Showdown 49: Ken Hinkley and Matthew Nicks trade taunts ahead of clash
The taunts have been flying thick and fast between the Power and the Crows, as the two teams get set to square off in Showdown 49.
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In an age when sanitised, cliche quotes are common in the AFL, particularly leading into games, the day before Showdown 49 offered anything but.
The coaches’ midday press conference on Friday set the scene for the tense contest that would come on Saturday night and reflected the SA clubs’ genuine rivalry.
Hours earlier, the animosity between Port Adelaide and the Crows was stoked by Power football manager Chris Davies.
Davies told SEN SA that in his view the Crows’ dislike of Port Adelaide came from geography and “a whole heap of professional jealousy of around what our club has been able to achieve over time”.
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He said the Power’s loathing of its cross-town rival was deeper and based on history, such as the Magpies’ failed AFL bid in 1990 that led to the formation of the Crows, which it now taught to new players.
Asked whether Davies’ comment about the Crows being jealous was fair, Crows coach Matthew Nicks responded: “it’s a big call”.
Nicks declined to share any more thoughts on it but how he felt was clear by his expression.
Earlier in the press conference, Nicks said bluntly of the Power: “we don’t like them much”.
“We get along OK when it’s not footy but I think on footy he (Hinkley) is not going to like me much hopefully if we get our game going”.
Hinkley later called the Crows “the enemy”.
These were not throwaway lines said to ham it up for the cameras to try to sell tickets or generate interest for Saturday night’s clash at Adelaide Oval.
Nicks and Hinkley did not shy away from the occasion or try to convince people it was just another match.
“It’s as big a game outside finals for us … and we want to win them,” Hinkley said.
Adding another layer to the rivalry is Nicks being Hinkley’s former senior assistant and a Power coach for seven years.
“We’re fierce competitors,” Hinkley said.
Like the Power, Adelaide is also using past players’ experiences of Crows-Port Adelaide clashes to teach its 2021 squad.
“I think it is a big deal and rivalries are fantastic for the game,” Nicks said.
“You look across any sport across the world, there’s some fantastic rivalries … and this is one of the best.
“There’s a fair bit of passion both from the experienced players and then we’ve got some young players who are South Australian-born.
“Jimmy Rowe (the son of ex-Crow Stephen Rowe), we had to hold him back this morning in the captain’s run – he’s ready to go.”
Nicks is preparing for his second Showdown as Adelaide coach and aiming for his first win, while Hinkley is set for his 16th and boasts a 7-9 record against the Crows.
Overall, the clubs are locked at 24 victories apiece.
“It’s remarkable you can be so close over a long period of time,” Hinkley said.
“We’re looking for an opportunity to put our noses in front and we’re going to go hard to get there.”
How McIntyre made Showdown made history
Tim McIntyre is the answer to a Showdown trivia question.
Who is the only footballer to make his AFL debut in a Crows-Port Adelaide clash then never play another game?
McIntyre featured for Adelaide in Showdown 33 at Football Park in Round 15, 2012.
The small forward booted 2.1 in a 58-point Crows thumping of their fierce rival, only to be dropped days later, as goalsneak Ian Callinan returned to the side from a one-week calf injury.
Nine years on, McIntyre is not bitter about playing just once.
In fact, he cherishes his sole game.
“It was an unbelievable experience,” McIntyre, now 32, tells The Advertiser.
“To debut in a Showdown is pretty special and something I’ll hold with me forever.”
Callinan had hurt his calf the previous week and was ruled out ahead of the Power match.
McIntyre was doing weights when Crows coach Brenton Sanderson told him he would be debuting.
“I was excited and just thought all the hard work I’d put in over the years, that dream was alive,” he says.
“And it was going to be happening in a Showdown, so my head was pretty all over the shop in the wake of the excitement, joy and being pretty proud.
“With Showdowns, it doesn’t matter where you are on the ladder, it’s a pretty big rivalry.
“Whether you’re last or on top, both clubs come to play … and want the bragging rights.”
Two minutes into the match, McIntyre slotted Adelaide’s opening major with his first kick.
The ball fell to him from a boundary throw-in and he won a free, about 35m from goal, when Tom Logan landed on his back.
“It was the same when I played at Sturt, my first (SANFL) league kick was a goal,” he says.
McIntyre’s second major was a set shot from about 40m during the final quarter.
It put the Crows 58 points ahead.
Only Ricky Henderson (six goals) and Brodie Martin (three) and Port Adelaide’s Paul Stewart (four) finished with more majors on the night.
Adelaide ruckman Sam Jacobs won the Showdown Medal after registering a whopping 61 hit-outs, while eight Crows finished with at least 20 disposals, led by Scott Thompson with 32.
“Everyone chipped in and played their role and we had a comfortable win,” says McIntyre, who wore No. 49.
McIntyre had joined Adelaide as a mature-age recruit from Sturt via the 2011 rookie draft.
He had been overlooked in his draft year at Murray Bushrangers then moved to SA to play for the Double Blues.
