30 reasons why Tony Modra will always be the Godra of footy
It’s been 30 years since one of Tony Modra’s most godly footy feats. To mark the milestone, here’s 30 things we still love about Mods.
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They say 13 is unlucky but not for the Crows when Tony Modra kicked that many goals in one game against Carlton - and “fullback of the century”, namely, Steven Silvagni - three decades ago. To mark the milestone, let’s look at 30 things we love about Mods - kicking off with …
1 DOWN TO EARTH
Modra may have been a high-flying forward who reached great heights, but he was always grounded. And nothing has changed. When FIVEaa night-time presenter and one-eyed Blues supporter Leith Forrest recently sent his mate “Mods” a text to remind his about the aforementioned 13 goals in one game, his response wasn’t at all precious, but it was priceless. Here’s their exchange:
2 OFF THE CHARTS
Those 13 goals in one game – in round one in 1994 – were on the back of a groundbreaking season for Modra. In 1993, he also kicked 13 goals in one game – this time against Richmond – setting an Adelaide Football Club record, which is yet to be broken. Mods is also the only Crow to have kicked more than 100 goals in a season – 129, to be precise, again in 1993. And while we are playing the numbers game, let’s put it on the record that Mods kicked 588 goals in his 165 AFL game career before he retired in 2001. BTW, 1993 was only his second season with the Crows.
3 LIVING LEGEND
Former Crows coach Graham Cornes once said Modra was ``as big as Sir Donald
Bradman’’- because he kicked 220 goals in his first 50 AFL games – which explains why Mods got that famous tag …
4 WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Look closely at Leith’s post and you will also see #Godra in reference to Modra aka Mods’ other nickname.
He became known as Godra in 1993 because of what can only be described as the fan hysteria that followed the footy god wherever he went.
5 LOVER NOT A FIGHTER
And while we’re talking names, Tony Modra/Mods/Godra is not to be confused with the Adelaide-raised pro wrestler (briefly) of the same name. Not by birthright, that is. In 2020 Florida-based Brendan Vink registered to fight under “Tony Modra” for World Wrestling Entertainment before quickly rebranding to Duke Hudson. And it’s not the first time he has gone by another name; he wrestled in Australian events as “Elliot Sexton”. Understandably, the real Tony Modra was none too impressed, telling The Advertiser at the time, “I didn’t know you had to copyright your own bloody name”. That said, Mods didn’t ark up that much. Showing he’s a lover, not a fighter, Godra added he wouldn’t have minded Vink using the moniker if it was for charity, but “it seems like personal gain”. He can say that because he’s been a long time supporter of the Little Heroes Foundation and other worthy causes.
6 REAL DEAL
Before we go any further, let’s press pause and rewind. The real Tony Modra was actually born Anthony Dale Modra. He became Tony at the suggestion of former West Adelaide boss Doug Thomas.
7 HAPPY BIRTH DAY
And while we’re backtracking, Godra entered the world on March 1 in 1969, making him 55. He was born in McLaren Vale, but accidentally moved to Loxton in his teens.
“We sold up down at Port Noarlunga and were going to travel around Australia, so we had the caravan on the back,” Modra told Advertiser sports journalist Matt Turner last year, adding: “We got three hours out of Adelaide and that was it – we got to Loxton and dad became the manager of Loxton caravan park for three years.”
8 ALL ROUNDER
Modra played junior footy and the other football known as soccer, while growing up and doesn’t mind a round of golf either. He was also a high jumper at school, which he credits for his theatrical marking ability.
9 MAKING HIS MARK
For anyone not up with Modra’s marking prowess, he won Mark of the Year in 1993 and 1997, as a high-flying Crow, and in 2000 playing for Fremantle.
10 GAME ON
The ‘93 mark is the stuff of legend. Mods jumped on the shoulders of Kangaroos defender Ian Fairley; while his teammate Glenn Archer tried in vain to topple Godra. It inspired a new catchcry for the traditional schoolyard game Marks Up; to this day when a kid flies for a mark, they spur themselves on(wards and upwards) with a “Modraaaaaaaaa!”
11 BACK TO THE FUTURE
While Modra hung up his AFL footy boots in 2001, in 2015 he showed he still had it by taking a “massive hanger” in a Slowdown charity match for the Little Heroes Foundation.
