As Eddie Betts hangs up his boots, how will footy fans remember him?

Eddie Betts will bow out of footy on Saturday, having played 350 games across 17 magical seasons, 132 of those games played in Crows colours. How will football fans remember him?

Eddie Betts celebrates with fans after a Crows win in 2019. Picture: AAP

It’s hard to know how football fans will feel when the final siren sounds on Saturday night ending the match between Carlton and Greater Western Sydney, sending Eddie Betts into retirement.

Will they be happy for a man who has given so much to the game? Or sad they’ll no longer witness his contagious on-field spark? Or will they simply feel grateful they enjoyed it for as long as they did.

Betts will bow out having played 350 games across 17 magical seasons, 132 of those in Adelaide’s tricolours.

The small forward arrived at the Crows after nine years at the Blues and from his first season in his new colours, he endeared himself to Adelaide fans with his penchant for creating goals out of nothing. He had footy fans leaping from their seats week after week.

They loved his high-leaping grabs and uncanny ability to scoop up the footy in his favourite Adelaide Oval pocket, dodge defenders along the boundary and snap truly at goal. They loved it when he’d turn to face them, arms raised in celebration, as if to say, “That was for all of us”. And they’d respond as one …

Eee-ddddiiee.

While at West Lakes, Betts was a four-time leading goal-kicker (from 2014-17) and won three of his four AFL Goal of the Year awards.

Betts kicked 310 goals in his time at Adelaide. Picture: Getty

Betts celebrates a goal during the 2018 season. Picture: Getty

On the three occasions he was bestowed with All-Australian honours, he was in Adelaide’s jumper.

Betts’ 310 goals across six seasons places him third on the Crows’s all-time leading goal kickers list, behind Taylor Walker (489*) and Tony Modra (440).

But it wasn’t just his football that endeared him to fans.

It was his infectious smile, his commitment to promoting childhood literacy programs, his unwavering dedication to kindness, his tireless pursuit to stamp out racism.

It was the fact that he made time for fans, and famously after playing a game in the Northern Territory in 2019 he was still boundary-side signing autographs and meeting spectators more than an hour after the final siren sounded; he wanted to meet them all.

Betts always had time for fans. Picture: AAP

Even after he left the club at the end of 2019 to return to Carlton, such was the esteem in which he was held, no one begrudged him his decision. He’d managed to do what few footballers can: Cross that great spectator divide; adored and respected by all who love the game.

And that’s why, even long after Betts has hung up his boots, that “Eee-ddddiiee” chant will continue to echo across Adelaide Oval, and swirl around his favourite pocket, and through the ground’s historic scoreboard and forever into sporting greatness.

Originally published as As Eddie Betts hangs up his boots, how will footy fans remember him?