Magarey Medallist Mitch Grigg’s season is the human story of Norwood’s long-standing mantra of “strength in adversity”
MITCH Grigg’s second Magarey Medal triumph is a tribute to his personal strength amid enormous challenges on and off the field, particularly off with the illness of his father Chris.
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AT Norwood, the SANFL club would have struck a special medal for Mitch Grigg at the end of the season out of admiration for his resilience amid adversity.
Grigg, the back-to-back Magarey Medallist, is the modern-day face to the Norwood Football Club’s long-standing mantra (handed to the Redlegs by their first coach John Woods): Fortis in Procella — Strength in Adversity.
Norwood is mighty proud of how 25-year-old Grigg has carried his commitment to his football this season while carrying the mantle of the SANFL’s best player as the Magarey Medallist — and as a team leader at a club that, after sorting out its off-field challenges, wants to dominate the on-field agenda in the State league.
But this football agenda seems minor in comparison with the personal challenge Grigg has managed in a demanding year when his father, also a Norwood league player, has been diagnosed with MND (motor neurone disease).
In a sport now overloaded with money, statistics and jargon that requires a special dictionary, there is nothing more true to the spirit of Australian football than the human story captured magnificently by the Channel 7 cameras as Mitch and Chris Grigg hugged as SANFL president John Olsen confirmed the Norwood midfielder’s Magarey Medal triumph.
Chris Grigg’s tears tell of a father’s pride in how Mitch Grigg has kept his focus and honoured his club, his team-mates, the traditions of the Magarey Medal — and, most importantly, his family in the most difficult times. Fortis in Procella.
Many of the off-field leaders at The Parade did wonder earlier in the year how Grigg would cope with the emotional burden from his father’s shocking diagnosis with MND after Chris had thought he was simply tired after working long hours to set up a gym at Mawson Lakes. Yet again, sport — in particular team sport — proves to be ideal in enhancing lives, particularly those dealt a tough hand.
As new SA Football Hall of Fame inductee Peter Vivian noted in his acceptance speech at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday night: Football clubs are filled with good people.
Grigg’s success also is a tribute to his resilience after being delisted by the Crows after 20 games in three seasons (2013-15). He is back at the club — his family club — that has drawn the best out of him as a player and a person.
William Magarey, exactly 120 years after he created Australian football’s oldest individual award, would be noting his trophy still carries meaningful significance even after the transformation of the AFL with the advent of two national-league teams in Adelaide.
Grigg’s football and human stories combined this year give the Magarey Medal story a moving chapter.
It was a good night for the SANFL as it again combined the Magarey Medal and Hall of Fame inductions. The power of television was most evident with those images of Grigg, father and son; and the dusting down of the highlights of the Hall of Famers. That vision of Vivian working clean possession of hotly disputed ball against Norwood at Football Park was a great reminder of how talented many South Australian footballers were without needing VFL careers to prove they were stars.
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au