Adelaide football personalities Andrew Jarman and Malcolm Blight talk candidly about 1996 delisting that ended Crow’s career
Former Crow turned radio personality Andrew Jarman has spoken to Malcolm Blight on air for the first time about the ex-Adelaide coach delisting him at the end of the 1996 season.
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Inaugural Adelaide player Andrew Jarman has spoken for the first time about his 1996 delisting with the man who dropped the axe on his AFL career – newly-inducted Crows Hall of Famer Malcolm Blight.
The midfielder, who played 110 games for the club, was cut loose by the Crows alongside fellow high-profile delistees Tony McGuiness and inaugural captain Chris McDermott.
Adelaide would go on to win back-to-back premierships in the following two seasons.
Speaking to Jarman and his co-host, and fellow former Crow, Bernie Vince on The Rush Hour on Tuesday, Blight was candid about the decision to cut the trio.
“You know, somewhere down the track, like us all, either injury gets you or your time’s up,” he said.
“I’ve made decisions on players, people have made decisions on me, sadly it’s part of the game.
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“It’s the worst part of the game as a coach or an administrator in finishing up players’ careers, but at some stage or rather, it will happen to us all, we all know that.
“Some are done better than others, I agree with that, but there’s no easy way out of it and it’s the toughest part of the game.
“You (Jarman) were a fantastic player, so was Tony, and so was Chris.
“Whether you had another year, maybe, maybe not.
“That’s the assessment that you make, and I guess the other thing is you get paid to actually make decisions and if you don’t make decisions, well, you shouldn’t be there.”
Jarman – more than 20 years since his time as a player with Adelaide concluded – agreed with Blight that the right call was made in hindsight.
“People always ask me and I say at the end of the day, the three of us weren’t going to be the next players to win a premiership at the Adelaide Crows,” he said.
“We were 29, 30-years-old, you had to clean it out and you had these young lads coming through in (Mark) Ricciuto, and (Ben) Hart, and (Shaun) Rehn, and (Andrew) McLeod and (Simon) Goodwin, and then obviously you had a bit of class to top them up.
“That’s what coaches have to do, you make some good decisions and sometimes you might regret some, but at the end of the day it was the right decision because you (Blight) went back-to-back (as a) premiership coach.”
Adelaide broke through for its maiden AFL premiership in 1997, defeating St Kilda, before winning the 1998 decider against North Melbourne.
Originally published as Adelaide football personalities Andrew Jarman and Malcolm Blight talk candidly about 1996 delisting that ended Crow’s career