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Original Squad

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At Christmas, I was back in Adelaide and found a few old footy books I left at my father's place and found the Football Record for the Crows first game v Hawthorn. It listed the 42 players in the squad. I remember Adelaide were allowed to/ or decided to list 10 kids which took their squad total to 52.

Do any of you remember who those kids were? I'm pretty sure Hart, Ricciuto, Rehn and Brenton Sanderson were 4 of them. Did Rehn play any games in 1991? Thanks in advance for any info.
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
At Christmas, I was back in Adelaide and found a few old footy books I left at my father's place and found the Football Record for the Crows first game v Hawthorn. It listed the 42 players in the squad. I remember Adelaide were allowed to/ or decided to list 10 kids which took their squad total to 52.

Do any of you remember who those kids were? I'm pretty sure Hart, Ricciuto, Rehn and Brenton Sanderson were 4 of them. Did Rehn play any games in 1991? Thanks in advance for any info.


Ricciuto was not put on the list until 1992, as he was only 16 at the beginning of 1991 (the club wanted to:D )

Rehn was a mature 20 years old in 1991

Ben Hart
Brenton Sanderson
Matthew Kelly* maybe not
Peter Turner
Adam Saliba
Sean Wellman
Chris Groom
Randle Bone
Jonathon Ross

2 more I cannot come up with. But I am pretty sure that list is the majority of the kids on the list in 1991.
 
Ive got the Footy Budget from the 1992 S-O-O clash between SA and Vic (won by the Croweaters, 19.19 to 18.12). The SA team that night featured a 21 year old former North Adelaide junior player called Wayne Carey, btw.

Anyway, in the Budget is a Gordon Schwartz column about the number
of "potentially brilliant youngsters" in the Crows 52 player squad. The players he named were:

Mark Ricciuto (age 16)
Ben Hart, Sean Wellman (age 17)
Jonathon Ross, Seb Packer, Peter Turner, Chris Groom,
Brenton Sanderson, Randall Bone (age 18)
Paul Rouvray, Adam Saliba, Jarrod Hocking (age 19)
Mark Viska, Shaun Rehn, Michael DiBiase (age 20).

I presume that the 10 juniors in the original 52 are in that grouping.

And as pointed out elsewhere, Rehn did debut in 1991 Round 18 - and in the last round (an 80 point flogging of the Roos at Footy Park) picked up 3 Brownlow votes.
 

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Not that im a Crows supporter but my old man was friends with a couple of the players who were in that initial squad, Darren Smith and Peter McIntyre are two that spring to mind.

They actually gave me a large poster that had a picture of every player from the squad, and was signed by all and the coaches. I have no idea what happened to it but was probably a nice momento for a Crows supporter, the poster was absolutely massive.

It is interesting to go back and look at the names in that squad though, expectations you had on certain players you thought were going to be the next big things but did not make it, Saliba is one that springs straight to mind. At the same time you cant imagine how other guys made that squad, Mellow or whatever his name was, give me a break.:p
 
Im pretty sure that Riccuito, Wellman, Packer and DiBiase werent part of the original squad. The Crows had a moratorium on all SANFL players for their first year in the competition (instead of going in the draft) and they were put on the list at the end of 1991. Modra as well.
 
The full list of 10 were :

Jonathan Ross, Damien Mellow (Norwood), Ben Hart, Adam Saliba, Peter Turner (North Adelaide), Randall Bone (South), Shaun Rehn (West), Brenton Sanderson (Sturt), Damien McCarthy (Eagles), Jarrod Hocking (Glenelg).
 
i have heard a number of times that mark bickley was the last person picked on our first list

now was he the last picked of the first 42 players or was was he the last picked of the whole 52?
 
rayven said:
i have heard a number of times that mark bickley was the last person picked on our first list

now was he the last picked of the first 42 players or was was he the last picked of the whole 52?


Mark Bickley was the last player selected on the initial list of 52 players.

The club had large expectation on the younger player to develop into starts but Mark Bickley was simply put on the list for insurance purposes for form and injuries. I guess it simply shows what a bit of hard work as well as heart and determination will allow you to achieve purely over natural talent.
 

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dyertribe said:
I previously posted up the profiles of the 1991 squad after pulling that year's yearbook out of mothballs.

