Crows ruckman Reilly O’Brien says a call from a teammate alerted him to the tweet about Nic Naitanui going live
Reilly O’Brien’s accidental tweet about Nic Naitanui made for some great footy theatre on Saturday. The Crows ruckman – who received a new phone post-game from the star Eagle – reveals the moment he realised his gaff.
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Adelaide ruckman Reilly O’Brien has detailed the heart sinking moment a teammate alerted him to his accidental Tweet about Nic Naitanui and how the West Coast big man played on his anxiety by giving him the silent treatment.
Speaking after Adelaide’s 33-point loss to West Coast – which finished with Naitanui handing him a new phone after his went haywire and Tweeted his game notes calling Naitanui “lazy and unfit” during the week – O’Brien said it was a chance to smile after a tough week and even tougher year.
WATCH THE EXCHANGE IN THE PLAYER ABOVE
“I didn’t hear from him (during the week), I think he left that one and let my anxiety grow, that was his strategy, the silent treatment,” O’Brien told News Corp.
“I didn’t contact him, I thought I’d save it for the game but I didn’t mind it if he didn’t like me because there’d be a bit of competition on the ground.
“At the start of the game he was staring me down a bit so I thought he was a bit upset, but at the end he just laughed it off and wasn’t fazed at all which is testament to his character.
“He said good luck for the year and gave me the phone.
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“I was talking to him and I thought he was joking when he said he had a new phone for me. That was nice of him.
“In that first quarter all the West Coast boys got into me and he gave me a little point, so stuck it up me, but it was all in the heat of the battle and at the end of the game he was pretty good about it and there is certainly no bad blood there.
“I wasn’t so much worried, I was excited going into the contest, I knew he’d probably be at his best and fired up and he’s one of the best ruckmen in the competition so it’s an awesome challenge.
“I was pumped to have a go and wanted to see if I could match him, because I hadn’t played against him before.”
O’Brien was leaving West Lakes just after midday on Thursday when teammate Ben Davis called him.
“I didn’t discover it, I had no idea, I’d gone out to my car and was on my way to West Lakes shopping centre to get a new phone from Optus,” he said.
“I got a call but I can’t answer calls on my phone, but luckily it was connected to the bluetooth in my car so I could press the button on the steering wheel and it was Ben Davis.
“He said ‘mate, have you seen your Twitter? I said ‘what?’ and he said ‘get back here’, and I thought ‘oh my god’ and ran back inside the club, my heart sunk, I was very rattled, I quickly logged in on his phone and deleted the Tweet but it was obviously too late.
“When I went back in I saw Nicksy and Adam Kelly and they were staring me down saying ‘what happened?’ and I showed them the phone and said ‘I have no control over this’.
“It was a pretty stressful afternoon because I have such respect for him, it was interesting, but I got my head back on the game and was looking forward to it from there.
“It was a bit embarrassing but very rare, one in a million but all in good fun.”
It was something to smile about after a tough year with Adelaide still winless after six rounds but at least competitive against West Coast.
“It was better than last week but execution let us down again, a couple of lapses in our overall game and contest and showed some good signs but we obviously didn’t string together four quarters to get the win,” O’Brien said.
“But we showed in some patches that we were at the level and could match it, so we need to work on our forward connection and execution and I think we will continue to improve.”
The Crows flew from Adelaide to Brisbane on Saturday morning and were set to return home on Saturday night.
“We have time for a shower then grab a quick bite to eat, we’re not too rushed and back in Adelaide by 10:30 or 11pm,” O’Brien said.
“I felt fine throughout the game, we had a lot of room on the plane to ourselves so I could lie down across three seats and relax.”
NAITANUI’S HILARIOUS GIFT FOR O’BRIEN
– Dan Batten and Simeon Thomas-Wilson
Nic Naitanui has a perfect sense of theatre.
After an errant tweet was sent during the week from opponent Reilly O’Brien, labelling the Eagles ruckman as “lazy” and “unfit”, there was no shortage of talk in the lead-up about how Naitanui would respond.
Following an at-times firey duel between the two ruckman, Naitanui handed O’Brien a hilarious gift post-game — a new Samsung phone.
Naitanui had a brand new Samsung phone ready for O’Brien after getting in touch with Telstra to get the Crow a new device.
The pair were seen joking and smiling together after the final siren.
Naitanui said he had no hard feelings about the accidental tweet, describing O’Brien as one of the “nice guys”.
The Eagles star joked post-game that he feared more opponents were going to send criticism his way online.
“Telstra crew got a hold of it so they gave me a brand new Samsung which is a better than I got, I think it’s about $1500. I’m scared blokes are going to keep talking smack every week to get a new phone,” he joked on Fox Footy.
“He’s one of the nice guys so he didn’t mean any malice in it.
“It makes the footy exciting, I love it, it’s good. We’ve got respect for each other, as I said he’s one of the nice guys.”
“I love it, there’s a lot of mutual respect and he’s one of the nicest guys (in the AFL).”
Jason Dunstall said it was one of the best things he has seen on the footy field, while Brisbane Lions’ hardnut Mitch Robinson Tweeted it was “probably one of the most baller moves I’ve ever seen in the AFL”.
Earlier after a goal Naitanui did seek out O’Brien to point him out, but the day ended up being even contest between the two.
Naitanui had 24 hitouts to O’Brien’s 12, but the Crow had 19 possessions to the Eagle’s seven.
Originally published as Crows ruckman Reilly O’Brien says a call from a teammate alerted him to the tweet about Nic Naitanui going live