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Toast Tex 300

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Anyone close to the club know if we're getting a 300 Game commemorative coin like we've had in the past for the other 4?

Or are those days gone and replaced with just the Tex300 merch (which is a cool logo)
 
Anyone close to the club know if we're getting a 300 Game commemorative coin like we've had in the past for the other 4?

Or are those days gone and replaced with just the Tex300 merch (which is a cool logo)
Not sure. But I did see some big framed tex 300 games memorabilia for $995

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Amazing to still be playing at the level he does at 35, given his size and the position he plays.

I know he’s never been a crash and bash type player, but still. A lot of key forwards in the game’s history have been cooked before 35, and often well before 35.

He pretty well was cooked, in his own words, he reckoned he was lucky to have a contract for 2021 after the 2020 season.

“Certainly in the Covid year I was struggling for a kick. I think I kicked a total 15 goals that year. I was really battling for form,” he admitted on AFL 360.

“Nicksy kept playing me.

“We finished last on the ladder and I think I was very lucky to have a year on my contract the following year because it would have been an interesting conversation at the end of that year as to whether I went on or not."


There's no doubt that he played under duress a lot during Pyke's 2018 & 2019 season failures. Remember the mini preseason he was going to do in 2018 to get right. We were 4:2 when we made the decision, then 5:2 after beating Dogs, then 5:4 after a 90 point away drubbing against Melbourne and home loss against GWS. And whadda ya klnow, several weeks turns into 3, Tex is healed.

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Since his final long term contract finished, he has been absolutely remarkable. There's no doubt he's had patches where he's played injured and things were looking dicey, but he's returned to form every time. There's a certain sweetness to him playing his 300th as we return to finals and particularly as minor premiers.
 

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Favourite Tex moments in no particular order
Goal on Aliir as previously highlighted
Showdown Medal in 2023
Another goal in Showdown, 2017 I think, he marks and plays on from 60
2015 Elimination Final
Semi Final vs Freo
3rd game vs Freo, you knew he had it
5 in first half vs Hawthorn
10 vs West Coast
9 vs West Coast when chasing the Coleman Medal
2023 as a whole really

I'm sure there are more, he dominated a game vs Melbourne at MCG think he had 25+ possies, 15 marks, 4 or 5 goals

EDIT: vs Melbourne 2012, 25 disposals 16 marks 4 goals 2 behinds, 3 Brownlow votes, but only 2 tackles - Craigy would've dropped him :)
 
As a grown man I feel a bit strange putting this down, but it actually brings tears to my eyes thinking about Tex retiring.

Tex you have been the Adelaide Football Club, you are the Adelaide Football Club, just as Macca and Roo were as players.
You guided us through some challenging times and were there front and centre when as a club you were not supported.
You have brought us so much joy in a period that can only be described as sad and disappointing.
You are the link between the Roo and Macca period and sit comfortably with them in the top 5 of our clubs history (3rd for me) and perhaps it’s symbolic that you have also played with others like filthy who will take us into the next era of AFC and maybe one day they’ll sit comfortably next to you.
As a player your skill and football smarts are unequaled from players I’ve seen, a highlight reel that most players couldn’t dream of having.
Tex you are a legend of the Adelaide Football Club.
May we one day see Hugo and Louis in the best jumper in the land.
Congrats on 300
Let’s get this done.

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Just looking at the all time goal kickers list, of the modern forwards, he’s a better player than Kennedy, Hawkins, Hall, Rocca and Jack Riewoldt. They kicked a few more, but Tex can do more. So many strings to his bow.

He’s on par with Pavlich and Nick Riewoldt and Richo and even Jonathon Brown imo.

Great clubman too.
 
I thought I remembered this moment really well, but I do not remember those socks at all.

Now I'm starting to question everything.

Something else you might not have noticed about that clip: he takes the first bounce with his left hand, and the second with his right.

It’s a small thing but you have to be a purist to really appreciate what this says about a player.

There are vanishingly few players where you can’t tell the difference between their preferred and non-preferred side. And it is almost impossible to teach past a certain age, you have to have it at junior level.

Tex is in that 1%.
 
One of my favourite Tex memories: A game vs Sydney, Buddy had drilled a goal from about 55-60, shortly after Tex had a set shot from similar distance. Buddy went up to Tex when he was walking back, (friendly) words were exchanged and I think we know what they might have been. Tex stepped up and nailed the goal.
 
One of my favourite Tex memories: A game vs Sydney, Buddy had drilled a goal from about 55-60, shortly after Tex had a set shot from similar distance. Buddy went up to Tex when he was walking back, (friendly) words were exchanged and I think we know what they might have been. Tex stepped up and nailed the goal.
Didn’t Tex say they had a carton bet on it?
 

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The other thing with Tex is he has an unusual psychological connection to fans.

For people of my generation, he's the Crow that is our age, and grew up loving the club at the same time and in the same way he did.

Furthermore, with the way the NSW Scholarship thing worked out, he was the only player we've had who has truly been ours who we could track progress before he was on the list and follow him onto the list.

Obviously the story about him being listed on the NSW Scholarship is important in itself, he loves the Club and wanted to play here.

The other one is by sheer longevity how many eras of Adelaide football he's connected to. First coach was Craig relatively early in Craig's tenure. Played with Roo, Mcleod, Edwards and Goodwin along with playing Dangerfield, Sloane and Betts all the way through to Rankine, Dawson and Thilthorpe. He connects eras in a way that's unusual.

Finally, there's the strength under pressure to which he lead the club in the darkest days of 2015 following Phil Walsh's death which continue to be criminally underrated and ignored by people outside of the Club. It was one of the most commendable acts of leadership in Australian sporting history (i'd put Clarke's ton in the Phil Hughes test up there too).

That he was imperfect only made him more endearing to us. A flawed person, and that's what made him real.

We will never get the combination of personality and footballer like him again.
 

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