Reality Bites: Are Adelaide Crows clearing space for Collingwood gun Brodie Grundy?
Adelaide is clearing space for the trade period in October — and chief executive Andrew Fagan is vowing to not allow his team to “bottom out” before making a new AFL premiership assault. Plus, farewelling Beefy and Gower, Antonio Brown and more.
Michelangelo Rucci
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Adelaide is clearing salary cap space. From one of the top-end teams for being committed to 100 per cent use of the regulated player wage bill in the 18-team league, the Crows could be pushing out as much as $2 million next year.
Adelaide already has 2010 club champion Richard Douglas and loyal utility Andy Otten off the books. Ruckman Sam Jacobs will take up free agency. Alex Keath (Western Bulldogs or St Kilda) and Hugh Greenwood (Gold Coast) are on their way.
Small forward Eddie Betts is destined to return to Carlton. And — even with much change in the Adelaide football department — there is still the expectation key forward-ruckman Josh Jenkins, who still has two years on his five-season contract, will be moved on … but with some of his salary staying at West Lakes.
So is Adelaide making a war chest to lure Collingwood All-Australian ruckman Brodie Grundy in a big homecoming deal that appeases the uneasy Crows fans … or his Adelaide list manager Justin Reid working with a big shopping list in October’s trade period.
The salary cap rises 1.3 per cent next year to $12,758,095 with an extra $1,125,983 for third-party agreements, up three per cent.
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NO NOSEDIVE
Adelaide’s lowest ranking in its 29 AFL seasons is 14th of 17 in 2011. It is the only time the Crows have been in the big league’s bottom four — and was quickly met with a revival at West Lakes as first-year coach Brenton Sanderson took Adelaide to a preliminary final.
As the Crows prepare for a major refit of their list, Adelaide chief executive Andrew Fagan is dismissing any suggestion his club would “bottom out” before making a charge to the AFL’s top echelon.
“There has been zero talk about bottoming out,” Fagan said. “But we are obviously at a point … we have to transition the list. But we are comfortable we have a core group of players of high level and experience. We also have some talent that is going to complement … and we want to remain competitive.”
TIME CALLED
One of the joys of an Australian winter — for those with Fox pay-TV subscriptions — is the enjoyment of UK broadcaster Sky as it covers the world of cricket with one of the best commentary teams ever assembled.
The recent five-Test Ashes series in England marked the end of the a great off-field partnership that did very well on the field as well, Sir David Gower and Sir Ian Botham.
After 20 years in the Sky commentary team, they farewelled with differing emotions at The Oval at Kennington last week.
Gower, who did not want to go, later said on his Twitter account @David215Gower: “It feels very strange knowing that the Sky days are done but a huge thank you to all those with whom I have worked over those 20 years. It was a great team to be part of. Thank you too to all of you out there for so many kind messages.”
Botham, who was more than happy to depart for other adventures, also took to Twitter to say on @BeefyBotham: “Thanks to all the well wishers for your kind words! It’s been fun but it’s also time for me to move on and let younger blood into the sky coms box!! I’m now able to concentrate on @BothamWines which is a dream come true. Thanks to all the great guys I’ve worked with!!”
BOYCOTT AVERTED
As soon as his beloved Glenelg dismissed the Crows reserves team from the SANFL premiership race by winning the preliminary final at Adelaide Oval, Hall of Famer Graham Cornes created the theme “crisis averted” on social media.
Cornes, the inaugural Crows coach, also put aside his planned boycott of the SANFL grand final. He had intended to make his protest to the state league premiership being a play-off between two AFL reserves teams, Port Adelaide and the Crows.
Cornes might not have been alone in pretending SANFL football had stopped a week earlier.
A Showdown grand final — Port Adelaide v Crows — on Adelaide Oval remains a dream … and a nightmare.
It is the ultimate fantasy of the South Australian football fans who carry their AFL emotions along the Power-Crows divide. An “all-South Australian” AFL grand final played away from the so-called Mecca of Australian football at the MCG in Melbourne would be a victory for all those who want a national football competition to be more “Australian” and less “Victorian”.
This is the much-wanted AFL script for a Showdown grand final at Adelaide Oval.
