Amateur footy's reality check could bite AFL pretty boys
TAKE a second to picture what it would be like to have a Crows reserves team playing in the amateur league next year.
TAKE a second to picture what it would be like to have a Crows reserves team playing in the amateur league next year.
It's the middle of winter and 18-odd Crows players plus a dozen or so trainers, medical staff and physios are jammed in an away changeroom which isn't much bigger than your dining room. Normally the rubdown tables are set-up outside but it's pouring today so players are doing their best to take turns inside. Ian Callinan is basically sitting on Ben Rutten's lap in the corner. Both are wondering why they're putting their 30 year old bodies through this as they attempt to find a way back into the seniors. Squished in to another corner is the Crows third round draft pick. The young Victorian hasn't seen facilities like this since he was 12 years old and is already contemplating which club he'll push for a trade to when his rookie deal is up next year. Just before coach Peter Jonas is set to address his troops a horrible smell wafts in from the all-too-close-for-comfort toilet block. Someone has a case of pre-game nerves and it's inescapable. As they enter the field the players are greeted by a ground in reasonable nick given the weather. They feel a bit safer than last week's game at Goodwood - an oval surrounded by a cement drain which had anklebreaker written all over it. There's no elevated points to watch or film the game so the Crows have hired a crane to perch their camera guy from. The three-man Champion Data statistics team is having a nightmare trying to identify which players have the ball on the opposite side of the ground. With the Crows up by 20 goals in the final term the opposition can't help but get a little bit shirty. The SAAFL has eradicated a lot of its on-field violence in recent years, but copping regular hidings from this pretty boy Crows team is testing everyone's patience. The niggle is bad enough by the end of the game that Jonas decides to pile all his players in the team bus and get them straight back to West Lakes. Sharing the communal showers didn't seem like a great idea. ###