tigerpie wrote:I'm sensing a fair amount of petty jealousy on this topic. Pretty poor from some posters, but i expect nothing less from these trolls.
Good on Aldinga i reckon. Great for them and Lonsdale. Whoever lines up on Crawford gets to tell a good story to his kids/grandkids whatever, that he stood an AFL premiership player and Brownlow medalist, and maybe taught him a thing or two. Same goes for the Aldinga boys.
Crawford will be professional on field and take it serious....he's a competitor and you cant simply turn that switch off. Sure he may play up to the crowd a bit, but it wont be to the detriment of Aldinga winning the game. He's playing to help them win!
Gentlemen put your biased envy filled opinions off to one side and think of the positives to come out of this just for a minute.
No, the only jealousy or envy I feel towards the Aldinga FC is the excellent catchment area they have access to.
Not only do they have access to a young population, growth is still being targeted at the area and it is expected to grow to 35,000 people as part of the draft 30 year plan for Greater Adelaide. Each of the remaining clubs in the competition would love to have access to what Aldinga has.
Sadly, the club suffers an image problem in the area, an image that has been further degraded by the recent media attention. Shane Crawford will do nothing to change that, it will give them one good day but what child will choose Aldinga when the stars on the footy show and Channel 9, and the journalists at News Ltd, are telling them that it is one of the worst clubs in the country, so bad that their only hope is for a former champion to come and save them.
Each child in that area has a choice between playing for Aldinga, Myponga, Willunga or McLaren, why would they choose Aldinga when over the past 6 weeks they have been told how terrible they are?
The worst part is Aldinga sought the attention, to highlight how bad they were looking for a quick gain. Nothing has come from the club in defense of what is being reported, instead they have fuelled it, which sadly now seriously overstates how bad their situation is. It will be very hard to recover from here, as Callington, Morgan-Cadell, Port Elliot all found out as the public perception of the club is they are a team of no-hopers, and that just attracts the wrong people, and turns the right people away.
The SFL are also now stuck in a position where they have to ride the wave and try to promote it as a positive for the league as this whole charade has progressed too far.