Adelaide Crows star Rory Sloane opens up about his journey to playing 250 games

15 years ago, an ‘immature’, St Kilda-supporting teenager arrived in Adelaide. Tonight, Rory Sloane plays his 250th game for the Crows in the city he loves. This is how it all happened.

Rory Sloane 250 games art

The radio is on, names are being read and Rory Sloane is nervous.

It is early one Saturday morning in November on Upwey High School’s Year 11 physical education camp in Victoria.

Sloane has been tuning in to the 2007 AFL national draft, before going on a bike ride down the Great Ocean Rd with mates, and is wondering if any clubs will pick him.

The hard-nosed midfielder knows Adelaide holds some interest.

In fact, it is more than a little.

The Crows are deciding between Sloane, the reigning Eastern Ranges’ best-and-fairest winner, and athletic Calder Cannons utility Aaron Kite with their last pick.

“I was on PE camp for school, I was in Year 11 and listening to it on the radio with my PE teacher … and I remember I was freaking out,” Sloane tells The Advertiser this week.

“It was the middle of PE camp, I’m loving my time at school and I remember thinking ‘I could be gone to Adelaide like tomorrow and all of a sudden my world would be completely changed’.”

The Crows’ final selection, No. 71, comes and they take Kite.

“I had such a fun year in Year 12 with my friends and I don’t know what would’ve happened (if drafted before then),” Sloane says.

“I might have been too immature to come over at that point in time, so I’m kind of glad it happened the way it did.”

Sloane instead becomes a Crow 12 months later.

Sloane starred for the Eastern Ranges as a kid.

Adelaide’s recruiting boss Hamish Ogilvie stays in touch with him during a 2008 campaign in which he wins another best-and-fairest at Eastern Ranges, then is delighted when Sloane is still available at pick 44 in that year’s national draft, having felt in hindsight the club should have chosen him the season before.

Almost 15 years later at the age of 33, Sloane is set to become the 10th Crow to play 250 games – at home against GWS on Saturday night.

Reflecting ahead of the milestone, the hardworking midfielder says it did not take long for him to feel at home at West Lakes.

“When your parents and your friends all feel involved with your footy club, it felt like my local footy club,” he says.

“The people my parents are – very kind, caring, loyal, loving people – those traits followed through for me over here.

“All my mates were coming over, getting to know Tex (Taylor Walker), VB (Nathan van Berlo), all my friends here, and once everyone intertwined it becomes a very easy place to live.

“I hear the way Rach (Josh Rachele) and Soli (Jake Soligo) talk about the club at the moment and the friendships that they have, and that’s exactly how I felt coming through.”

Sloane still has that passion for belonging to the club.

Sloane with wife Belinda, daughter Summer and sons Bodhi and Sonny. Picture: Sarah Reed/Getty Images

A young Rory Sloane and Taylor Walker.

When Tim Silvers joined the Crows as chief executive at the start of 2021, Sloane told him something to the effect of: “Adelaide footy club should feel like the best local footy clubs on steroids, just bigger versions”.

“I’ve got great memories of my local club, Upwey,” he says.

“From the president to the players and supporters, everyone was just there to help the footy club and did it for the love of it, and I feel like it should be the same here.

“And there’s been examples of it – (head of football) Adam Kelly in what might have been his second year, the women’s team is in Perth, it’s roasting hot, didn’t have enough people to run water and he pulls on a vest and goes to run water for them.

“Examples like that … it not mattering what role someone has, they’re helping out for the betterment of people.

“That’s certainly something Nicksy has brought to this footy club and Tim, and it’s a great quality to have.”

Sloane and his family were big St Kilda supporters, so the thought of their son joining the Crows, who beat the Saints in the 1997 grand final, initially did not thrill his parents, Sandra and Brandon.

“I think Dad still holds a grudge,” Sloane jokes.

Sloane came to an Adelaide side under coach Neil Craig that had premiership players Simon Goodwin, Andrew McLeod and Tyson Edwards near the end of their careers.

“You learn so much from those three as legends of the footy club, the way they train, operate and go about things,” he says.

“That’s all I’ve tried to do in the later half of my career, be that same role model for these kids.”

Rory Sloane and former Crows coach Neil Craig.

During Sloane’s first few months at West Lakes, Craig likened the draftee’s fierce competitiveness to Adelaide-raised tennis champion Lleyton Hewitt.

Sloane went from schoolies in Queensland to hard sessions under Craig in just over 48 hours.

He returned home in the early hours of draft day on the Saturday, skipped the first 10 or so picks knowing he would be selected later, went out that night to celebrate with friends, then flew to SA on Sunday and was straight into a full training on Monday.

“Craigy was big on ‘we’ll train until you break’ and I can proudly say I never broke under Craigy, I held up,” he says.

“They were huge sessions and you came in afterwards and spent about two hours on a bike with (fitness and rehabilitation assistant) Charlie Walsh.

