Moments make their way into football folklore and with a career full of them, the country got to hear Bone’s great story told

With footy legend Chris McDermott’s story told recently at the Football Hall of Fame, Graham Cornes reflects on the joyous and turbulent moments from their past spent together.

There are moments, seemingly innocuous moments, that make their way into football folklore. Aside from the great goals (think Eddie Betts) the spectacular marks (Tony Modra) or the special passages of play (Tim Watson hurdling the pack), these moments would otherwise have gone unnoticed unless captured on film or in anecdote.

Who else would have remembered Nicky Winmar’s iconic moment defying racial vilification had it not been frozen in time by an alert photographer? The microphone captured Hawthorn coach John Kennedy roaring “Do something” at his Hawthorn team. It has since become a war-cry of sorts. The most famous football war-cry of the 20th century, “Up there Cazaly”, was passed down anecdotally, then immortalised in song.

SANFL Football – Glenelg vs Norwood match at Glenelg Oval, 16 Aug 1986. Glenelg's Chris McDermott ploughs through a sea of mud and a forest of legs. The photograph won "The Advertiser" staff photographer Stuart Hannagan first prize in the International Sports Photo Concours.

However, there were no cameras or microphones at Wirrina Cove Resort in February 1981 when Glenelg played out an internal trial game. Yet coach John Halbert’s words are destined to be immortalised in football folklore. “Young McDermott, if you do that, you’ll play for me every week.”

Chris McDermott, still only 17, had attacked a ball ferociously on the ground. In what would become trademark McDermott fashion, he had thrown himself desperately into the pack to win the ball. The coach noticed. Halbert, a coach who emphasised skill more so than aggression and intimidation saw it, and celebrated it.

I played in that game, but at centre half-back was otherwise pre-occupied with another 17-year-old, who was displaying some potential as well. I was about to turn 34 and Stephen Kernahan was proving to be one of the more difficult opponents that a defender could have. All the hype had been about Kernahan, the son of Glenelg great Harry. Tall and still growing, with vice-like hands and a fierce competitive spirit, there was much excitement about what he could bring to a Glenelg team that was overdue for another premiership.

Footballer/coach Graham Cornes (r) with Chris McDermott during Glenelg Tigers training 21 Sep 1988.

Kernahan was the standout of a talented group of youngsters who would debut for Glenelg in the early 1980s. Tony McGuinness, Tony Symonds, Chris Duthy, Jamie Mason, Gavan Walsh, Adam Garton and McDermott brought youth and excitement to Halbert’s team.

However, it was McDermott’s stellar career, built on that foundation of courage, a fearless attack on the ball and underpinned by a lesser-appreciated level of skill, that was finally acknowledged this week by his induction into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Kernahan and McDermott had been inseparable as kids and as different as they were, their careers mirrored each other’s, diverging when Kernahan inevitably went to Carlton but converging for those cherished State of Origin matches. Now they join each other again.

Of course the honour was long overdue but such is the exclusive nature of the Hall of Fame that even great players have to wait.

Who could deny McDermott’s record: 404 games, four best-and-fairests, two premierships, three All-Australians, Simpson Medal, Fos Williams Medal. And as the inaugural captain of the Crows he holds a special status in our state’s football history.

Since that first trial game at Wirrina, we’ve shared the football journey. As teammates for two years we were in the same team but inhabited a separate orbit. In football terms I was old, getting towards the end and he was part of that talented young group. They called themselves “The Magnificent Seven” but they would have given Dane Swan’s “Rat Pack” a run for its money in terms of off-field shenanigans.

Graham Cornes (r) with Chris McDermott holding Malcolm Blight Cup. Football – SA vs Vic state of origin match 1994.

Then as a coach, the coach/player relationship became a little more difficult. It didn’t start well. In January 1985 we had scheduled a trial game in Darwin and all the boys were desperate to go. However, Chris had a groin operation six weeks prior and despite his protestations that he was fit, I insisted he stay home to give the recovery process more time.

Then there was the Bay Disco incident. The Bay Disco! It was the place to go on a Sunday evening but sometimes the behaviour of the players was more than disruptive. One particular Sunday evening I was called out by an exasperated manager who was struggling to deal with a group of Glenelg footballers.

“Chris McDermott”, she replied when I asked who was the biggest culprit. Maybe it was the wrong thing to do to interfere, but as his new coach, I lived close by. Dropping in and inviting him outside to have a serious discussion about behaviour and future consequences seemed appropriate. However, the impression he left me with that night was one of resentment rather than appreciation.

Rocky start it may have been, but the journey took us along the paths to ultimate successes and inevitable disappointments. He led our state to great victories and national championships.

He was a key figure in the formation of the Adelaide Football Club. Trying to mould 10 different groups of players into a united team in a ridiculously short time would have been impossible had it not been for his leadership and the respect that the players had for him. They loved him.

Young players, Bickley, Hart, Rehn, Ricciuto who would later become greats of the club were inspired by his toughness and his leadership. In Mark Bickley you could see the traits that characterised Chris McDermott’s leadership. A dual premiership captain and himself a member of the Hall of Fame, he might have been a tradie playing out his football days at South Adelaide without McDermott’s influence.

But player/coach relationships are rarely without obstacles. After 10 years I lost him. In round 14 at Waverley Park in 1994, we trailed St Kilda by three goals at halftime. To that stage we had won six games and lost six. After the previous season, expectations were high that we would progress further into September but the season was slipping away.

An ill-advised halftime “blast” directed at the team’s two leaders, McDermott and McGuinness, may have awakened the team from its slumber (the match finished in a draw), but Chris’s angry eyes said it all.

Nine rounds and six losses later I was gone, that halftime bake not yet resolved. But time eventually heals. Now it’s just a low point in a football life’s ups and downs.

Two years later his time at Adelaide was brutally terminated. A new regime had made it clear that it didn’t have the same appreciation for his hands-and-knees desperation as John Halbert did.

Perhaps his best was behind him but in hindsight it was a disgraceful way to terminate a leader who had been so important in the establishment of a new team. He deserved a better exit.

Fortunately on Tuesday night his story, now enshrined in football folklore, was told. The football world saw his record and heard of the tragic circumstances that he had to overcome.

Unfortunately, time did not allow the telling of the great charity work he has performed with the Little Heroes Foundation and the millions of dollars raised in support of terminally ill children, but those who know, know.

Happily though, his family finally got to see and hear of his greatness, something his parents did not. How proud they would have been.