Brownlow Medallist Shane Crawford leads lowly Aldinga Sharks to first win of 2014

FAIRYTALES really do happen. Hawks champion Shane Crawford proved it on Saturday, leading the struggling Aldinga Sharks to a breakthrough win.

FAIRYTALES, it turns out, really do happen.

Fairytales like Hawthorn champ Shane Crawford ending his decorated AFL career with a premiership for the Hawks back in 2008. And on Saturday, same fella, plus a bunch of battlers so used to losing that they, along with an estimated 3000 crowd, didn’t seem fully certain how to celebrate when the final bell signalled their breakthrough win.

The Aldinga Sharks, boosted by Crawford in his one-off comeback extravaganza, scored their first win in a 2014 Southern Football League season that started so horribly it cost them their previous coach after just two rounds.

Crawford booted four goals as the Sharks triumphed over adversity, humiliation and national exposure for all the wrong reasons, beating O’Sullivan Beach-Lonsdale at Aldinga Oval.

And as much as this is a yarn about a defining moment for a suburban Adelaide football club doing it tough, it is also about a bloke who, over three days this week, has signed balls, autograph books and bodies. Ran clinics, smiled for every iPhone photo, lifted a footy club and raised cash amounts still uncertain in meat raffles, hot snags and cold beer.

Just because a community needed it.

“To the Sharks boys, I know I didn’t know your names out there, but I was with you the whole way,” Crawford said.

“I love the spirit - you never gave up even when we were down, you kept hanging in there and it was an absolute pleasure to play with you.

“And you know what - that almost felt better than Hawthorn in 2008.”

This was a moment that, six weeks ago, barely seemed possible.

The Sharks, shaking hands, tapping bums, preparing to sing a long-overdue victory song inside a jubilant black-and-gold changeroom.

Crawford leads the Shark attack

Inside these same rooms, three hours earlier, Aldinga coach Steve Flintham is edgy.

Nervous about a circus of a day that will include Sam Newman’s helicopter arrival, The Footy Show star’s version of the national anthem, Channel 9 cameras and Billy Brownless’s half-time entertainment.

But here, in the rooms, it’s all football.

A place where a Brownlow Medallist, AFL commentator and media personality is introduced with as little fanfare as some anonymous mate of a mate making up numbers.

“First of all guys,” Flintham says, “welcome to Shane, first game today.

“Crawf’s gonna be floating around, don’t be afraid to use him. But get around him, too.

“Don’t rely on, ‘Oh, it’s bloody Crawf, he’ll do it’. You’ve gotta support him, you’ve gotta be there.”

And the Sharks, on this day, they were there.

The Lions jumped away into the breeze but Aldinga, sparked by Crawford’s two first-term goals, hit the front midway through the second.

O’Sullivan Beach-Lonsdale charged again and it became the armwrestle most expected of a bottom v second-bottom battle of winless teams.

Crawford dragged another one back before half-time then another early in the third quarter, snapping on his right to put the Sharks a point in front.

The Lions again stole an advantage, again but the Sharks had a sniff.

They piled on goal after goal, turning around an earlier spate of inaccuracy to eventually storm 38 points clear.

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Crawford roared, emulating his other famous, fairytale, Grand Final moment.

The win was Aldinga’s first in more than a year, ending an 18-game losing streak that dated back to round six last season.

That day, the Sharks kicked the same winning score - 110 points - to beat Saturday’s opponent O’Sullivan Beach-Lonsdale.

Before Saturday, their average losing margin in the opening six games of 2014 was a whopping 166 points.