A MEMBER of the Adelaide Crows for 19 years, Mount Gambier woman Marylyn Salievic is excited about the prospect of her team being crowned the 2017 AFL premiers.
After watching Adelaide play in 11 regular season games and two finals in 2017, Marylyn missed out on a grand final ticket after entering the ballot with thousands of other Crows fans.
“I couldn’t win a chook raffle, so I didn’t hold high hopes that I would get a ticket,” Marylym joked.
“I think because Richmond are in, it has been a lot harder to get a ticket, so I have sort of given up hope now.”
A passionate supporter, Marylyn has travelled to Adelaide on 12 occasions this season and once to the Gold Coast to watch the Crows play.
“I go with a friend from Tantanoola, we travel up to Adelaide to see the games and then travel once to either Sydney, Gold Coast or Perth,” Marylyn said.
“We just love the game and we aren’t getting any younger, so we make the most of life and one of our passions is the Crows.”
Marylyn attended the 1998 Grand Final when the Crows knocked off North Melbourne to win back-to-back premierships.
Despite missing out on an opportunity to see her team play off for the big prize on this occasion, it has not taken away from her excitement for the game.
“I was lucky enough to go to the preliminary final last week, which was so magnificent, so let’s hope they can keep going and beat Richmond,” Marylyn said.
“It would be just amazing if they won, they finished top and it’s been 19 years, so hopefully it is their turn again.”
Marylyn is confident in the Adelaide Crows after they defeated Richmond earlier in the season, however she is acutely aware grand finals are a different game.
“The two finals were pretty comfortable wins and the atmosphere was magnificent, but you just don’t know what is going to happen on grand final day,” she said.
“You just never know how finals are going to go with the Crows.”
If Adelaide are lucky enough to win, Marylyn hopes to share in the celebrations with friends and also the South East Crows Supporters group.
Marylyn is secretary of the group and is involved in fundraising for different events, such as having players visit the region.
“We have a dinner at the end of the year and in the old days we would get players sent down here, but these days we need to raise money to get them down here,” she said.
“We have had Tex Walker before and this year we had Eddie Betts and it is a real buzz for the members of the group because the players are such wonderful people.”
Reminiscing on the 1998 premiership, Marylyn said she can see similarities between the current players and the members of the premiership side.
“Back then we had Shaun Rehn and this year we have Sam Jacobs who I find similar and then you look at the forward line back then with Jarman and it compares to how good our forward line is now,” Marylyn said.
“I think you can compare them quite well, even though it was a different game back then, but I just think we are in with a big chance.”
