Adelaide’s players and officials visited various community centres from Truro all the way to Renmark; with a number of the schools consisting of less than 20 students, making it extra special for those who received a visit.
Young defender Daniel Talia, said the players had interacted with a large number of people during their stay in the Riverland.
“The players have visited lots of different schools, nursing homes and hospitals. It’s been a great experience to visit these people and as players it’s something that we really enjoy doing.”
On Thursday afternoon players ran a football skills clinic at Berri Oval, with hundreds of excited children turning out for a chance to meet and learn from their football heroes.
Whilst the Crows players were running the clinic, Adelaide senior coach, Brenton Sanderson, and assistant coaches Darren Milburn and Scott Camporeale, directed an intimate training session, working closely with an U15 special squad.
The Crows squad and officials then mingled with 275 members of the local community over dinner at the Loxton Sporting Complex on Thursday night.
Everyone in attendance relished the chance to meet new senior coach Brenton Sanderson and listen to entertaining interviews with Captain Nathan van Berlo, Patrick Dangerfield and Taylor Walker.
Adelaide CEO, Stephen Trigg, also gave an address and passionately thanked the Club’s outstanding supporters based in the Riverland region, who endure hours of travel to watch their beloved Crows play.
Having grown up in a small country town, ruckman Sam Jacobs said that events like the Loxton Football Club dinner brought back great memories for him.
“The dinner last night was fantastic, I remember as a kid how much I loved it when footballers made special visits, so it was really enjoyable to come out here and visit this community.”
“As AFL footballers it’s important that we give back to the local community,” added Jacobs.
The team kicked off its final day of AFL Community Camp with a light skills session on Berri Oval before heading to Berri Primary School to take on a mixed team of young students in an exhibition game.
It seemed there was more support for the local Berri side, rather than the visiting Crows players and it showed on the scoreboard with Berri Primary, who were boosted by the inclusion of Crows midfielder Bernie Vince, running out eventual 10 point winners.
Scott Thompson, spoke following the match against Berri Primary School and said that the Club’s visit had been a really valuable experience.
“It’s been great, it’s a lovely spot to visit and the boys have been busy over the past couple of days. We’ve been to primary schools and hospitals, we had a sit down function last night at the Loxton Sporting complex which was a good event.”
“Overall it’s been a huge success.”
