AFL names former SA Community Football League, West Adelaide chairman David Shipway as its latest Jack Titus Award winner
David Shipway is well known in SA grassroots footy circles for his tireless work. But despite 30-plus years of service, he almost didn’t believe it when AFL boss Gillon McLachlan called to say he’d been recognised with a top award.
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Two things that give an insight into David Shipway’s humble, self-deprecating nature crossed his mind when Gillon McLachlan called to say he had won the AFL’s Jack Titus Award for service to the game.
First, despite his three decades in footy and tiresome efforts helping community leagues, clubs and players across SA, Shipway thought the news was a practical joke – until he realised it was the AFL chief executive.
“McLachlan rang me before Christmas and I first of all said ‘is this is a hoax?’ But then I picked his voice and said ‘oh, no, it’s not, keep going’,” Shipway, 68, told The Advertiser.
Shipway also noted that Titus – a champion goalkicker who played 202 matches for Richmond, became a long-time Tigers official and held the VFL’s consecutive games record until 1996 – was nicknamed “Skinny”.
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“One of the many calls I’ve had this morning was from (ex-Richmond player) Mal Brown and he said ‘they’ve stuffed this up, you’re not skinny’,” he said with a laugh, after the AFL announced his honour on Wednesday.
“I definitely can’t lay claim to being skinny.
“But it (the award) is an honour and a privilege, which I appreciate.
“Hopefully it’s a bit of recognition for the people who keep the game alive and bust their guts to keep clubs and leagues afloat … more than an award for me.”
Unlike most of the previous Titus award recipients, Shipway’s service has been to grassroots, not elite football.
He was in West Adelaide’s board room from 1985-94, including as Bloods chairman in 1988-89 and president from 1990-94, before being part of the SA Football Commission from 1997-2017, and chairing the SA Community Football League from 2009-17.
Shipway has dealt with issues such as club mergers and a league winding up, and introduced a mandatory paraplegic and quadriplegic insurance cover.
He has also been at the forefront of fundraising efforts for those in need, including helping to provide rainwater tanks to 60 drought-affected clubs from 2012-14 and in 2015 to communities after the Pinery bushfires; donating grain field bins to 80 teams in wheatbelt areas; and co-ordinating others to dig deep after SA Football Hall of Famer Mark Mickan’s Parkinson’s disease diagnosis.
“There’s been some tough times, but there’s been many times where you stand back and think ‘how good is this game and how good is what it does for the community?’,” Shipway said.
Even though he stepped down from official community footy roles in 2017, Shipway has remained an ambassador and been part of the SANFL group offering its help to Kangaroo Island’s football competition and fire-ravaged Western Districts.
“I’ve had a long involvement, met a lot of people and if I can help, I still will,” he said.
Shipway, who is a life member of the SANFL and West Adelaide, and Member of the Order of Australia for his service to football, cannot pinpoint his proudest moment in the game.
He mentions being able to help communities in need, seeing SA play WA in state country games, watching players get to live their dream by going from the bush to the SANFL then AFL and meeting countless brilliant people.
Seeing the Bloods win the 2015 premiership was also special for him.
It was via West Adelaide that Shipway fell in love with footy as a 10-year-old when the club’s president Cliff Todd, whose daughters were friends with Shipway’s sisters, took him to a game.
“It was the heyday of people like Neil Kerley and Ken Eustice in the early ‘60s,” said Shipway, who later sold home match raffle tickets for the club.
“Now, they’ve became mates.
“I’d be picking up the socks of the Kerleys and the Eustices, and all these guys and annoy them every weekend, and ask for their autograph every Saturday.
“Ken Eustice many years later presented me with the guernsey he wore in 1962 when he won the Magarey Medal … and he gave me one sock that he had from that year.
“He said he couldn’t find the other one, but he was pretty sure I had it.”
Shipway is SA’s fourth winner of the Titus award in the past eight years, following Port Adelaide boot studder Alf Trebilcock (2012) and Crows duo Barrie Downs (2013) and John Condon (2017).
“I’d just like to thank all the volunteers and people who do such a great job of keeping the game alive and to all the people who have been very kind and courteous to me over the years, and all the hospitality I’ve enjoyed – it’s been fantastic.”