Big boost for Aldinga Sharks as Brownlow Medallist Shane Crawford joins the team
HAWTHORN champion Shane Crawford might be about to take on his biggest football challenge – the Aldinga Sharks.
HE’S walked from Adelaide to Melbourne, cycled across the Nullarbor and won a Brownlow Medal but Shane Crawford might be about to take on his biggest challenge – the Aldinga Sharks.
The 39-year-old will play his first game since winning the 2008 AFL premiership with Hawthorn when he takes the field for the embattled Sharks against O’Sullivan Beach-Lonsdale, on May 24, at Aldinga.
SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE STORIES
In a coup for the southern beach town, Crawford plans to bring the entire Channel 9 Footy Show cast with him.
“Sam (Newman) will sing the national anthem, Billy (Brownless) is going to lead the cheersquad and Garry (Lyon) will put his hand up to help coach,’’ Crawford says.
“When I mentioned that I was going to do this the whole Footy Show was right behind it.
“We really are planning to bring everyone and get involved in community footy and try to help the club, whether it be raising money, or just creating a bit more interest.”
The Sharks made national headlines this month after losing their opening three Southern Football League matches by a total of more than 700 points, prompting The Advertiser’s Spark the Sharks campaign.
Crawford’s is the latest in a series of high-profile goodwill gestures and follows Port Adelaide’s proposal to have the Sharks and amateur league battler Kilburn play an AFL curtain-raiser to a Power game this season.
Former Crows, Glenelg and SA coach Graham Cornes took Sharks training on Thursday night and ex-Crow Ken McGregor will give the side a pre-game rev-up before Saturday’s match against Marion.
Crawford, a four-time all-Australian and renowned fitness fanatic, has given himself a month to prepare.
He came up with the idea himself after learning of Aldinga’s plight.
“Maybe it’s stupidity,’’ he says.
“But I saw the story and I said ‘surely we can help these guys in some way’.
“The more I thought about it I thought ‘maybe I could have a run around with them’.
“Hopefully we might be able to get down there on a Thursday and have a bit of a training run and then play on the weekend …
“I’m definitely not football fit, so that will be my challenge over the next few weeks is to get out there and have a run … I want to respect the competition and make sure that I can get a kick.”
The match may be the Sharks’ best chance to get a win this year with opponents the Lions also struggling.
Aldinga president Danny Wilde said the whole town was buzzing with news of Crawford’s appearance.
“It’s terrific by the Footy Show and Shane,’’ he said.
“It is going to get boys on the track and give us a huge boost.”
RALLYING TEAM GETS READY TO DO THE HARD YARDS
By JAI BEDNALL
THE grass has been cut and the team picked – now it’s time for the Aldinga Sharks to make a stand.
The embattled footy club from Adelaide’s south will attempt to turn its flagging fortunes around in Saturday’s home game against Marion.
And signs are positive the Sharks – who have been the focus of unprecedented media coverage since losing their first three matches by a combined margin of 711 points – will lift their game.
President Danny Wilde said excitement levels at the club were at fever pitch after inaugural Crows coach Graham Cornes took training on Thursday night as part of The Advertiser’s Spark the Sharks campaign.
“The tempo was really good and we had great numbers out,” Wilde said.
“There were about 40 on the track which is double what we normally have.”
The return of several players also has the Sharks line-up looking far more potent.
“It would be our best side for the year,” Wilde said.
“I would like to think it’s going to be a very competitive game and there’s always a chance we could win.”
The returning players include Tyler Harman, who was the leading goalkicker at the 2012 SA Country Football Championships.
The A grade game will be the showpiece of a fun-filled family day at Aldinga Oval, which will also see free footy showbags and a barbecue for fans.
Sharks co-captain Daniel Dempsey said it was an opportunity for his team to rally.
SHARKS BOAST A RICH HISTORY
By MATT TURNER
THE Aldinga Sharks have been easybeats in recent seasons yet the club has a rich history filled with premierships and colourful characters.
Aldinga was one of the Southern Football Association’s four founding clubs and won seven flags in eight years, including a league record six in a row from 1927-32. Its 1934 grand final win capped a golden era. Those teams included two Test cricketers and a host of local farmers.
Racehorse breeder Clarence “Nip” Pellew played 10 Tests for Australia and snared six flags with Aldinga. Homesdale “Slinger” Nitschke played in two Tests and an Aldinga premiership. And Horace Leaker, 1932 premiership captain, sliced off one of his hands in a chaff cutting accident yet played on for years – covering it with a sock or bandage.
If Aldinga players need extra motivation for Saturday’s match against Marion, they could do a lot worse than recall the feats of the club’s earlier heroes.
GOING BACK TO THE GRASS ROOTS
ANALYSIS: MICHELANGELO RUCCI
NO football club is saved overnight.
At Adelaide Oval on Sunday there will be two AFL clubs – Geelong and Port Adelaide – that prove this point.
The Cats started their revival in the summer of 1999-2000, almost imploded across 2006-07 and from their darkest hour have created a dynasty that today is the admiration of Australian football.
At Aldinga Oval on Saturday, a grassroots football club will start its long journey back to being a competitive force in the Southern Football League.
To quote an old commercial, it won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.
The Aldinga Sharks on Saturday play the Marion Rams at “Shark Park” in a suburban football game that will resonate across metropolitan Adelaide.
It is not the only community football club in this city struggling to keep numbers – more so when players are lured to country clubs with offers of $700 a game compared with $250.
But today the spotlight is on the Sharks.
Their senior team, while depleted by an injury list that mirrors the “black cat curse” the Crows had in the summer, has lost its first three A-grade games by a combined 711 points.
But the under-16 Sharks are winners and talented prospects. So are the under-18 Sharks who pair up with Noarlunga.
Time – and good development programs – will save the Sharks. In the meantime, Aldinga captain Danny Dempsey and his senior teammates have to hold up a football club for the Baby Sharks.
It is not quite the script Dempsey envisaged when he was at a 21st birthday party in 2012 and decided to leave state league volleyball to get back into Australian football.
He wanted to enjoy his football – and now he wants everyone at the Aldinga Sharks to enjoy their football club.
“It is about being excited to come to training rather than seeing it as a chore,” Dempsey said. “It’s about enjoying Saturday night at the club.”
It is about putting pride back in the Sharks.
Marion has lost its past two games by 122 and 96 points. But the Rams have a reputation for not giving up.
And there is the key message of Saturday’s game. There is pain in grassroots football at a time when the AFL speaks of record memberships and record corporate backing. And if the grassroots are ignored, the AFL will not have its riches.
Thousands of boys – including those in the Aldinga under-16 team – are following their heroes to the big time. But the pathways that took Brownlow medallist Adam Cooney, Nathan Eagleton, Michael Doughty and Beau Waters from the Southern Football League to the AFL are in need of nurturing.
And that is the mission statement at Aldinga Oval on Saturday: “Spark the Sharks”.