The Adelaide Football Club and leading agriculture network Viterra are throwing their support behind South Australia’s regional football clubs as part of a new partnership unveiled this week.

As Adelaide’s official Regional Partner, Viterra will work with the Club to add value to regional communities through a range of events and initiatives scheduled across the next two years.

The partnership is centred on past and present Crows AFL and AFLW players travelling to regional areas to participate in local football club match days, support non-match day events and host junior coaching clinics. Clubs will also be provided with Country Crow Memberships.

The first regional clubs to benefit from the program will be the Eastern Eyre Ranges Football Club from Cleve/Rudall on the Eyre Peninsula, Bute Football Club from Bute on the Yorke Peninsula, and the Southern Mallee Suns from Lameroo/Pinnaroo in the Murray Mallee region.

Crows CEO Tim Silvers said the Club was proud to be working with Viterra to strengthen and grow local footy, which is the heartbeat of so many regional communities.

“Regional towns and local clubs are part of the fabric of our game, they are incredibly important to our Club, and we’re excited to be working with Viterra,” Silvers said.

“My family moved around while I was growing up and I fondly remember local footy clubs as places I gravitated towards to make new friends and feel a sense of community.

“All three of our teams receive great support from country SA and we want to ensure local clubs thrive.

“This way everyone who wants to play or watch footy can do so, and experience the health, social and wellbeing benefits that come with being part of one.

“The events and initiatives planned with Viterra will also bring us even closer to our fans outside the metro area and provide another opportunity for our players to inspire the next generation.”Viterra plays a significant role in regional South Australia as an employer and service provider, operating its network to connect SA growers and the high quality grain, oilseeds and pulses they grow to end users in Australia and around the world.

Viterra Chief Executive Officer Australia and New Zealand Philip Hughes said Viterra was excited to be supporting an initiative aimed at positively contributing to communities across South Australia.

“Regional communities are the backbone of Viterra’s network and we recognise the power of sport in connecting people,” Hughes said.

“We are proud to facilitate this exciting program of regional clinics, which will provide a fantastic platform for junior footballers to connect and learn from elite AFL and AFLW players. 

“Viterra already supports more than 30 regional clubs throughout South Australia with its 20c/tonne sponsorship program, and this is another way in which we can generate meaningful and positive impact in the regional areas where we operate and where most of our employees and grower customers live and work.

“As well as the coaching clinics, these regional visits will provide a great opportunity to unite the community behind an exciting feature event.”

About Viterra

Our world-leading, fully integrated agriculture network connects Australian growers with domestic and international consumers to supply sustainable, traceable and quality-controlled agricultural products.

We operate a storage and handling network across South Australia and western Victoria, where we store and manage grain on behalf of growers. We are also one of the largest buyers of South Australian commodities supplying them to customers in Australia and more than 30 international destinations. In the 2022/23 season, we received over 9.05 million tonnes of local growers’ grain into our storage and handling sites and contributed $1.5 billion to the SA economy as a buyer of grain direct from growers and through investments in our supply chain.

We are a major employer with 1000 permanent and ongoing employees and we hire an additional 1500 each harvest, with most living and working in regional areas. Where possible, we use local contractors and suppliers to support the operations of our network and maintaining our infrastructure. As a company we aim to support the regional communities in which we operate.