Adelaide Crows forward Shane McAdam opens up about pain of losing family and friends to mental health battles
Crows forward Shane McAdam has several tattoos, but only one is significant to him. He opens up about an issue close to his heart and how it has affected his hometown.
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Shane McAdam rolls up the right sleeve of his T-shirt to reveal his only professionally inked tattoo.
Located on his shoulder, it features a ribbon, feather, a dozen birds and a semicolon – a mental health recognition symbol.
McAdam has opened up to The Advertiser to help raise awareness about Indigenous suicide rates in remote communities.
The issue has touched the high-flying Crows forward’s hometown of Halls Creek, in northern Western Australia, as recently as late last year, during his off-season break.
His tattoo is a constant reminder of friends and family he has lost after mental health battles.
McAdam has more ink, including a star on his left ankle, an X on his right thigh and the S symbol commonly drawn during the 1990s on his right leg, but they are the result of being bored and having a home tattoo machine.
He designed his new, deeply personal body art with careful consideration, then was inked in an Adelaide parlour when he came back from Halls Creek.
“This is the first tattoo that really means something to me,” McAdam says.
“The birds pretty much have the meaning of being set free from all the troubles.”
McAdam’s message for those doing it tough is to reach out and for those who notice someone having a hard time to let them know there is help available.
“I was pretty close with a couple of them – Halls Creek is a pretty small town, everyone’s one big family,” he says, candidly.
“You’re almost getting over grieving for one then something else happens.
“It breaks you sometimes.
“Even today it’s still hard to believe they are not here anymore and it’s difficult to deal with.
“It was tough but it was good to be around family at that time, rather than here in Adelaide, a long way from home.”
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In the Kimberleys, almost 700km inland from Broome, Halls Creek has a population of about 1500 and faces significant social challenges.
McAdam loves heading there whenever he gets the chance.
He went home last year after his second AFL campaign, which featured 13 games, including his debut, 12 goals – the second-most at the club – and a seventh placing in the Crows’ best and fairest.
Adelaide gave him a longer pre-season break so he could spend extra time with family.
“It is good to get back home, refresh,” says McAdam, whose heritage is from the Kija and Jaru tribes.
“We go fishing, hunting and camping, get out of town, connect back to the land.”
The Crows’ compassion is a key reason the 25-year-old loves playing for them and has just agreed to a new deal until the end of 2023.
When McAdam re-signed a fortnight ago, he likened the club to a second home.
It is clearly not a throwaway line for a player to whom home means so much.
“They make you feel comfortable here,” he says.
“The players, the staff, they’re all here to help.”
Immersing himself in football is keeping McAdam’s mind off “a lot of things, especially homesickness and things going on back home”.
He has kicked five goals from his first two games this season and is fitter than ever.
As much as he misses Halls Creek, McAdam says he has enjoyed moving across Australia to fulfil his dream.
He is not the only one from his hometown doing so.
Four more players from Halls Creek are on AFL lists: his cousins Jy Farrar (Gold Coast) and Sam Petrevski-Seton (Carlton), Irving Mosquito (Essendon) and Toby Bedford (Melbourne).
Krystal Petrevski is in the Demons’ AFLW squad.
Last year there were three others: Cedric Cox (Brisbane), Isaiah Butters (Fremantle) and Francis Watson (West Coast).
To have six homegrown players on AFL or AFLW lists in a season is a significant achievement for any country community, let alone one with Halls Creek’s challenges.
“I wouldn’t say we’re heroes, I think (the town) is just proud to see us making something of ourselves,” he says.
“We’re the same people we were before we left and no one treats us any different, which is nice.”
According to McAdam, there should be many more Halls Creek products at the top level.
His brother, Ash Johnson, is with Sturt, hoping to follow in his footsteps, but McAdam has had little luck trying to convince others to show their wares in Adelaide.
What he has struggled with is holding them back.
“It’s just the transition from the city and playing – it gets too uncomfortable for them moving away from home,” says McAdam, who featured for Claremont in the WAFL, SA division two amateur club Scotch Old Collegians and Sturt in the SANFL before joining the Crows.
“They’re worried about being in a new environment.”
McAdam reckons the six on lists are definitely not the most talented players from Halls Creek.
“So many boys are coming up now who could easily make the AFL if they decide to leave home,” he says.
“Even boys before me, I think easily they could’ve made a list, but there were no opportunities.
“Now there’s a few pathways – Freo has their Next Generation Academy in the Kimberleys.
“There’s heaps of just hometown heroes.”
As for how his tiny, remote community produces such talent, McAdam says locals live and breathe the game from an early age, picking up skills quicker than in the big smoke.
“In the big city, there’s heaps of different sports, but back home it’s just footy and basketball, so they just fall in love with it,” he says.
Playing senior football with Halls Creek Hawks at 13 and living with his siblings, as well as some cousins, fast-tracked McAdam’s development.
“It’d be eight to 10 of us kids in the one house … and one footy between everyone,” he says.
“You’d be getting chucked around from your older brothers – they go pretty rough on you – so you’ve got to learn the hard way.”
Halls Creek boasts two ovals.
Children play all year round at the school’s during the day, then the Hawks’ home ground after classes.
“When we train at West Lakes, they see one little patch of dead grass on there and I hear the boys complaining,” McAdam says with a laugh.
“Back home there’s barely any grass.
“There’s prickles, patches of dirt and dead grass everywhere.”
The town’s sole main road also hosts makeshift matches.
“You’d pause, step to the side, let a car drive by, then continue the game,” McAdam recalls.
“We used to play till pretty late – we’d get in trouble a lot for not going home early.
“It would’ve been right up until like 8 or 10 o’clock, right before the streetlights were about to shut off.
“You’d try to beat the streetlights home.”
McAdam will play under much brighter lights on Good Friday.
This time, he will be more than 2500km away from home, as the Crows host Farrar’s Suns in a night game at Adelaide Oval.
A fortnight after winning Mark of the Year for Round 1, McAdam will look to soar once more, like the birds on his shoulder.
And as they continue to deal with their pain, he hopes playing is just as cathartic for his tight-knit family watching back home as it is for him.
“It makes them happy to see me on TV playing footy and it helps me by helping them.”
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