But this vision does not carry any appeal in the SANFL. It is a fascinating view of the SA football landscape — and how the Adelaide Football Club can be one thing in the AFL and the complete opposite in the SANFL.
He’s waited 33 years for this. @Cornesy12 💛🖤 #SANFL pic.twitter.com/avjF7e80bn
— Kane Cornes (@kanecornes) September 22, 2019
As the AFL Crows, they are the “team for all South Australians” — the club that was designed as a composite on the field and off to bring together all SA football fans after the tempestuous winter of 1990 when Port Adelaide was considered “treacherous” for seeking a place in the expanding national competition.
Regardless of your SANFL background, wearing the tricolor (that matches the state colours of red, gold and blue) as a “Crows fan” in the AFL did not challenge your allegiances in the State league. The Crows, as crafted in 1990, were never to play and beat your SANFL team.
So who among the Sturt, West Adelaide, North Adelaide, Central District, Woodville-West Torrens, Glenelg, Norwood and South Adelaide supporter bases is prepared to “adopt” the Crows as their SANFL team during the State league finals? Certainly the Glenelg and Norwood fans did not as they watched their semi-professional teams take on the pros from West Lakes.
And who from this group of hardcore state league fans was going to pay $32 at the Adelaide Oval gates on Sunday afternoon to cheer for the Crows reserves when they have preferred to have been there to cheer for the Blues, Bloods, Roosters, Bulldogs, Eagles, Tigers, Redlegs and Panthers, particularly in a grand final against the dreaded Magpies (even if they are really the Port Adelaide AFL reserves)?
The Crows’ submission paper from 2013 predicting 3000 fans would be drawn to Crows reserves games — later pumped up to 4000 by club chairman Rob Chapman — seems so far off the mark today. This SANFL finals series has proven such.
So it was crisis — and boycott — averted … for now.
BROWN OUT — AGAIN
To continue the NFL watch on wide receiver Antonio Brown after his controversial move from Oakland to New England: It lasted just 11 days.
Less than a week after playing in the Patriots’ win in Miami — where Brown is facing a civil suit for alleged rape — the New England management decided to follow the Oakland Raiders in removing the wide receiver from its books.
The NFL’s investigation into the rape allegations left the Patriots to declare: “(We) are releasing Antonio Brown. We appreciate the hard work of many people over the past 11 days, but we feel that it is best to move in a different direction at this time.”
The running joke in the NFL today is when does Dallas seek to put Brown in a Cowboys’ uniform?
Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy reviewed Brown’s first game with the Patriots by noting how quickly villains become heroes: “Last week you hated Antonio Brown. Mocked him. Total clown. No class. Quitter. Crazy.
“Now you love Antonio Brown. You see that he was merely misunderstood. He’s smart. Savvy. A stable genius. And he sure can catch the football. I mean, who’d want to play for the Raiders, anyway?
“Welcome to Patriots Nation, where it’s always about the laundry. Nothing unusual about that. Every fan of big-time sports sees players through the filter of the team logo. The only thing different here is the phony narrative promoted by the Patriot ownership (never Bill Belichick, by the way) that this place is somehow different.”
SPOTTED
Contracted Crows small forward Eddie Betts was enjoying a most-delightful lunch — with men who appeared to represent his former AFL club Carlton — at Gaucho’s on Gouger Street on Friday. Soon after the Gold Coast learned it has missed out on Betts, after earlier being denied Hawthorn premiership hero Shaun Burgoyne.
TWEET OF THE WEEK
In the words of the late, great Douglas Adams, “So long and thanks for all the fishâ€
— David Gower (@David215Gower) September 15, 2019
SIR DAVID GOWER, the English version of Richie Benaud in the cricket commentary booth, signing off from the Sky cricket team in the UK.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“As they came together he’d get it started.‘ Have a look at them, would you? The poindexter convention. What a bunch of nerds. How many years was your degree mate? Seven? Mine? Mine was eight. What’s your degree, mate? Being a wanker?’
“If one of the doctors dared be so audacious as to shake the hand of the other opposition doctor, it would be met with: ‘Good on you Chris, why don’t you put your tongue down his throat, why don’t you just pash him Chris?’”
— Former Richmond captain WAYNE CAMPBELL on the dislike Danny Frawley, as Tigers coach, had for any goodwill between his team and the opposition.
ends