12 ROCK AND ROLL ALL NITE …
And party every day! Did you notice who was with Godra in one of the above pics? Only the Paul Stanley, from supergroup KISS, who was at 2015 Slowdown. Stanley tossed the coin before the start of the match and took part in a meet and greet with some of the kids helped by the Little Heroes Foundation.
13 HAIR RAISING
Okay, so four photos might be going a bit over the top, but we wanted to illustrate how Modra can rock any hairstyle, including a mullet, flippy boy band-esque style, longer flowing locks and what looks like a number 3 shave.
That pretty much makes him the AFL’s answer to Brad Pitt (who can also do any hairdo). Which sets the scene for our next take on Modra’s talents …
14 KEEPING IT REEL
Modra’s movie star looks were also put to work when he got into character – as his favourite actor Clint Eastwood – to star of the cover of SAWeekend magazine’s special Oscar edition in 2016. At the time Mods told us he loved spaghetti westerns: “For some reason they relaxed me a lot when I was playing football. I’d sit on the couch and watch them. You knew (Eastwood) was always going to come out the winner in the end.”
15 HOT OFF THE PRESS
That stint with SAWeekend wasn’t the first time Modra had been a cover boy … there was that time he graced page one of the Sunday Mail. The image was taken by Ray Titus after the Crows’s one-point win against Fitzroy at Football Park. The issue was a bestseller and became a collector’s edition. Fun fact: Following that snap of Godra making the front page, the powers that be at the Crows positioned a guard at the showers’s entrance to make sure photographers could only take pictures in the change room.
16 IT’S A DATE
Godra’s people didn’t come down in the last shower. They knew our photographer Ray was onto something. And that is why they got Mods to agree to pose wearing nothing more than a towel for the Men For All Seasons 16-month calendar, showcasing the AFL's “top sexiest players”. Modra was featured in it twice, and was one of only two footy players bestowed with the honour – the other being Hawthorn’s Shane Crawford.
17 THROWING IN THE TOWEL?
But there was also a downside to having your name up in lights. As documented in Chris McDermott’s 2011 book, Secret Crows Business, Godra almost gave his AFL career the boot at the start of the 1994 season. McDermott recalls Mods wanted out and had even been a no-show at training. (According to legend, the incident was the inspiration for Greg Champion’s ditty Tony Modra’s Gone Surfing) It all happened in the lead up to the round one match against Carlton, which put the fire back in Godra’s belly. ``All the things you preach about preparation and professionalism and doing the right thing. He had the worst preparation and kicked 13,’’ the then Crows coach Cornes reflects in the book, adding: ``It was probably an indication of just what talent he had.’’
18 BLOODS BROTHER
While we are on that topic, Modra also wasn’t all that keen on playing SANFL footy. When he was starting to get noticed, he preferred to get his kicks on the Riverland circuit, rather than play for West Adelaide. However, once he dedicated himself to the Bloods in 1991, he got the attention of Adelaide Football Club. Mods scored a guernsey to a training session, and, as they say in the classics, the rest is history.
19 GOOD SPORT
When things didn’t go Modra’s way he was still a champion. In 2014, when he was inducted into the SA Football Hall of Fame, he reflected on missing out on a premiership medal, despite being very much a part of the Crows’s 1997-98 campaign. “In the first one, I was injured at the wrong time,” said Modra, referring to when he damaged a knee in a marking contest during the 1997 preliminary final. He added: “The second one, I took a bullet for the team.” Modra was, of course, talking about how he was dropped after Adelaide’s qualifying final loss to Melbourne at the MCG. “The coach (Malcolm Blight) needed to make some changes – and I took one for the team,” Modra said. “I missed out again – and that’s the way it is.”
20 JOIN THE CLUB
While the Crows were celebrating back-to-back Premiership flags, Modra was traded to Fremantle. After Mods made the move to the Dockers (where he played for three seasons, before retiring in 2001) he wasn’t going to let anyone rain on his, or his new team’s, parade. When he played against the Crows, he gave his all. “I always wanted to be a one-club player,” Modra has told Advertiser sports journalist Matt Turner. “Playing against Adelaide always was hard, but I made sure I concentrated on playing well, winning the game for Fremantle and beating my opponent.”
