the majority now do play with boots because most of the boys get their feet stepped on.”
Neade, who stands just 171cm, said he learnt to punch above his weight from an early age growing up playing footy in the bush.
“I was probably about the same size as most of the kids in my age bracket at 13, but everyone else just shot up,” he said.
“It wasn’t until I was about 15 when I started taking footy seriously, when I was back home it was more to have a kick with my brothers and my mates.
“But once I moved away to go to boarding school it got serious and I started knuckling down with my footy and school work.”