Two-time Premiership Captain Mark Bickley has plenty of never-before-told stories, following a 13-year AFL career spanning across 272 games, and three years within the coaching ranks.
This year, Bicks will be lifting the lid on those stories with us, taking you inside the four walls at West Lakes, with an aim of giving an insight into football life.
As the Club prepares to play GWS this weekend, Bicks recalls how chaos hit when he was part of the coaching staff during Adelaide’s clash with the Giants in Round Seven, 2013.
It was just our second encounter with GWS after the Giants had entered the AFL in 2012.
I was an assistant coach to then Senior Coach Brenton Sanderson and we were entering the Round Seven match against the Giants after an 11-point loss to Hawthorn, so we were keen to get back on the winners’ list.
It was decided that week that a few of our footy staff members would fly to Sydney the day of the game, rather than go with the players and us coaches.
The decision didn’t seem like a bad one at the time but it soon threw our preparations into a bit of chaos.
Physical performance coach and match-day runner Matthew Bode, physiotherapist Kevin Whitford, Doctor Mark Cesana, GPS analyst Jarryd Wallace and statistical analyst Bernie McNamara didn’t get to the match until the second quarter due to flight delays.
Their 6am flight to Sydney was diverted to Melbourne because of heavy fog in Sydney.
They eventually arrived in Sydney around lunchtime and had to endure a one-hour long car ride to Skoda Stadium, located at the Sydney Showground in Olympic Park.
Other Crows staff members were thrust into unfamiliar roles during the first quarter to help cover their absence.
Ian Callinan, who was a travelling emergency, was doing a bit of coaching for us in the box, while Ricky Henderson, the second travelling emergency, covered for McNamara.
Leadership and development manager Paddy Steinfort was the team’s runner until Bode arrived, while former Communications Manager David Burtenshaw assumed Steinfort’s traditional role of relaying messages from the coaches to the players.
I remember we didn’t want the players knowing, and everyone remained pretty calm, no one really panicked.
The players were shocked, though, when they were receiving on-field messages from their player development manager.
But everyone just ran with the punches and got on with the game.
It ended up being a great day for us, we went on to win the game by 135 points.
Tom Lynch kicked 10 goals, while Patrick Dangerfield and Josh Jenkins booted four apiece.
Scotty Thompson had a solid day with 31 disposals, while Brent Reilly amassed 27.
It’s crazy now to think that a player was actually helping us coaches in the box for a bit and that our media officer was delivering messages to the runner.
I’m looking forward to watching our boys face off against GWS this week and add another chapter to our story.
Go Crows!
