Shane McAdam opens up on his journey to the Adelaide Crows and why he had to conquer his greatest fear on the road to an AFL debut
Halls Creek is 800km from the nearest beach and young Crow Shane McAdam admits he was terrified of the ocean. Here’s how the determined Indigenous star faced his fear.
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Before this season started, Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks and Shane McAdam went for a walk together.
They met at the beach and as they walked, McAdam had the chance to tell his new coach his story.
How he grew up in Halls Creek, a tiny town in the remote East Kimberley region of WA, where his father Shane Snr would take him camping and they would eat whatever they caught and sleep on the sand sometimes without a swag beside the fire.
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“We had a long chat before the season started, Nicksy loves his footy but he wants to get to know you as a person, more than a footballer, and that’s what he’s brought into the club,” McAdam said.
“I could tell him a bit of background about me and my family, my Kija and Jaru tribes, it helps him understand where I come from and he’s always there to help me go forward.”
Halls Creek is 800km from the nearest beach in Broome and Nicks would later learn that McAdam was terrified of the ocean, spooked by the thought of sharks.
“I’ve been to Broome a few times but never went in and when I went to school and played footy in Perth and had recovery I would always be the last one to get in the water and go no further than knee-deep,” he said.
But a flashpoint came in January this year when McAdam went away with Wayne Milera and Ben Davis to the Gynburra Fishing Festival on Yorke Peninsula and found himself in a boat.
“We were spearfishing and I was scared to get in the water but I had to face it,” McAdam said.
“I didn’t want to be the only one who didn’t want to get in the water so I jumped in, and then I was the only one who didn’t catch a fish so later on we had one last chance to get in and I didn’t leave the water until I got one.
“It took me a while. The boys lost me in the water they kept driving around in the boat looking for me but I didn’t care, I wanted to get a fish, I didn’t want to be the only one to walk away without getting anything.
“Now I go to the beach almost every second day just by myself and stand in the water for 15 minutes, it’s obviously not fun (cold) but it works for me and my body to recover.
“Even though I’m not a big fan of it I still manage to do it because I know it helps.”
Nicks told that story to the playing group before McAdam debuted in Round 4, to make the point that he had overcome something he thought was holding him back and it showed he was prepared to do whatever it takes.
Selected by Carlton as a mature-age pre-draft pick and on-traded to the Crows in 2018, McAdam spent 2019 in the SANFL and at the end of the year it was made clear to him that he may well be the most talented player on Adelaide’s list but if he couldn’t do the work to get his body ready to play at the level, then perhaps the world would never see it.
So when he went home to Halls Creek in the off season break, training in the scorching heat was a slog.
“There’s a little bit of grass on the oval, dirt, prickles, but it’s an oval,” said McAdam, a nephew of 1989 Magarey Medallist Gilbert.
“You do a couple of laps and you’re already sweating, but I manage to get through.
“I got someone to send me photos of the little gym we have in Halls Creek and it’s not much but we get a program to do what I can do back home.
“That was the plan in the off-season which was pretty critical because I knew what I was coming back to, compared to last year anyway, I didn’t know what I was stepping into when I got drafted.
“I did what was asked but my body just couldn’t cope at times, so I knew I had to get my body ready to endure what was ahead.
“When I first came to Adelaide I was a little podgy, so mainly my diet is what I changed the most to get in shape to be an AFL body.”
When he wasn’t training on the dirt oval in Halls Creek it was because he had gone bush with his mates.
“I sat down with Matt Hass and the high performance coaches before I left and told them what I was getting up to on the holidays and I’d be out bush most of the time and they worked my program around that.
“We go very remote, a long way out of town in the middle of nowhere pretty much. We drive out and spend a few days and do a run in the mornings to beat the heat and even go for a run at night.
“We’ll take some stuff with us - spare parts for the car, spare tyres and then just the basics, some salt and pepper.
“We might take some steak and tinned food just in case but we pretty much just live off what we catch.
“We mainly catch goannas, turkeys, kangaroos, emus and live off the little bush fruits they have back there.
“You get a lot of pretty things there that look safe but you can’t touch them either, you learn from your family and their elders because they’ve been around a long time so you learn from a young age what you can and can’t eat.
“We take some water but where we are there’s freshwater so we can just drink from the springs and stuff.
“We sleep under the stars in the swags but I remember when we were young we didn’t even take swags a couple of times with the old man, we just slept on the sand around the big bonfire.
“You don’t really sleep much out bush, you just enjoy the moment, enjoy the time.”
His dad, who now lives in Kununurra, is proud of McAdam’s journey to the AFL which included stints in the WAFL, amateur league in Adelaide and SANFL with Sturt.
“I’ve heard stories about him (father), he was always a pretty good player and left home for a little bit but didn’t really get the opportunities,” McAdam said.
“But he was a good player from what I’ve heard, not from him himself but people in the town.”
McAdam misses home where it regularly gets to 40C in summer and where it was 26C on Friday while Adelaide shivered through 10C and rain.
“They complain when it gets to 18C back home, that’s freezing,” McAdam said.
“I miss it sometimes, well most times really, that’s why when I get home I make the most of everything.
“The boys here and the footy club have really helped me, they’re always there to put their arms around me.
“I do miss home but I’m chasing my dream and home will always be there.
“I lived with Brodie Smith in my first year and he was good for me, he’s a leader of the club and he showed me what it takes to be an AFL player and I learned the way he set examples and the things he did away from the club being a professional.
“Now I live with my younger brother, he’s playing footy at Sturt where I was and he works but when we come home it feels like I’m back home when I’m here with him, we help each other so it’s nice having him here.”
McAdam kicked 5.5 in six games before he was rested for last week’s loss to Melbourne, but is expected to return as soon as Tuesday against Collingwood and will wear the indigenous round guernsey designed by Adelaide’s first ever indigenous player Eddie Hocking and local artist Shane Cook in Round 13.
The guernsey design includes a hand to represent Hocking’s sense of belonging at the footy club, symbols and dots representing players and supporters and the club’s slogan ‘We Fly As One’ has been translated in Kaurna language to read Ngadlu Kumangka Karrinthi on the inside of the neck line.
“It’s going to mean a lot to me, representing my people, my indigenous heritage and to make my home town and family proud,” McAdam said.
“Even to get the other non-indigenous boys involved in something like this, the boys love the stories of what I do back home, it’s a long way from here but heaps of boys say they want to come up especially when I show them photos.
“They just want to learn more about indigenous culture and this indigenous round is a good way to show it.”
Asked what he personally wanted to get out of the second half of the season, McAdam’s mind immediately went to the team.
“Hopefully get a few wins under the belt,” he said.
“That’s the main priority for me and the team.
“We’re not going too well at the moment and we’re not happy about it but we know we are making small steps forward.”
Every step, no matter how big or small, whether leaving home, playing his first game, kicking his first goal or just jumping out of a boat and into the ocean, has for McAdam been a step forward.
Originally published as Shane McAdam opens up on his journey to the Adelaide Crows and why he had to conquer his greatest fear on the road to an AFL debut