South Adelaide’s Nick Liddle named SANFL Player of the Week in his final game
South Adelaide midfielder Nick Liddle wanted to give all he could for the club, and he did until the final siren in his final game, winning the The Advertiser/SANFL Player of the Week award.
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Five Knuckey Cup victories as South Adelaide’s best and fairest is glaring evidence of the impact courageous midfielder Nick Liddle has had at the club since moving from Victoria.
From the first day he walked into Noarlunga Oval, his ambitions were to be a one-club player in South Australia and give all he had to help the Panthers be a success.
How appropriate Liddle should be chaired off by teammates after a best-on-ground performance in the win over Adelaide in his final appearance after 190 games in the navy and white jumper.
Just as he had done for 10 years, he fully committed himself to the contest to be recognised as The Advertiser/SANFL Player of the Week.
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“I know there is a lot of players movement and I don’t judge anyone who does it,” Liddle said. “For me, I wanted to make sure I was a one-club player.
“South Adelaide has struggled a little with that in previous years and you hear supporters talk about it. I wanted to make sure I gave all I could to the club.
“When guys come and go it does make it hard to be successful. Apart from not playing in a grand final and winning a premiership, which will probably haunt me for the rest of my life, I feel I have given as much as I could to the club.”
Liddle has played 13 seasons of state league football, starting with three years in Melbourne, and he believes he can no longer meet the training commitment and the requirements to play at SANFL level.
Despite the win, the Panthers’ hopes of qualifying for the finals were dashed when Sturt beat Glenelg at Unley Oval.
“It was a strange feeling, we were half keeping an eye on the other scores,” Liddle said. “It was not spoken about, but you would be sniffing around finding out the scores.
“We could not have asked for a better day, we won the game and I felt like I contributed to the game. The send off Crabby (retiring teammate Brad Crabb) and I got, I could not have asked for anything better. The only disappointment was missing the finals.”