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This is a bit in the large side but it's well worth a read,
Stone this Crow, but don't expect to break him
March 28 2003
Football's hunted man Wayne Carey has been welcomed by everyone at his new club. Now he plans to repay that faith. Rohan Connolly reports from Adelaide.
When Adelaide first explored the possibility of Wayne Carey making a comeback in a Crows jumper in early August last year, it decided to leave nothing to chance.
The club's executive first had to convince its board of directors. Then it sounded out not just senior coach Gary Ayres, but his entire coaching panel. Adelaide even tracked and analysed every letter, email, fax and phone call it received on the thorny issue. Most importantly, however, the Crows spoke to their players.
Having a decade previously boasted a full-forward in Tony Modra with a Hollywood-esque, larger-than-life image, Adelaide already knew a bit about the odd media sideshow. What it couldn't know for sure was how its own players would react to the possibility of sharing lockers with a man seen to have, in both a team and moral sense, stepped well over the line. The Crows didn't have to wait long to find out.
Adelaide football manager John Reid, who was at the player meeting, summed up the mood: "It was pretty much: 'For Christ's sake, let's get him'!" Chief executive Steve Trigg recalls the reaction of skipper Mark Ricciuto upon first being told. "He just jumped up and said: 'He's the greatest player of the last two decades, and he'd be fantastic for our club'."
Former Crow star-turned-match-committee member Darren Jarman's blunt observation also said plenty: "I hated him because he was so bloody good. I'm still dirty on him for winning that final against us in 1994 when I was at Hawthorn."
Neither did respected Crow elder Nigel Smart take much convincing. "The moral aspects of it didn't really enter into my mind; I don't think anyone looked at it that way," he says. "I think we all probably applied a bit of a football culture to it and just said, 'Look, what's it going to do for our side'. And by the time it occurred, all that stuff was going to be 12 months down the track."
On the eve of Carey's first premiership season appearance with his second club against Fremantle on Sunday, it's actually now 12 months and a couple of weeks since "all that stuff" happened. (For those residing in another galaxy for the past year, "all that stuff" being his affair with former Kangaroos teammate Anthony Stevens' wife Kelli). And as impossible as it seemed then, the life of the dethroned "King" appears to be returning to something a bit closer to normal.
Reid says: "Our presentation to Wayne right from day one has been: 'This is about you being part of the team. We've got a role for you, we don't expect you to win games for us, we expect you to play a part.' I think, quite frankly, that was a big factor. Sydney was in with a fair crack (of acquiring his services) but he thought he'd become the face of it all again, and he'd already been through that for 10 years."
And as unlikely as it may sound, the plan to make Carey "just another player" in a town obsessed by its two AFL teams might just be working. The obvious media-focused milestones like his first donning of the Crows' strip, his first training session and, a fortnight ago in the Wizard Cup, his first competitive match for the club, have been and gone.
With them, it appears, has much of the attendant hype. Attend any Kangaroos training session of the past decade and the confident swagger of the powerfully built No. 18 was inevitably the first thing you would notice. As Adelaide trained on the deserted and cavernous Football Park arena on Wednesday, you had to look pretty hard to spot the bloke wearing No. 2.
When you finally did spot Carey, you also couldn't help but notice just how relaxed he looked. "The thing I'm finding interesting," observes Smart, "is that all the hysteria seems to have eased right away. He can turn up for training now without everyone wanting shots of him doing it. It just seems like the pressure tap is turning off, that people outside this club are more accepting of Wayne in the side. I can feel that and I think he can feel that, too."
"To be honest, he's pretty much what I expected," says Crow defender Nathan Bassett. "I don't think Wayne's that complex. He's a country bloke who enjoys himself and has a good sense of humour. He's just a decent bloke, who doesn't want to come into a new club and straight away start pushing and asserting himself."
Smart concurs. "It's like any recruit, you can't just start applying what you've learnt to other members of the side because you're the new guy on the block. I know I wouldn't want to do that. He just wants to get a few runs on the board."
Neither will Adelaide push him. Carey spoke briefly to the media after his Wizard Cup debut, and, will, according to Adelaide communications manager Phil Harper, continue to be presented before the media every four to six weeks. It might have been even more frequently were both player and club not still licking their wounds from the infamous "spa incident" beat-up at the start of the year. "That week was just . . ." says Reid, trailing off failing to find an adjective of suitable distaste. "It must have seemed like all these waves were crashing around him and there was no one who could help him. If he'd come to us then and said, 'I don't want to play', I would have understood perfectly. I'm certain at one stage in his own head he was asking, 'I wonder whether this is all worth it?' "
Adelaide coach Gary Ayres, having coached Geelong and Gary Ablett at the height of his fame, was arguably the least concerned about to how to handle any potential distractions. "I've been through it all before, mate," he laughs. "You might say I'm an old hand at it."
His one concern, he concedes, was how Carey's body would stand up, an anxiety which after a few nervous flutters surrounding a hamstring injury, is beginning to abate. Ayres is certainly confident Carey will clock up far more than the handful of games many cynical football pundits are predicting.
"What I saw over the last three and what I've seen this week leading up to this game make me think we've got his preparation right. We didn't get him here just to play 10 games. He said to me in one of our very early discussions, 'I want to play as much football as I possibly can'. You don't come back to do this half-****ed, you know."
Carey hasn't. And, clearly, neither have the Crows.
