Nigel Smart

Biography

AFC Debut Number: 6                 AFC Debut Game:  Round 1 v Hawthorn, 1991

AFC Career Guernsey Number: 7

Nigel Smart set the tone in 1991 for Adelaide, being the first ever Adelaide player named All Australian. His career went on to accrue a then Club-record 278 games.

The athletic defender was a slow beginner in the SANFL with South Adelaide but his breakout season in 1990 saw him represent South Australia and selected in Adelaide’s inaugural AFL list. One decade later and he was the only player from Club’s first game to still be on the list. His talent as a rebounding defender earned him three All Australian selections during his career but it was also his versatility at both ends of the ground which really set him apart from the rest; he kicked three goals in the 1998 premiership success. In 2005 Smart was named in the AFC Team of the Decade 1991-2000. He was inducted into the Adelaide Football Club Hall of Fame in 2021.

Smart also worked with the AFL Players Association off the field and was a respected figure amongst his peers. When he retired in 2004, aged 35, he quickly moved to a position on the AFC board. In 2009 he became the deputy chairman and then in 2013 was appointed Adelaide’s Chief Operating Officer a position he held until 2020.

In 2021 he was selected in the Crows’ “Best 22 of 30 Years”