“But I didn’t think about it as anything abnormal, you just want to try to impress as a young kid.

“I’m so thankful I came in under Craigy’s watch, had Charlie Walsh, Alan Stewart (as development coach), Simon Goodwin as skipper – their philosophy was just work hard and you’ll get rewarded.

“That just suited my mentality and mindset.”

Sloane debuted against Hawthorn at Marvel Stadium in round 20, 2009 – his sole match that year.

He played the final 13 games of the next season and by 2011 had become a regular.

Sloane was a tough nut right from the start of his AFL career.

As Sloane was forging a new life in Adelaide, it changed one weekend in Melbourne when he met his now wife Belinda through a mutual friend.

“We didn’t get together for probably a year after that, did a year of long-distance then she moved over,” he says.

“She’s the most caring, loving, brave person I’ve ever met.

“We’ve ridden some highs and lows of life together, but to have her support throughout my whole career as a footballer and to support me through life has been unbelievable.”

The couple has stayed in SA and Sloane has stayed loyal to the Crows despite having opportunities to return to Victoria.

They thought about leaving when his contract expired at the end of 2018, only for him to re-sign for five years.

“We got to a point where we were trying to picture what life would look like,” he says.

“Belinda and I were like ‘do we enjoy our life?’ And we both thought ‘we really love our life here so what are we chasing here?’”

Sloane considers his first game and the club’s 2017 season among the highlights of his career, despite losing the grand final to Richmond.

The lows include time on the sidelines – and he has done more than his fair share, including suffering some unusual injuries.

Sloane and the Crows fell at the final hurdle after a remarkable 2017 season. (Photo by Michael Dodge/AFL Media/Getty Images)

Whether it be because of the tenacious way he plays, bad luck or both.

There was a strained medial ligament in his knee in 2009, strained ankle ligaments in 2010, a fractured jaw in 2011, a torn retina in 2013, a fractured cheekbone in 2015, an appendicitis that sidelined him for the 2017 qualifying final, a Lisfranc foot injury in 2018, a detached retina in 2021 then an anterior cruciate ligament injury last year.

Plenty of people doubted whether Sloane, at his age, would come back from the knee reconstruction he suffered against Richmond in April 2022.

Or how influential the dual Malcolm Blight Medallist and one-time All-Australian would be when he returned.

But he was determined and confident in his recovery and training, fulfilling his goal of returning for round 1.

Sloane’s own doubts crept in more when he sustained his eye issue two years ago, an injury he called the craziest of his career.

“That was definitely the one that if I trained a bit longer or strained any more and fully detached the retina, then you lose half your eyesight and it would’ve been me done,” he says.

Sloane’s history of eye injuries helped him realise he had a ‘curtain’ in the middle of his vision, essentially part of it blacked out.

After going to a doctor who urgently referred him to a specialist who told him to quickly get to hospital, the then Crows captain was lying in a chair getting a needle in his eye.

“Essentially they had to stick my retina back to my eyeball, put a gas bubble in there and then I had to lay on my side for seven days while it firmed up,” he says.

“For a whole week, I was lying on my right side in bed and was only able to get up to go to the toilet and eat.”

Sloane has come back with a force since his knee injury. (Photo by Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Sloane has put those injuries behind him to play in all 16 games for the Crows this season.

He feels strong and fresh from being managed during the week and in games, has a new position, returning to the wing, and has handed the title of skipper over to Jordan Dawson.

In September, Sloane told the Crows’ website that the hardest part of his recovery from his ACL had been going from leading the team onto the ground to being at the back in pants and a polo shirt, heading to the bench or coaches box.

He really missed the build-up from the huddle in the change rooms and the nervous energy of the walk up the race.

Sloane is back experiencing that this season and will do so on Saturday night with his children Sonny, 3, Bodhi, 2, and Summer, seven months, there, as well as Belinda.

“This whole year the focus was just enjoy it with the people you love and our family,” says Sloane, who hopes to play on into 2024.

“The kids love all the boys at the club and the staff … they have the most fun here.

“They haven’t come to a night game so it’ll be special to have them run out with some fireworks.

“I love Bel and the kids to bits and Saturday will be a special night to reflect with them.”

Sloane with wife Belinda and child Sonny ahead of his 200th game in 2020. Picture SARAH REED

Sloane’s milestone match is crucial for the Crows’ hopes of reaching the finals for the first time in six years.

Adelaide and GWS both sit just outside the top eight with 8-8 records.

“It’s about knuckling down, we’ve got seven games left and Saturday night is against a red-hot side, fighting for the same spot as us,” he says.

“We don’t want to go ‘what if’ at the end of the season.

“We want to be able to say we did everything we could.”

Sloane should know – he has done that throughout his whole career.

Originally published as Adelaide Crows star Rory Sloane opens up about his journey to playing 250 games