Link

Still makes for bloody good reading :D
Wow, you read their profiles and they're all champions, even the duds.

Interestingthat 3/10 youngsters made the grade long term - Hart, Rehn & Sanderson - which is about the same hit rate as today's draftees.
 
crows98 said:
Mark Bickley was the last player selected on the initial list of 52 players.

The club had large expectation on the younger player to develop into starts but Mark Bickley was simply put on the list for insurance purposes for form and injuries. I guess it simply shows what a bit of hard work as well as heart and determination will allow you to achieve purely over natural talent.
Funny I had always thought Eddie Hocking was last, and only picked because Richard Champion had committed to Brisbane and it was too late to get him back when Darren Jarman reneged on his hand shake deal.
 
Does anyone know what happened to Damien McCarthy? He was an absolute gun junior, strong as an ox and as big as a house. Really should have made it. Anyone have an idea why he faded and what he's doing now?
 
juice said:
Does anyone know what happened to Damien McCarthy? He was an absolute gun junior, strong as an ox and as big as a house. Really should have made it. Anyone have an idea why he faded and what he's doing now?

Went from The Eagles to North Adelaide in 1993. Played some good games but lacked consistency. IIRC he got a bad knee injury (or similiar) sometime in 1994 and never played again.
 
Matthew Kelly received the largest "signing on" bonus of any of the inaugural squad andwas thought to be the one that would really breakout. I know Cornesy to this day laments him as the one that got away. Injuries just killed him.

A young David Marshall would be an absolute superstar in todays game.
 
Damien Mellow is a playing coach for Crystal Brook Football Club in Northern Areas Football Association.
 

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I do recall Jonathan Ross injuring his knee pretty badly early in one season. I think it might've been 1992. It was a night game, possibly against Collingwood and it was at Football Park. That's as much as I can remember, but I was six years old at the time. :p
 
Names Games Played
1 J Klug 22
2 D Marshall 22
3 D Hart 22
4 R Maynard 22
5 S Lee 22
6 M Mickan 21
7 A McGuinness 21
8 C McDermott 21
9 N Smart 20
10 R Jameson 19
11 G Fielke 18
12 A Jarman 18
13 M Bickley 18
14 S Tregenza 17
15 S Hodges 13
16 M Liptak 12
17 A Bartlett 11
18 E Hocking 11
19 D Hughes 11
20 B Lindner 11
21 P McIntyre 10
22 B Abernethy 9
23 S Tasker 9
24 S Rowe 8
25 B Lindsay 6
26 R Negri 6
27 D Brown 6
28 S Rehn 6
29 R Thompson 5
30 D Smith 5
31 A Payze 5
32 W Weidemann 5
33 T Warhurst 2
34 P Patterson 2
35 M Murphy 2
36 C Lamb 1
37 M Kelly 1
38 J Hocking -
39 G Tanner -
40 D Mellow -
41 D Bartsch -
42 T Clisby -
43 D McCarthy -
44 P Turner -
45 A Saliba -
46 B Sanderson -
47 R Bone -
48 J Ross -
49 P Rouvray -
50 S Schwerdt -
51 D Pittman -
52 B Hart -
 
Leaving us at the end of 1991 were

R Thompson
T Warhurst
C Lamb
D Mellow
D Bartsch
T Clisby
D McCarthy
D Hughes

Coming on board for '92 and mid '92....(remember there was still a mid year draft) were

A Ingerson - 15 games
A Modra - 8 games
M Ricciuto
M Viska
S Wellman
C Groom
A Geddes
A Schwartz
S Packer
M DiBiase
J West

Interestingly DiBiase was picked up before the season began - but was dumped midseason along with Lindsay (retired), and Bartlett (big girl).....for West, Schwartz, and Geddes if my memory serves.

we still had a squad of 52 for 1992 and 1993 but was trimmed after that
 
dyertribe said:
I previously posted up the profiles of the 1991 squad after pulling that year's yearbook out of mothballs.

Link

Still makes for bloody good reading :D
DT - I've still got the official Advertiser inaugural squad photo in my drawer at work and in the early days took great pleasure in putting a red mark through those who had retired.

Needless to say only 1 face from that photo remains unvandalised !!

:o
 

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