Former Adelaide Crow Hugh Greenwood on preparing to face his old side on the Gold Coast on Sunday
Hugh Greenwood’s access card to West Lakes was cut off within 24 hours of him being traded to Gold Coast last year but his old teammates haven’t punted him from their group chat as they prepare to square off as rivals on Sunday.
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Hugh Greenwood’s access card to West Lakes was cut off within 24 hours of him being traded to Gold Coast last year but his old teammates haven’t punted him from their group chat.
As Greenwood prepares to play against the Crows in a regular season game for the first time on Sunday, he said friendships remained strong but would have to be parked for two hours at Metricon Stadium.
“That was the toughest thing about leaving, the boys and relationships I’ve built,” he said.
“I’m still chatting to the boys regularly ... unfortunately a lot of the boys I was close with have taken off over the years but I still keep in touch with Benny (Davis), Sloaney, Lairdy, Myles (Poholke).
“And I’m still in the 1-4 year SnapChat group which is 1-8 years now with guys like Wiggy (Harrison Wigg), and Gov (Mitch McGovern) and Charlie Cameron and Jake Lever still in there so we keep in touch that way.
“I’m really looking forward to those guys getting up there and pending restrictions, catching up with them.
“It will be weird (playing against them) for sure, I partially got the cobwebs out (in the pre-season game), I don’t usually get nervous but I probably will be for this weekend.
“And we know they’ll be pretty hungry after the Showdown so it will be a really good game, I’m looking forward to it.”
Greenwood, who says he was brought to the Suns to help with the “dirty work” including tackling and contested ball, debuted for the club in their Round 1 loss to Port Adelaide before the competition was suspended.
But the silver lining was spending more time at home with partner Kjiersten and infant son Titus.
“There are certainly worse places to be during a pandemic, we were still able to exercise and go to the beach and surf, and having Titus most dads get two weeks off to hang out with their little one and I had two months,” he said.
“Again that was a silver lining being able to spend so much time with him, and I was able to train with one of the boys down the road which wasn’t easy because it felt like doing a pre-season all over again.
“But we worked really hard and theboys are fit, we sat on that Port loss for a while but thankfully got back on the winners’ list on Saturday night for the first time in 12 months which was nice.”
Before the season resumed last weekend, he revealed the Suns had a “really powerful meeting” after their main training session and backed it up with an upset win over West Coast.
“We got a lot of things on the table about where we wanted to go and it worked out well, but it’s only one game and we want to create winning habits which starts with our mindset,” he said.
“It was just what we needed for a young group because we have the talent and the game-style.”
At 28, Greenwood is somewhat of an elder statesman at Gold Coast but admits he is still learning plenty himself, including from number one draft pick Matt Rowell.
“The way that you get to know a group or earn trust is through games, and I was only able to play one and we lost, but now I feel is a time we really build trust and bonds.
“It’s been strange being thrust into a little bit of a mentor or leadership role with some of the young mids, but also being young in football terms myself only playing 50-odd games, there’s still improvement in my football career.
“But I’m using my life experiences and short time in football to help some of the young guys. I really enjoyed working with the SANFL guys, we used to go to the Ramsgate on Tuesday nights and to be able to come here and do that with the whole group being so young I think I’ve grown a lot in the short time I’ve been here.
“I’m learning stuff off him (Rowell), it’s been fun to work with him.
“He just loves footy, he’s super-humble, you have these ideas in your head about meeting the number one draft pick and I had these expectations of what he was going to be like and he’s just a down to earth kid.
“And his best mate Noah (Anderson) - the number two pick - they compliment each other so much. Rowelly is the footy nuff who lives and breathes it, and Noah is this super-intelligent, relaxed dude.”
Greenwood also said it had been “refreshing” to work with Stuart Dew as coach.
“He’s very laid back, he loves his footy and was brought in here in tough circumstances, there’s been a lot of turnover but he’s done a really good job of staying the course,” he said.
“And obviously Mark Evans, big Tony Cochrane is a character and being able to reconnect with Tate Kaesler and Josh Francou who I worked with in Adelaide has been helpful.”
reece.homfray@news.com.au