There's been a few articles written about Crows players lately, I found this one on the website.. it's a good read 
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Life can seem to fly by nearly as quickly as Graham Johncock can pounce on a football or an opponent with a fearlessness that is making him something of a hugely popular cult figure throughout the AFL. Just four years ago, Adelaide’s dynamic defender-cum-forward and would-be midfielder played in two winning grand finals on the one day – for Port Lincoln club Mallee Park’s under-17 and A-grade teams.
Two months ago, he returned to his home town as a hero to dozens of youngsters wanting to trace his steps into the big league that is the AFL. Johncock, 20, was touched by the rousing reception he received when he acted as water boy for the under-11s, runner for the under-14s and water boy for the under-17s of the all-Aboriginal club.
“They absolutely loved that and wouldn’t leave me alone all day,” he says with some emotion and a hint of surprise. “I was pretty much their hero. I felt pretty special and privileged. They were just mucking around and giving me cheeky little comments and all that sort of stuff. You could see they were really enjoying themselves.”
It has had such an effect on him that he senses his long-term destiny is to return home permanently one day. “Hopefully I’ll play at the highest level for as long as I can – with the Adelaide footy club – and after that I probably see myself going back to Port Lincoln and getting involved with the Aboriginal community, maybe with youth work,” he says. “I reckon it would be pretty interesting work.
“There’s so much talent over on the West Coast and some of it is wasted. They (the youngsters) don’t realise how good they can be and they just throw it away, whereas coming over to Adelaide and spending one year here, you never know what happens, like what happened to me. It’s pretty freakish. I had a bit of talent but I wasn’t the best. I suppose I just really wanted to do it. You only get one chance at it.”
Johncock can relate to already being a role model, even if the very thought of it didn’t sit comfortably with him originally. “As a young bloke growing up, I always looked up to Andrew McLeod,” he says. “Because the Crows were my favourite team, he was my hero. And when I first came to the club, he was the first one to shake my hand when I walked through the door. That was pretty special to me.
“And now I’ve been able to see the way he presents himself on and off the field and at training. He’s the highest level. Just to see the stuff he does, you really love to look up to him. I think he’s fantastic and he’s a mentor to me here at the club.”
Born and bred at Port Lincoln, Johncock started playing football when he was aged only six and progressed through Mallee Park’s junior teams to the stage where he spent 1999 playing with the under-17s in the mornings and with the A-grade in the afternoons. He played with the under-17s at the insistence of his father, Barry (‘Jack’), who is still coaching the under-17s and, remarkably, at 46, is still playing – for Malleee Park’s B-grade team.
“I suppose it was in my blood to play footy,” Johncock says. “Dad won two B-grade medals years ago. And his brothers, Trevor, Roger and Rodney, played footy, too. Roger won a Mail Medal in Ceduna the same year Trevor won it in Lincoln. And mum’s (Joylene’s) father, Reg Betts, won three medals in Ceduna.
“Dad’s playing full forward for the Bs. He doesn’t do a lot running but he’s still playing. Trevor’s got a bit of a back problem, but Roger and Rodney are still playing As for Mallee Park. Outside the club (Adelaide), Dad has been the biggest influence on me for the way he pushed me in a positive way and made me get the best out of myself in my junior years over at Lincoln.
“Mum and dad come across for the big (AFL) games. Yeah, he’s pretty proud. I’ve just got to keep going with it, knuckle down and hopefully I can make something out of it. You’ve got to be pretty determined and really put your mind to it. It’s not going to jump into your lap. You have to stick at it and make it happen yourself.”
Johncock has two older sisters, Kym and Felicity, former netballers, and a younger brother, Barry junior, 19. “Barry came over with me to Port Magpies (in 2000), but he was a typical country boy,” Johncock says. “He loved the country life and in the end the city life got a bit too much for him so he went back home. He’s playing full forward for Mallee Park A-grade. He’s taller and bigger than I am.”
Johncock played the first half of the 2000 season with Port Magpies’ under-19s and the second half with the reserves – and in a losing grand final. AFL clubs already were showing interest in him and he went to the national draft camp before being drafted by Adelaide as late as No. 67 with the club’s fifth pick – after Laurence Angwin (No. 7), Michael Handby (No. 38), Matthew Smith (No. 48) and Hayden Skipworth (No. 53). He began the 2001 season with Port Magpies reserves and made his league debut against North Adelaide at Prospect Oval – and broke his jaw in the first quarter. He resumed after about a six-week spell but then had his wisdom teeth removed and was sidelined for a few more weeks. When he started playing again, his form was good enough for the Crows to name him as an emergency for three of their last five matches.
