Former Adelaide forward turned defender Ken McGregor recalls sitting at the football Club reading the newspaper during lunch.

McGregor, now 41, admitted it wasn’t a popular player pastime, but his zest for news and current affairs was high.

And so, it may come as no surprise to his former teammates that McGregor’s post-footy career was in journalism.

“I was interested in journalism, especially towards the end of my football career,” McGregor, who played 152 AFL games between 1999 and 2008, said.

“I had a good relationship with the sports journalists that we dealt with and I thought journalism would be an interesting job and something I wouldn’t mind getting into.

“I was always reading the newspaper in between training and in the lunch room because I had that interest and at the time it was probably a little bit out of place.

“But I thought I’d follow that passion that I had for news and information, so I started tailing my studies to that towards the end of my footy career when I knew the end was close.”

Despite having just retired from the AFL, sports reporting was not the path he followed, instead it was crime and court reporting which kick started McGregor’s journalism career.

“I did think long and hard about going into sports journalism but I didn’t want to be reporting on players when at the time I still had a strong connection with a lot of people in the industry,” McGregor said.

“I didn’t want to be seen reporting on people who were still pretty close friends and I didn’t want to put myself in that place.

“The key skill in journalism is working out how to develop contacts, so the other reason was that I also wanted to learn how to create a knowledge of areas without having that base.

“Especially early in my career, I wanted to learn the skills of networking and connectivity.

“The initial grounding I got with court and police reporting was excellent.

“I always thought I’d come back to sports journalism but I found my interest in other areas and never ended up doing it.”

After honing his craft with The Advertiser in Adelaide, McGregor soon moved into political reporting with News Corp at the Canberra Press Gallery.

“I spent a year covering Federal politics in Canberra and that was a really cool experience,” McGregor said.

“It was excellent to be over there amongst the Canberra bubble and to understand a bit about the political game and how things work.

“It was an exciting time of my life.”

Although McGregor’s main focus was reporting, he wasn’t totally lost to footy.

During his year in Canberra, he played for the Ainslie Football Club and his move back to SA was sparked by being offered the role of Senior Coach for Port Adelaide’s SANFL team.

McGregor held that position at Port for the 2013 season, before becoming Head Coach at North Adelaide, a role he maintained from 2014 until midway through the 2015 season.

“It was good to stay within footy and develop relationships with the players - it was a really satisfying feeling when you’ve helped them become a better player.,” McGregor said.

“Then I went back to being a journalist with The Advertiser while coaching North Adelaide.”

Deep down, though, McGregor knew coaching wasn’t for him.

“At that same time, I concurrently did a bit of Messenger (local news) reporting as well just to keep both streams of my career going,” McGregor said.

“I don’t think coaching was my path, so it was good to finish that and take another path.

“When the North Adelaide gig then ended, I stepped up my journalism career which was good and went to the NT for two and a half years.

“I was the Deputy Editor of the daily newspaper - NT News - and the Editor of the Sunday Territorian.

“That was a very unique experience, in terms of the creativity you can have over there.”

The father-of-two and Adelaide local said the pull to return home to family soon won out and he left journalism behind, moving into a media advisory role with the Government.

McGregor worked for former Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing Cory Wingard and ex-Health Minister Stephen Wade, before becoming Director of Media and Communications for former SA Premier Stephen Marshall.

He held that role from 2019 until March this year, following the Labour Party’s Election win.

“Working for the then Premier was a very, very intense role,” McGregor said.

“With Covid going on but then also with every other aspect going on in the game of politics and leading into an election campaign as well, but I learnt so much from it as well.”

After taking some time off following the State Election, McGregor landed a job within the defence sector with a new role as Internal Communications Manager at Babcock Australia and New Zealand.

“With the change of Government, they bring in their own people… about two months ago I began my new role,” McGregor said.

“It’s about communicating our brand to employees and also giving advice on how to present.

“In my new role, there’s an undercurrent of telling stories, so it combines journalism with a bit of business and putting an economic lense on things.”

McGregor, who made his AFL debut in Round 14, 1999, against Geelong, said he had fond memories of his time with the Crows.

“I loved footy and I would’ve loved to have kept playing if I was 20 per cent quicker and younger than I was,” McGregor said.

“I knew the time was right to retire and I’m quite happy with how my career unfolded in the end.

“There’s so many people who’s mood and whole week is dependent on whether the Crows win or that and you felt that.

“To know that people have felt better when we managed to have a win is what I’ll always remember.”

Although work, and family, which includes looking after his two young children - Maya, 7, and Darcy, 4, - makes life hectic, McGregor still tries to catch glimpses of Crows games.

“The kids keep me on my toes but I wouldn’t have it any other way, they’re great fun,” McGregor, who also helps out as a defensive line coach at SANFL Club South Adelaide, said.

“But I do love to get out and support the Crows - I can see we are going places and I’m looking forward to watching it unfold next year.”