21 THE FLAME
Crows fans still carrying a torch for Godra got to see him in action during the Sydney 2000 Torch Relay. Mods, who was playing for the Dockers at the time, was a torchbearer on Day 29, July 6, on the Mandurah to Fremantle leg.
22 HERO’S RETURN
Even though many would argue Godra was unceremoniously dumped by the Crows, his Olympic efforts for the club didn’t go unnoticed. More than a decade after he returned home to SA from his WA odyssey he was awarded two honours.
In 2014 he was inducted into SA Football Hall of Fame and given the ultimate recognition by Adelaide Football Club – life membership. “It gives me a great sense of belonging to SA football,” Modra said at a ceremony at Adelaide Oval. “Life membership at the Adelaide Football Club was very important to me.” He added: “Hall of Fame is a privilege – and a responsibility. It is not something I take lightly. I feel a commitment to give something back to the game for all it has given me.”
23 A CROW FOR LIFE
To this day Mods is still very much involved with the Adelaide Football Club; he is always happy to answer the call, when invited to act in an ambassador-style role.
24 GONE FISHING
Godra may have been a god on the footy field but the rest of the time he was pretty much just like any other bloke (who also happened to be a god on the footy field). In his spare time he liked cast a rod with mates, including fellow Crow Scott Hodges. Fun fact: Modra’s birthday is March 1, meaning he was born under the star sign of Pisces, the Latin word for fishes. Which could explain another of Mods’s favourite pastimes …
25 SURF’S UP
Surfing was another passion. So much so, that Modra opened a surf shop at the Glenelg end of Anzac Hwy, called Cutloose, Surf the Earth. ``I could have been running a cafe,’’ Mods told The Advertiser’s chief footy writer Michelangelo Rucci in 1997, adding: ``Can you see me, at the end of playing football, serving cappuccinos in a cafe? The surf shop is about something I like. I can sit in this shop and feel relaxed about what I’m doing. And it can offer me something after football.’’
26 FAMILY MAN
Modra has been married to the love of his life, exercise physiologist and tennis coach Erica, since 2008. They have two children, Hayley and Luke, and run a cattle farm at Waitpinga. Farmer Mods also works for Fleurieu Milk Company.
27 CHAMPIONING CAUSES
In 2012, Erica and Tony Modra shared a deeply personal story with readers of The Advertiser and Sunday Mail to thank, and raise awareness of the work done by, the team at Flinders Medical Centre’s Neonatal Unit. They told how the team had cared for their premature son, Luke, who spent 82 days in the unit after being born at 28 weeks gestation, and their family. Erica wrote a heartfelt letter of thanks on behalf of her own and every South Australian family assisted by “the remarkable work of our neonatal hospitals”. The Modras also encouraged South Australians to donate to the FMC Foundation to help continue to equip the Neonatal Unit with the machines it required.
In 2019, the Modra family walked the 6km circuit at the City-Bay, raising funds for the Little Heroes Foundation. Proud dad Mods told Advertiser and Sunday Mail journalist Rebecca Whitfield-Baker he loved being a devoted sideline dad for his kids, who played netball, tennis, soccer and footy. “I’m pretty good at the oranges”, he said, referring to half-time’s healthy sweet treat.
28 BITE ME
Modra even had a burger named after him. In 2021 Bread and Bone, in the CBD, launched a limited-edition Godra with caramelised onion, smoky bacon, tomato sauce, kewpie mayonnaise and a spiced pork and fennel sausage roll – rather than a patty.
“As well as being a fan of a good pastry, Tony Modra is one of South Australia’s ultimate goal kicking legends,” Bread and Bone chef Joel Stephens told us, adding: “So, we figured for the burger we’d play on the rhyming slang footy lingo for a goal – being a ‘sausage roll’.”
Godra said: “I don’t know what I love more – kicking them or eating them.”
29 BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE …
Kicking yourself that you never ate a Godra burger? Schnithouse’s “Godra schnitzel” – topped with onion rings, kransky and prawn skewers and served with a “champagne cream sauce” – is still on the menu.
30 TATT’S ALL FOLKS
Oh, and last but by no means least, back in 1997 Godra inspired The Footy Show’s Sam Newman to get a cheeky tattoo in his honour … on his butt cheek. Let’s just leave it there …
– additional research by Lilli Mae Mavrogiannis
Originally published as 30 reasons why Tony Modra will always be the Godra of footy
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