He had to bide his time again through the pre-season competition before making his AFL debut in round one, against the Western Bulldogs at Telstra Dome, and his rapid development was such that he finished the season as one of only six players to appear in all 25 matches, along with Matthew Bode, Brett Burton, Michael Doughty, Tyson Edwards and, of course, Ben ‘Mr Indestructible’ Hart. And he won the Chairman’s Club emerging-talent award. It was heady stuff for a young man who just a few years earlier had expressed his devotion to the Crows by making ceramic replicas of their 1997-98 AFL premiership cups (one of which has since broken and the other is at his parents’ home).
Despite pushing his wiry 180-centimetre, 78-kilogram frame through barriers that know no fear, Johncock is developing a Hart-like consistency and staying power for, at the time of writing (after round 19), he had played 44 consecutive AFL matches, which he explains this way: “I’ve been pretty lucky with injuries and to be able to keep my body up and going. I hope to get to 50 without missing a game and then we’ll look at 100.
“It can all change pretty quickly so you have to make sure you keep on top of it with maintenance so your body’s feeling all right. I love training. It’s all good work, all good fun. But I hate pre-season. There’s too much training involved. But I want to develop into a midfielder so over the pre-season I want to work on my endurance and I hope to be able to have a run around in the midfield and get in on the action.”
That pre-season will be preceded by Johncock’s 21st birthday on October 21, which coincides with that of a cousin and lifelong mate, Peter Burgoyne, Port Adelaide’s brilliant midfielder/forward. (Johncock’s mother and Burgoyne’s father are first cousins).
“That’ll be a pretty big weekend back home at Port Lincoln with the friends and family,” Johncock says. “It’ll be awesome. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll probably go home for a couple of weeks after Ronnie (Burns) and I have gone overseas for a couple of weeks. We don’t know where yet.”
Yes, Lincoln will be rockin’ for two of its favourite sons – and finest, most talented exports.
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Life can seem to fly by nearly as quickly as Graham Johncock can pounce on a football or an opponent with a fearlessness that is making him something of a hugely popular cult figure throughout the AFL. Just four years ago, Adelaide’s dynamic defender-cum-forward and would-be midfielder played in two winning grand finals on the one day – for Port Lincoln club Mallee Park’s under-17 and A-grade teams.
Two months ago, he returned to his home town as a hero to dozens of youngsters wanting to trace his steps into the big league that is the AFL. Johncock, 20, was touched by the rousing reception he received when he acted as water boy for the under-11s, runner for the under-14s and water boy for the under-17s of the all-Aboriginal club.
“They absolutely loved that and wouldn’t leave me alone all day,” he says with some emotion and a hint of surprise. “I was pretty much their hero. I felt pretty special and privileged. They were just mucking around and giving me cheeky little comments and all that sort of stuff. You could see they were really enjoying themselves.”
It has had such an effect on him that he senses his long-term destiny is to return home permanently one day. “Hopefully I’ll play at the highest level for as long as I can – with the Adelaide footy club – and after that I probably see myself going back to Port Lincoln and getting involved with the Aboriginal community, maybe with youth work,” he says. “I reckon it would be pretty interesting work.
“There’s so much talent over on the West Coast and some of it is wasted. They (the youngsters) don’t realise how good they can be and they just throw it away, whereas coming over to Adelaide and spending one year here, you never know what happens, like what happened to me. It’s pretty freakish. I had a bit of talent but I wasn’t the best. I suppose I just really wanted to do it. You only get one chance at it.”
Johncock can relate to already being a role model, even if the very thought of it didn’t sit comfortably with him originally. “As a young bloke growing up, I always looked up to Andrew McLeod,” he says. “Because the Crows were my favourite team, he was my hero. And when I first came to the club, he was the first one to shake my hand when I walked through the door. That was pretty special to me.
“And now I’ve been able to see the way he presents himself on and off the field and at training. He’s the highest level. Just to see the stuff he does, you really love to look up to him. I think he’s fantastic and he’s a mentor to me here at the club.”