McIntyre was back at Sturt once Callinan, who booted a career-best 39 goals that year, returned for the next match against GWS.
“Nutta (Callinan) was on fire and playing some pretty super footy at AFL level,” he says.
“Even though I played well, he had the runs on the board and he automatically came straight back in after his calf was right.
“I was emergency that week and then just struggled to break back in.”
McIntyre says the form of small forwards Callinan, Jared Petrenko and Jason Porplyzia kept him out of the side as Adelaide went on to reach the preliminary final.
“We didn’t have a lot of injuries, everyone was playing well … so it was hard,” he says.
“All I could do was keep playing well and hope a chance might arise again but, unfortunately, it didn’t.”
McIntyre had a “bit of a feeling” late the next season his time at Adelaide might be ending because he was getting overlooked for selection and there were no talks of an extension.
He was delisted after the 2013 campaign.
“It was hard to hear I wasn’t going to get offered another contract but I still took a lot away from those two years,” says McIntyre, who went on to play one SANFL season for Central District.
McIntyre now works in Geelong as a builder for Metricon Homes and lines up for Koroit in the Hampden league.
Koroit is aiming to win its seventh flag in a row this year – McIntyre has featured in two.
He keeps an eye on the Crows’ results and stays in touch with ex-teammates including Taylor Walker, Daniel Talia, Brad Crouch, Angus Graham, Richard Tambling and Bernie Vince.
“The friendships I made there were pretty special … and there are things I carry with me everyday in terms of life skills, training stuff,” he says.
McIntyre’s profile on the Crows’ history page includes a photo of him smiling in the middle of the post-match huddle, holding the Showdown trophy as teammates spray him with water.
“It’s probably a bit more special than playing a game against another club with the cross-town rivalry and the build-up,” says McIntyre, who has kept the guernsey he wore that night.
“To have the cup is something I’ll never forget.
“I hold that game in pretty high regard because something I always wanted to achieve as a young kid was to play AFL.”
Brotherly bond defies rivalry
— Simeon Thomas-Wilson
For the last three to four minutes of Showdown II at Football Park nearly 24 years ago Phil Hillyard’s lens followed wherever the Bond brothers were.
The former Advertiser photographer had a hunch Adelaide’s Troy Bond and Port Adelaide’s Shane Bond would be the news image from the fierce but still raw rivalry between South Australia’s two AFL clubs.
“It’s funny, as a sports photographer for the newspaper you are always trying to guess and work out what the news photo of the game is,” Hillyard said this week.
“And on that occasion at the end of the game your eye is generally following where the ball is, especially if it is a close game.
“So normally you are going to go to the huddle of where everyone is and that’s where you are going to get the big emotion.
“But two brothers were playing in the match on opposite sides so for the last three or four minutes I think I just followed my lens on them.”
It ended up being an inspired decision by Hillyard as he captured a truly iconic moment of SA footy.
As the rain fell at Football Park at the end of the clash in August 1997, won by the Crows by seven points, Shane congratulated Troy with the two smiling as they embraced.
“They made the picture, I just had to take it,” Hillyard said.
Shane said this was because of Troy, his direct opponent that day.
“It wasn’t until the day after it that people were talking about it that I realised it was a nice photo and he captured the moment,” Shane said.
“I remember the last five minutes of the match, that’s for sure. It was a close game all day. I remember the last minutes because Troy kicked a goal and put them in front.
“He slipped down the back and I went into a ball-up and the ball went over my head and he marked it with a big cheesy grin on his face, so I remember that.
“And then when the final siren sounded Troy had that big cheesy smile on his face, he’s a bit of a larrikin and when he came up to me he was smiling and I just started to smile back and he just embraced me and that’s when the photo was taken.
“I don’t think much was actually said, we just smiled at each other.”
Troy said the Showdowns were always tough games for him emotionally given that he usually had to play on Shane or Gavin Wanganeen, who was like a second brother to him.
“It was always difficult with the Showdowns because I knew I would either be standing Shane or Gavin, who we basically grew up with,” he said.
“So it was always hard playing on them.
“But I was fortunate enough to be able to sneak out the back and get one and put us in front.
“And after the game we just had a bit of a smile about it, said that’s the way these things can go and that was it.”
Both Bond brothers have the image hung in their houses, so much the moment means to them.
“To have that moment I’m humbled and it is good for my kids because they never really got to see me play,” Shane said.
“Our families are very humbled.”
So iconic the image has become, in 2018 it was the feature element of the new shield designed for the Showdown.
And it will stay front of centre even with a redesign of the shield this year, because of Port Adelaide keeping its 150th Anniversary logo.
“It’s a great honour for us both to have our image on the shield,” Troy said.
Hillyard said it summed up a family bond.
“What was important in it was one brother was happy for the other brother’s success even though he had just lost,” he said.
“I actually remember their mother wrote me a note and sent it to the paper (after it was published).
“She just said from the bottom of my heart thank you for taking the picture.
“So that was a nice thing and it’s good that it is something special for their family.”
Originally published as Showdown 49: Ken Hinkley and Matthew Nicks trade taunts ahead of clash
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