Six new player life members
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 4:19 pmTHERE may have been more loyal servants of South Australian football than Rodney Maynard but few have had that rare combination of talent, dedication, application and geniality.
Genial! That’s a way of saying he’s a good bloke - maybe the nicest footballer you could ever meet. We always say that about the great, albeit modest, Barrie Robran but “Rocket” Maynard is up there with him.
Whether it was as a player with Norwood and the inaugural Crows, or as a player, coach and umpire in his beloved hometown, Lameroo, Maynard’s service has been exemplary and selfless.
It is significant that he was the first player to win the Crows Best Team Man award. His overall contribution to the game was recognised in 2015 when he was inducted into the SANFL Hall of Fame.
However, for all his awards for dedicated service, there is one football honour that has eluded him - he is not a life member of any of those clubs.
Fortunately, that great anomaly has now been rectified. The SANFL has conferred player life membership on Maynard and five other South Australian footballers whose careers were interrupted by the formation of the Crows and Port in the AFL.
The qualification for life membership of the SANFL, a significant honour, is 200 games over a minimum of 10 years’ service.
Maynard, Stephen Rowe, Scott Hodges Sean Tasker, Greg Anderson and Darren Jarman, all had their SANFL careers interrupted by the AFL. While it can be argued that Anderson and Jarman chose to move interstate, they still meet the criteria which have been amended to allow them, Maynard, Rowe, Tasker and Hodges to be granted SANFL Player Life Membership.
To qualify for life membership, these players in this unique situation, had to have played a total of 200 games over 10 years, including a minimum of 150 SANFL (including state games). The balance of the games can be comprised of AFL games for the Crows or Port as long as those games were played while the SANFL owned the licences of the two AFL clubs.
Jarman, 121 games for the Crows, and Anderson, 59, returned to Adelaide while the SANFL still owned the licence of the Adelaide Football Club so their Crows games count in their overall totals.
Scott Hodges played 183 games for Port in the SANFL, plus two state games; Sean Tasker 155 for North, Glenelg and Sturt as well as three state games; Rowey played 185 games for Norwood plus three state games.
Maynard played 157 for Norwood plus three state games. In all cases, their Crows games have taken them over the required 200 games.
The predicament of these players who had been stuck in this no-man’s land of life membership has long been a cause of retiring SANFL director, David Shipway, who championed the initiative to have these players recognised as being worthy of player life membership.
The process required exhaustive research by the league’s dedicated statistician Mark Beswick, who prepared the required results for a selection panel of SANFL greats to consider.
The outcome wasn’t immediate as there was initially some concern that to consider special circumstances would create an awkward precedent.
In the end sanity prevailed and the outstanding contribution of the six players has been rewarded with the honour of SANFL Player Life Membership which will be presented to them at the SANFL’s AGM on March 13th.
“Rocket” Maynard makes the trip from Lameroo to Adelaide to watch every home game of the Crows. Each time he pays for his tickets. One of the benefits of SANFL Player Life Membership is entry to all AFL minor round games at Adelaide Oval.
There have been many SANFL players who have qualified for that privilege. At last Rodney Maynard is now one of them. It’s been too long coming.
Genial! That’s a way of saying he’s a good bloke - maybe the nicest footballer you could ever meet. We always say that about the great, albeit modest, Barrie Robran but “Rocket” Maynard is up there with him.
Whether it was as a player with Norwood and the inaugural Crows, or as a player, coach and umpire in his beloved hometown, Lameroo, Maynard’s service has been exemplary and selfless.
It is significant that he was the first player to win the Crows Best Team Man award. His overall contribution to the game was recognised in 2015 when he was inducted into the SANFL Hall of Fame.
However, for all his awards for dedicated service, there is one football honour that has eluded him - he is not a life member of any of those clubs.
Fortunately, that great anomaly has now been rectified. The SANFL has conferred player life membership on Maynard and five other South Australian footballers whose careers were interrupted by the formation of the Crows and Port in the AFL.
The qualification for life membership of the SANFL, a significant honour, is 200 games over a minimum of 10 years’ service.
Maynard, Stephen Rowe, Scott Hodges Sean Tasker, Greg Anderson and Darren Jarman, all had their SANFL careers interrupted by the AFL. While it can be argued that Anderson and Jarman chose to move interstate, they still meet the criteria which have been amended to allow them, Maynard, Rowe, Tasker and Hodges to be granted SANFL Player Life Membership.
To qualify for life membership, these players in this unique situation, had to have played a total of 200 games over 10 years, including a minimum of 150 SANFL (including state games). The balance of the games can be comprised of AFL games for the Crows or Port as long as those games were played while the SANFL owned the licences of the two AFL clubs.
Jarman, 121 games for the Crows, and Anderson, 59, returned to Adelaide while the SANFL still owned the licence of the Adelaide Football Club so their Crows games count in their overall totals.
Scott Hodges played 183 games for Port in the SANFL, plus two state games; Sean Tasker 155 for North, Glenelg and Sturt as well as three state games; Rowey played 185 games for Norwood plus three state games.
Maynard played 157 for Norwood plus three state games. In all cases, their Crows games have taken them over the required 200 games.
The predicament of these players who had been stuck in this no-man’s land of life membership has long been a cause of retiring SANFL director, David Shipway, who championed the initiative to have these players recognised as being worthy of player life membership.
The process required exhaustive research by the league’s dedicated statistician Mark Beswick, who prepared the required results for a selection panel of SANFL greats to consider.
The outcome wasn’t immediate as there was initially some concern that to consider special circumstances would create an awkward precedent.
In the end sanity prevailed and the outstanding contribution of the six players has been rewarded with the honour of SANFL Player Life Membership which will be presented to them at the SANFL’s AGM on March 13th.
“Rocket” Maynard makes the trip from Lameroo to Adelaide to watch every home game of the Crows. Each time he pays for his tickets. One of the benefits of SANFL Player Life Membership is entry to all AFL minor round games at Adelaide Oval.
There have been many SANFL players who have qualified for that privilege. At last Rodney Maynard is now one of them. It’s been too long coming.