Born and bred at Port Lincoln, Johncock started playing football when he was aged only six and progressed through Mallee Park’s junior teams to the stage where he spent 1999 playing with the under-17s in the mornings and with the A-grade in the afternoons. He played with the under-17s at the insistence of his father, Barry (‘Jack’), who is still coaching the under-17s and, remarkably, at 46, is still playing – for Malleee Park’s B-grade team.
“I suppose it was in my blood to play footy,” Johncock says. “Dad won two B-grade medals years ago. And his brothers, Trevor, Roger and Rodney, played footy, too. Roger won a Mail Medal in Ceduna the same year Trevor won it in Lincoln. And mum’s (Joylene’s) father, Reg Betts, won three medals in Ceduna.
“Dad’s playing full forward for the Bs. He doesn’t do a lot running but he’s still playing. Trevor’s got a bit of a back problem, but Roger and Rodney are still playing As for Mallee Park. Outside the club (Adelaide), Dad has been the biggest influence on me for the way he pushed me in a positive way and made me get the best out of myself in my junior years over at Lincoln.
“Mum and dad come across for the big (AFL) games. Yeah, he’s pretty proud. I’ve just got to keep going with it, knuckle down and hopefully I can make something out of it. You’ve got to be pretty determined and really put your mind to it. It’s not going to jump into your lap. You have to stick at it and make it happen yourself.”
Johncock has two older sisters, Kym and Felicity, former netballers, and a younger brother, Barry junior, 19. “Barry came over with me to Port Magpies (in 2000), but he was a typical country boy,” Johncock says. “He loved the country life and in the end the city life got a bit too much for him so he went back home. He’s playing full forward for Mallee Park A-grade. He’s taller and bigger than I am.”
Johncock played the first half of the 2000 season with Port Magpies’ under-19s and the second half with the reserves – and in a losing grand final. AFL clubs already were showing interest in him and he went to the national draft camp before being drafted by Adelaide as late as No. 67 with the club’s fifth pick – after Laurence Angwin (No. 7), Michael Handby (No. 38), Matthew Smith (No. 48) and Hayden Skipworth (No. 53). He began the 2001 season with Port Magpies reserves and made his league debut against North Adelaide at Prospect Oval – and broke his jaw in the first quarter. He resumed after about a six-week spell but then had his wisdom teeth removed and was sidelined for a few more weeks. When he started playing again, his form was good enough for the Crows to name him as an emergency for three of their last five matches.
He had to bide his time again through the pre-season competition before making his AFL debut in round one, against the Western Bulldogs at Telstra Dome, and his rapid development was such that he finished the season as one of only six players to appear in all 25 matches, along with Matthew Bode, Brett Burton, Michael Doughty, Tyson Edwards and, of course, Ben ‘Mr Indestructible’ Hart. And he won the Chairman’s Club emerging-talent award. It was heady stuff for a young man who just a few years earlier had expressed his devotion to the Crows by making ceramic replicas of their 1997-98 AFL premiership cups (one of which has since broken and the other is at his parents’ home).
Despite pushing his wiry 180-centimetre, 78-kilogram frame through barriers that know no fear, Johncock is developing a Hart-like consistency and staying power for, at the time of writing (after round 19), he had played 44 consecutive AFL matches, which he explains this way: “I’ve been pretty lucky with injuries and to be able to keep my body up and going. I hope to get to 50 without missing a game and then we’ll look at 100.
“It can all change pretty quickly so you have to make sure you keep on top of it with maintenance so your body’s feeling all right. I love training. It’s all good work, all good fun. But I hate pre-season. There’s too much training involved. But I want to develop into a midfielder so over the pre-season I want to work on my endurance and I hope to be able to have a run around in the midfield and get in on the action.”
That pre-season will be preceded by Johncock’s 21st birthday on October 21, which coincides with that of a cousin and lifelong mate, Peter Burgoyne, Port Adelaide’s brilliant midfielder/forward. (Johncock’s mother and Burgoyne’s father are first cousins).
“That’ll be a pretty big weekend back home at Port Lincoln with the friends and family,” Johncock says. “It’ll be awesome. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll probably go home for a couple of weeks after Ronnie (Burns) and I have gone overseas for a couple of weeks. We don’t know where yet.”
Yes, Lincoln will be rockin’ for two of its favourite sons – and finest, most talented exports.