Stone this Crow, but don't expect to break him
March 28 2003
Football's hunted man Wayne Carey has been welcomed by everyone at his new club. Now he plans to repay that faith. Rohan Connolly reports from Adelaide.
When Adelaide first explored the possibility of Wayne Carey making a comeback in a Crows jumper in early August last year, it decided to leave nothing to chance.
The club's executive first had to convince its board of directors. Then it sounded out not just senior coach Gary Ayres, but his entire coaching panel. Adelaide even tracked and analysed every letter, email, fax and phone call it received on the thorny issue. Most importantly, however, the Crows spoke to their players.
Having a decade previously boasted a full-forward in Tony Modra with a Hollywood-esque, larger-than-life image, Adelaide already knew a bit about the odd media sideshow. What it couldn't know for sure was how its own players would react to the possibility of sharing lockers with a man seen to have, in both a team and moral sense, stepped well over the line. The Crows didn't have to wait long to find out.
Adelaide football manager John Reid, who was at the player meeting, summed up the mood: "It was pretty much: 'For Christ's sake, let's get him'!" Chief executive Steve Trigg recalls the reaction of skipper Mark Ricciuto upon first being told. "He just jumped up and said: 'He's the greatest player of the last two decades, and he'd be fantastic for our club'."
Former Crow star-turned-match-committee member Darren Jarman's blunt observation also said plenty: "I hated him because he was so bloody good. I'm still dirty on him for winning that final against us in 1994 when I was at Hawthorn."
Neither did respected Crow elder Nigel Smart take much convincing. "The moral aspects of it didn't really enter into my mind; I don't think anyone looked at it that way," he says. "I think we all probably applied a bit of a football culture to it and just said, 'Look, what's it going to do for our side'. And by the time it occurred, all that stuff was going to be 12 months down the track."
On the eve of Carey's first premiership season appearance with his second club against Fremantle on Sunday, it's actually now 12 months and a couple of weeks since "all that stuff" happened. (For those residing in another galaxy for the past year, "all that stuff" being his affair with former Kangaroos teammate Anthony Stevens' wife Kelli). And as impossible as it seemed then, the life of the dethroned "King" appears to be returning to something a bit closer to normal.
Reid says: "Our presentation to Wayne right from day one has been: 'This is about you being part of the team. We've got a role for you, we don't expect you to win games for us, we expect you to play a part.' I think, quite frankly, that was a big factor. Sydney was in with a fair crack (of acquiring his services) but he thought he'd become the face of it all again, and he'd already been through that for 10 years."
And as unlikely as it may sound, the plan to make Carey "just another player" in a town obsessed by its two AFL teams might just be working. The obvious media-focused milestones like his first donning of the Crows' strip, his first training session and, a fortnight ago in the Wizard Cup, his first competitive match for the club, have been and gone.
With them, it appears, has much of the attendant hype. Attend any Kangaroos training session of the past decade and the confident swagger of the powerfully built No. 18 was inevitably the first thing you would notice. As Adelaide trained on the deserted and cavernous Football Park arena on Wednesday, you had to look pretty hard to spot the bloke wearing No. 2.
When you finally did spot Carey, you also couldn't help but notice just how relaxed he looked. "The thing I'm finding interesting," observes Smart, "is that all the hysteria seems to have eased right away. He can turn up for training now without everyone wanting shots of him doing it. It just seems like the pressure tap is turning off, that people outside this club are more accepting of Wayne in the side. I can feel that and I think he can feel that, too."
"To be honest, he's pretty much what I expected," says Crow defender Nathan Bassett. "I don't think Wayne's that complex. He's a country bloke who enjoys himself and has a good sense of humour. He's just a decent bloke, who doesn't want to come into a new club and straight away start pushing and asserting himself."
Smart concurs. "It's like any recruit, you can't just start applying what you've learnt to other members of the side because you're the new guy on the block. I know I wouldn't want to do that. He just wants to get a few runs on the board."
Neither will Adelaide push him. Carey spoke briefly to the media after his Wizard Cup debut, and, will, according to Adelaide communications manager Phil Harper, continue to be presented before the media every four to six weeks. It might have been even more frequently were both player and club not still licking their wounds from the infamous "spa incident" beat-up at the start of the year. "That week was just . . ." says Reid, trailing off failing to find an adjective of suitable distaste. "It must have seemed like all these waves were crashing around him and there was no one who could help him. If he'd come to us then and said, 'I don't want to play', I would have understood perfectly. I'm certain at one stage in his own head he was asking, 'I wonder whether this is all worth it?' "
Adelaide coach Gary Ayres, having coached Geelong and Gary Ablett at the height of his fame, was arguably the least concerned about to how to handle any potential distractions. "I've been through it all before, mate," he laughs. "You might say I'm an old hand at it."
His one concern, he concedes, was how Carey's body would stand up, an anxiety which after a few nervous flutters surrounding a hamstring injury, is beginning to abate. Ayres is certainly confident Carey will clock up far more than the handful of games many cynical football pundits are predicting.
"What I saw over the last three and what I've seen this week leading up to this game make me think we've got his preparation right. We didn't get him here just to play 10 games. He said to me in one of our very early discussions, 'I want to play as much football as I possibly can'. You don't come back to do this half-****ed, you know."
Carey hasn't. And, clearly, neither have the Crows.
