It was the winter of 2014. A few years had passed since the glory days for the Adelaide Crows and things never seemed to get better.
Losing a ton of talent and the AFL also struck out their chief strategist Dean Bailey who later passed away after a battle with cancer. They had been a club under siege, further driven into the ground notorious supervillain Stephen Trigg. He sacked recruiters, tampered with the draft and let the club take the hit to save his own bacon.
But some would not let that stand.
He was a family man now, long retired, still scarred from battle, but a champion all the same. Never one to sit down when it counted, he knew they needed him now.
That man was Mark Ricciuto, Premiership player, Club Captain, Brownlow medalist and and father of 26.
Roo, was swift, Roo was powerful, Roo was uncompromising. Within weeks Trigg was banished to blue purgatory. But that wasn't enough, Roo needed an ally someone to turn this ship around.
Quickly he found his man, Andrew Fagan, the pair rolled up their sleeves and went to work.
Sando was the next to fall, a promising start had floundered under him. Wanted to be one of the boys, but not prepared to be the man.
Enter Phil Walsh.
In a club long steeped in mediocrity and close enough being good enough Phil was a breath of fresh air. He talked elite standards, formula 1 football and team first mentality.
Phil looked at his chargers, he needed a leader on field, someone to lift the team, someone who bleeds the club colours. He found his man in the Texan.
Success came quickly and the Crows started 2015 with a bang the masses of Crows fans had new in their captain and their coach. These guys were real, nothing was going to stop us hitting the top......
It was cold night in July when the dark clouds gathered over Adelaide, the club woke to the news of the sudden and tragic passing of their beloved mentor.
That would be enough to end the run for most, but not these lads, spurred on by the faith instilled by Phil, they powered through to the finals only to succumb to the rampaging Hawks on their way to a 3peat.
That summer they brought back the Don, he was there when we last won the minor premiership, a premiership player in his own right and successful away from the game, but hungry to do more.
That summer, they also lost Dangerfield, he won the gold jacket and walked away from his comrades in pain.
2016 wasn't easy either, they started strong but ran out of gas in the finals again.
Licking their wounds they re-grouped, re-focused and organically growthed.
2017 they had the toughest start imaginable, Premiership Favourites GWS, then Super Hawks and old nemesis Port Pear. But they were up to the challenge. 6-0 and things were looking good..... That's when disaster struck. Sent to play in the north antarctic, they hit an iceberg, Sloane was tagged and the blueprint was drawn. It was a long June after that, sputtering through games, young kids looking elsewhere, coach not reacting, fans thinking that they had seen it all before.
Until a bright Saturday in July at the MCG, in a game where we were just going through the motions, looking like an embarrassing loss to the Blues was coming up, the boys found something there was steal in their resolve a will that hadn't been seen for a long time the tide had turned.
Strong arming their way to the minor premiership on the eve of the finals, their main charger Rory Sloane had emergency surgery with more bad news for the group to come.....
Where to next for this group, would they see the Texan and the Don on the Dias in September, only they can make it happen.
Losing a ton of talent and the AFL also struck out their chief strategist Dean Bailey who later passed away after a battle with cancer. They had been a club under siege, further driven into the ground notorious supervillain Stephen Trigg. He sacked recruiters, tampered with the draft and let the club take the hit to save his own bacon.
But some would not let that stand.
He was a family man now, long retired, still scarred from battle, but a champion all the same. Never one to sit down when it counted, he knew they needed him now.
That man was Mark Ricciuto, Premiership player, Club Captain, Brownlow medalist and and father of 26.
Roo, was swift, Roo was powerful, Roo was uncompromising. Within weeks Trigg was banished to blue purgatory. But that wasn't enough, Roo needed an ally someone to turn this ship around.
Quickly he found his man, Andrew Fagan, the pair rolled up their sleeves and went to work.
Sando was the next to fall, a promising start had floundered under him. Wanted to be one of the boys, but not prepared to be the man.
Enter Phil Walsh.
In a club long steeped in mediocrity and close enough being good enough Phil was a breath of fresh air. He talked elite standards, formula 1 football and team first mentality.
Phil looked at his chargers, he needed a leader on field, someone to lift the team, someone who bleeds the club colours. He found his man in the Texan.
Success came quickly and the Crows started 2015 with a bang the masses of Crows fans had new in their captain and their coach. These guys were real, nothing was going to stop us hitting the top......
It was cold night in July when the dark clouds gathered over Adelaide, the club woke to the news of the sudden and tragic passing of their beloved mentor.
That would be enough to end the run for most, but not these lads, spurred on by the faith instilled by Phil, they powered through to the finals only to succumb to the rampaging Hawks on their way to a 3peat.
That summer they brought back the Don, he was there when we last won the minor premiership, a premiership player in his own right and successful away from the game, but hungry to do more.
That summer, they also lost Dangerfield, he won the gold jacket and walked away from his comrades in pain.
2016 wasn't easy either, they started strong but ran out of gas in the finals again.
Licking their wounds they re-grouped, re-focused and organically growthed.
2017 they had the toughest start imaginable, Premiership Favourites GWS, then Super Hawks and old nemesis Port Pear. But they were up to the challenge. 6-0 and things were looking good..... That's when disaster struck. Sent to play in the north antarctic, they hit an iceberg, Sloane was tagged and the blueprint was drawn. It was a long June after that, sputtering through games, young kids looking elsewhere, coach not reacting, fans thinking that they had seen it all before.
Until a bright Saturday in July at the MCG, in a game where we were just going through the motions, looking like an embarrassing loss to the Blues was coming up, the boys found something there was steal in their resolve a will that hadn't been seen for a long time the tide had turned.
Strong arming their way to the minor premiership on the eve of the finals, their main charger Rory Sloane had emergency surgery with more bad news for the group to come.....
Where to next for this group, would they see the Texan and the Don on the Dias in September, only they can make it happen.
