A quick roll across the globe on what is biting in sport

REALITY BITES - the “fast-food” run across sport with a look at the headline moments locally, nationally and across the globe

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IAN McKAY is North Adelaide’s greatest full back - and arguably can claim this title in SA league football. But there will be no argument on his status as the greatest full back for NSW’s greatest Australian football line-up.

Former Sydney Swans boss RICHARD COLLESS is putting together NSW’s greatest football team since 1874. The criteria for selection is - as Colless explains - “not necessarily men born in NSW, but those who actually played senior football in NSW before moving into one of the senior competitions such as the SANFL. For example, (Collingwood great) Jock McHale was born in Sydney, but moved to Melbourne as a child so he does not qualify.”

From the SANFL there are some immediate candidates such as 1961 All-Australian Geoff Kingston from West Torrens and Glenelg duo Neil Davies and Jack Owens along with Port Adelaide great Jack Ashley.

But how does Ian McKay, the boy who was educated at North Adelaide Primary School and Prince Alfred College, become eligible for selection in the NSW greatest Australian football team?

Footballer Ian McKay taking a mark over Pat Hall. Picture: Bill Teubner

Because McKay had his SA league football debut delayed by World War II in which he served as a gunner in an anti-aircraft regiment and was in active service in New Guinea at Morotai and in the assault on Tarakan. His senior football career began in Sydney with St George before he returned to Adelaide as a 23-year-old to make the North Adelaide league team in 1946.

McKay instantly earned State selection and the best-player trophy in a clash with Victoria and was the Magarey Medallist in 1950. The lasting image of McKay is his soaring mark over Norwood rival Pat Hall in the 1952 SANFL grand final at Adelaide Oval ... and his battles with Australian Football Hall of Fame Legend John Coleman in state games.

Former Advertiser sports editor MERV AGARS ranked McKay as SA’s greatest full back when he settled on the best SANFL team for the league’s centenary season in 1977. And now McKay is destined for greatness in NSW.

So who else beyond McKay, Kingston, Davies, Owens and Ashley from the SANFL should be noted by the selectors of NSW’s greatest football team?

NEW EAGLE NEST

AS the Crows become more and more linked to a move from West Lakes to North Adelaide to build a centre of sporting excellence at the Aquatic Centre, there is much speculation of the Adelaide Football Club spending $60 million on the facility - and having $30 million already financed.

Those who raise their eyebrows at the $60 million budget might take note this is exactly what AFL powerhouse West Coast has spent on building its new home at Lathlain Park, the old base of WAFL club Perth.

As to be expected in the West, the new Eagles’ nest does have a sponsorship for naming rights - and it has been snapped up by a mining company.

The Eagles will move their administration to Mineral Resources Park next month and have their new WAFL team - the West Coast reserves - play at the ground. But the Eagles will not clear out of Subiaco Oval before the end of June.

THEME OF THE TIME

THERE is a different generation of AFL footballer today. They are tagged as “millennials”. They were born between 1981 and 1996 ... in an era of remarkable technological change in which most (no, make that all) have carried a mobile telephone ... and too many have chosen to text rather than speak directly to a person who might be no more than a few metres away.

The millennial AFL player - such as Brownlow Medallist PATRICK DANGERFIELD (born 1990) - wants (in general) to speak more and more. Speak what is on his mind rather than the script presented to him by his club. Speak to advance his image ... and post-football options, particularly when so many players see the media landscape as the green pasture when there is no more callings to the AFL’s manicured green fields.

:Patrick Dangerfield playing AFLX for Team Bolts is tackled by Jack Riewoldt from Team Rampage at Marvel Stadium. Picture: Michael Willson

“We need to take a leaf out of the (AFLW) girls’ book,” Dangerfield says. “We need to grow the game, we need to be a bit more open.

“What we have seen with AFLW is the girls want to win but there is an understanding they need to grow the game. They are investing so much into it because they know it’s more than just themselves, it is creating this new game young girls can aspire to.”

And when the AFL players are now sharing a percentage of their game’s growing revenue streams, there is a greater incentive to want to dominate the public and media landscape.

Shall be interesting to watch how the AFL players break the shackles in their clubhouses where there are still many who believe a quote in a newspaper or on a radio show can change the result of a football game.

MOMENT OF THE YEAR

BEWARE the early crow, but will there be a moment in sport in 2019 that will outrank for bewilderment the public act of insubordination by Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga towards his team’s manager Maurizio Sarri in the League Cup final at Wembley in February?

And does it not confirm - as Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho came to know from their stints at Stamford Bridge - the sting in player power at English soccer team Chelsea?

The amusing tweet playing on this team was from former England international GARY LINEKER as Chelsea entered its English Premier League clash with Tottenham after the Cup final: “Big game tonight at the Bridge. Will be interesting to see what team Kepa puts out.”

ALL AT SEA

ROAST is hearing there might be need for a new brush of pain on the walls of the Naval Club at Hutt Street after a recent meeting between the SANFL executive and the SANFL chief executives. The discussion about the impending AFL mid-season draft and how the WAFL has scored a deal for its clubs with West Coast and Fremantle became very heated, apparently.

Nothing describes my generation more than pulling a phone out of the pocket to check the time while wearing a watch#RandomThoughts

— Mason Cox (@masonsixtencox) February 27, 2019

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

WHEN the Adelaide Football Club moves to the Adelaide Aquatic Centre - and incorporates other sports in the centre of excellence - will SA politician FRANK PANGALLO petition for the Blackfrairs school and old scholars football team, the Blackfriars water polo team and the North Adelaide residents to have a seat on the Crows board as he argues for the SA-based AFL clubs to have a place on the SMA board at the Adelaide Oval?

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