1995

Premiership position: 11th in 16-team competition (9 wins, 13 losses)

Coach: Robert Shaw

Captain: Tony McGuinness

Adelaide started 1995 with a new coach and captain but failed to improve on its disappointing 1994 results.

The Crows again finished 11^th, with nine wins, and the exhilarating days of the 1993 season were fading memories.

Robert Shaw, the former Fitzroy coach, had replaced Graham Cornes based on the Club’s desire to improve its consistency.

Originally from Tasmania, Shaw played 51 games for Essendon before turning to coaching.

Chairman Bob Hammond explained: “The Board felt that the side had played without passion through the second half of 1994. Robert Shaw was appointed partly on the basis that we felt Fitzroy had limited resources but played with enormous competitive passion and won its share of games. If that passion could be transposed, the AFC would be successful.”

Pre-season, Shaw said the Crows had to “bounce back” and play finals.

Early signs were encouraging. Adelaide contested its second pre-season grand final after qualifying wins against Geelong, West Coast and Sydney, but lost to North Melbourne by five goals at Waverley Park.

Six days later the Crows again faced North Melbourne in the AFL’s Friday night home-and-away season launch at the MCG, this time losing by three points after the Roos hit the front with 90 seconds to play.

Brisbane beat Adelaide for the first time the following week at the Gabba and then the Crows choked St Kilda at Football Park in round three, holding the Saints to only 3.8 in a 66-point win. But this was also the day 1994 Club Champion and All Australian Shaun Rehn wrecked his knee and required a reconstruction.

Shaw and the Crows also had to do without new captain Tony McGuinness (knee) for half the season, plus Rodney Maynard, Tony Hall, Matthew Liptak, Tony Modra, Matthew Robran and Anthony Ingerson at various stages.

A brave round four comeback win against reigning premiers West Coast was quickly forgotten when Sydney booted 11 goals in the last quarter to overrun Adelaide at the SCG the next weekend. In round nine, Adelaide trailed Hawthorn 7-41 at half-time but hit back to win by two points after young Andrew McLeod dribbled through the winning goal in his second AFL game. 

The Crows could only win two away games for the season – including a 31-point win over Melbourne at the MCG in round 21. Adelaide trailed by three goals at the first break but then kicked 11 goals in the second quarter. This win gave the Crows a slim hope of making the top eight but they lost the last round to Richmond and it was Brisbane which claimed 8th spot with a 10-12 record.

There were some huge interstate losses, including to Collingwood by 96 points and then 122 points to Essendon in consecutive weeks at the MCG. West Coast also thumped Adelaide by 135 points at Subiaco Oval in round 19.

There were also some demoralising losses at Football Park. Bottom-placed Fitzroy came from behind to kick nine last quarter goals to win by 33 points, and late season losses to Brisbane, Sydney and Richmond.

For the first time, Adelaide’s Club Champion was not South Australian. Matt Connell, recruited from West Coast where he played only three AFL games, settled into a midfield role in his first season with the Crows. Despite a heel injury that restricted him later in the season, Connell won the tightest count in the Club’s first five years. Andrew Jarman was runner-up, one vote behind, and Simon Tregenza finished third, two votes behind Connell who did not poll in the last three games. Tregenza won The Advertiser’s Merv Agars Medal.

Modra was the leading goalkicker with 42 from 16 games – he was dropped to the SANFL during the season – and Rod Jameson picked up the Best Team Man award.

No Crows were named in the All-Australian side.

McLeod, winner of the club’s first Emerging Talent award, was one of the new Crows to impress. The 1994 Port SANFL Premiership player, originally from Darwin, was traded to the Crows by new AFL club Fremantle. He kicked 17 goals from 15 games in his first AFL season.

Recruit Jason McCartney (20 games) had a solid first season after switching from Collingwood while West Adelaide’s Tyson Edwards, claimed by the Crows in the 1995 pre-season draft, broke into the side and played 12 games.

The Adelaide Football Club also bestowed its first Life Membership, to inaugural captain Chris McDermott. He was the first Crow to play 100 AFL games, reaching the milestone in round 14 after missing only three games from 1991.

Adelaide’s 1995 surplus of $1.72 million – after paying the $400,000 licence fee to the AFL – led to a sub-licence fee to the SANFL of $1,374,000. The Crows retained $343,425.

Other news

• Crows Andrew Jarman, Smart, McDermott, Tregenza, Pittman, Wellman, McKinnon, Bickley, Ricciuto and Hart represented South Australia against Victoria at the MCG. Tregenza won the Fos Williams Medal as SA’s best player in the 63-point loss. Connell represented Western Australia against the Allies.
• State League reps v Tasmania: Lee, Maynard, Robran and Rouvray.
• Season 1995 marked the end for three original Crows players – Rodney Maynard, Scott Lee and Stephen Rowe. Tony Hall also announced his retirement late in the season. Michael Taylor, Adelaide’s assistant coach in its first five seasons, also left at the end of the season. He returned to the SANFL to coach West Adelaide.
• Adelaide drafted its first Victorian juniors in the 1994 national draft. They were 17-year-olds Allen Nash and Matthew Collins.
• The AFL’s new team, Fremantle, played its first game against Adelaide in round 12 at Football Park. The Crows won by 21 points.
• Adelaide started the development of a new $2.3 million player and training facility on the eastern side of Football Park. There had been a campaign by some SANFL clubs, including Port Adelaide, to relocate the Club to a suburban ground but in April Crows CEO Bill Sanders and the SA Football Commission confirmed Football Park would remain home.

Awards and Achievements

Best Team Man: Rod Jameson

Coach’s Award: Andrew Jarman

Emerging Talent: Andrew McLeod

Leading goalkicker: Tony Modra

AFC Life Membership: Chris McDermott

List changes

In: Matt Connell (West Coast), Jason McCartney (Collingwood), Andrew McLeod (Port Adelaide), Toby Kennett (Sturt), Allen Nash (Western U18), Matthew Collins (Northern U18), Brett Higgins (Port Adelaide). Pre-season draft: Peter Vardy (Central District), Tyson Edwards (West Adelaide).

Out: Randall Bone, Chris Groom (Fremantle), Stuart Wigney, Peter Turner, Eugene Warrior, Sam Smart, Shane Tongerie, Stephen Schwerdt, Josh Mail.

First game players

Matt Connell, v North Melbourne at MCG, 31/3/95 (debut order 64)

Jason McCartney, v North Melbourne at MCG, 31/3/95 (65)

Andrew McLeod, v Melbourne at Football Park, 5/5/95 (66)

Tyson Edwards, v Footscray at Football Park, 10/6/95 (67)

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