Darren Mead’s long wait for Showdown Medal could be over
The Crows and Power have announced they will retrospectively award medals to the best afield in the first six Showdowns. Does this mean Darren Mead can finally exhale?
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- Clubs to award six-pack of retrospective medals
- Finding the six players who deserve to be honoured
Finally! At last!! Port Adelaide president David Koch and Crows chairman Rob Chapman went to lunch in Adelaide on Friday - Showdown 47 eve - to put to action a verbal commitment made several years ago at Football Park to clean up the derby’s history book.
There will be retrospective Showdown Medals awarded.
How and when is still to be resolved. But the task of clearing away that anomoly of no best-afield medals for the first six derbies - from 1997 to the end of 1999 - is formally underway.
And with this breakthrough across the Showdown divide, inaugural Port Adelaide AFL club champion, Darren Mead, will have his name taken out of the Guinness Book of Records and, hopefully, finally be recognised as the first Showdown Medallist.
On the eve of Showdown 46 in May, The Advertiser went through the records of the newspaper’s account the first six derbies, the Port Adelaide and Crows club champion voting and the Brownlow Medal votes awarded in each of the pioneer Showdowns.
Mead was rated best by the umpires with their Brownlow Medal voting and best by the Port Adelaide match committee for their John Cahill Medal count.
And as Mead once again read how he should have been the first Showdown Medallist - had game sponsor West End put up a best-afield medal along with that silver trophy collected by acting Power captain Brayden Lyle at the end of Showdown I - the centre half-back responded: “I do own the world record for holding my breath.”
So what happens now?
In Perth, the WA Football Commission - after deciding to strike retrospective medals for the first 12 Western Derbies (1995-2000) - handed the task of revisiting the opening dozen West Coast-Fremantle derbies to a panel of media experts in keeping with how the voting began for the original Ross Glendinning Medal.
In Adelaide, Chapman says the Crows and Power will not ignore the fans who will “engaged” in a return to the first six Showdowns that were split by the SA clubs on a 3-3 count to set up the “greatest modern rivalry in Australian football”.
Expect the inevitable poll on the clubs’ websites then.
For those who missed The Advertiser in the lead-up to Showdown 46, the review of the first six derbies and the voting in the Brownlow Medal and club champion counts delivered these potential retrospective medallists:
Showdown I: Darren Mead (Port Adelaide)
Showdown II: Brett James (Adelaide)
Showdown III: Adam Kingsley (Port Adelaide)
Showdown IV: Mark Ricciuto (Adelaide)
Showdown V: Mark Bickley (Adelaide)
Showdown VI: Josh Francou (Port Adelaide)
The history books would recognise Ricciuto and Francou as four-time Showdown Medallists - but still behind Port Adelaide midfielder-forward Robbie Gray as “Mr Showdown” after he collected his fifth best-afield medal on Saturday at Adelaide Oval as the best player in Showdown 47.
And once the Crows and Power settle on these six retrospective Showdown Medallists, how should they present the trophies?
Should it be one by one across the six Showdowns to be played from 2020-2022? All at once in 2020? Or as part of the celebration at the 50th Showdown that is due to be played early in the 2021 season, assuming there is no Showdown final in the next two seasons?
For all the questions that remain, at least the “mistake” of having no Showdown Medallist from the first six derbies is to be corrected ... finally. Darren Mead can exhale!
The Roast continues with its new format in the aftermath of Showdown 47. On Tuesday, the enewsletter version — sign up here — will look at where the Showdown fits on the AFL fixture - and in Reality Bites there is an interesting exchange from an SA Football Commission member on how the game of Australian football is controlled outside AFL House. The Roast will continue on Wednesday and Thursday each week on The Advertiser’s digital platform at advertiser.com.au.