A nickname is a rite of passage for any recruit and it hasn’t taken long for the newest crop of Crows to earn the tags that are likely to stick with them for their entire careers.
Here are the nicknames the players (and coaches) have given their new teammates:
Matt Crouch
Matt has carried the stock-standard ‘Crouchy’ nickname throughout his football career, but seeing as there is already a ‘Crouchy’ at the Club (Matt’s older brother, Brad) Patrick Dangerfield has started calling the youngest Crouch sibling, ‘Junior’. Taylor Walker has taken it one step further, sometimes referring to Matt as ‘BOB’, which stands for ‘Brother of Brad’.
Riley Knight
Again, rather than recycle the nickname of another (former) teammate, the players got creative with Knight’s nickname. Jared Petrenko has coined the nickname ‘Watchman’ as in the cricket term ‘Night Watchman’. ‘Boogie’ (from the movie, Boogie Nights) and ‘Knight Rider’ were also mentioned.
Charlie Cameron
The Club’s first rookie pick, Cameron earned his nickname only a short time after arriving in Adelaide. After falling asleep early at Richard Douglas’ house one night post-draft, Cameron told Dougy he was ‘jetlagged’ from the flight from Perth – he’s now known as ‘Jets’.
James Battersby
James Battersby’s nickname is less inventive. ‘J-Batt’ was floated but didn’t stick, leaving the skilful ball winner with the more customary ‘Batters’ or ‘Batts’.
Jake Kelly
Arguably the best story behind any of the new player nicknames, Kelly earned his moniker through his actions on the training track. The ultra-professional and hard-working defender was actually accused of going ‘too hard’ in a grappling session on his first day at the Club, earning the tag ‘The Bull’. ‘Like a bull at a gate’, Kelly goes at 100 per cent in every drill, including the warm-up … not a bad reputation to have as a new rookie.
Alex Spina
Rookie Alex Spina seems to have enough trouble with people pronouncing his surname correctly to bother with a tricky nickname. He just gets ‘Spina’ (pronounced Speena) or ‘Spins’ most of the time.
James Podsiadly
No need to reinvent the wheel here: ‘J-Pod’ or ‘Pods’ are used interchangeably for the key forward.
Some guys just have given names that don’t require shortening and ‘Eddie’ is one of them. However, the crafty goalkicker also goes by ‘Buttsy’, which he has in a tattoo on his back.
