David Mackay will play the 248th and final game of his Adelaide Crows career this weekend.
The 33-year-old announced his retirement during the week and will step out for one last time in Crows colours in Sunday’s clash with North Melbourne at the Adelaide Oval.
While he’s gone on to enjoy a fruitful 15-year career, Mackay admits he wasn’t so sure about how things would play out with the Crows when he first went under the grill in his draft year of 2007.
The Oakleigh Chargers alumni cites a pre-draft interview where shreds were torn off him as he attempted to put his best case forward.
“No, I didn’t really,” he said on SEN SA Drive when asked if he knew the club would draft him.
“I did speak to Adelaide, but I remember quite vividly my meeting with Adelaide where Alan Stewart, who was a development coach at the time, tore shreds off me in that interview.
“I walked away thinking, ‘Well, I’m not going to Adelaide’. So when they called my name out it was a little bit of a surprise, but I was just super rapt to be able to come to such a great club who were having success at the time.”
Pressed further on what was said, Mackay could only offer a reference to one of his then-TAC Cup performances which ended up being a catalyst.
“I suppose recruiting teams had different tactics when talking to young players,” he added.
“They just got stuck in about one of my performances during the year in Under-18s. So it was a bit of a wake up call for me, but all’s well that ends well.”
Mackay did have a one-year offer on the table from the Crows to go around again in 2022, but opted to call time for various reasons.
He simply says the time is right to bow out now.
“I was in talks with the club about potentially going on again next year,” he said.
“I suppose I’ve been thinking about it a fair bit towards the back end of this year. It’s really hard to explain. It’s just a gut-feel that I got that it was the right time.
“It’s not one particular reason, it’s a number of reasons. One of them was I felt like I wasn’t able to play at the level I wanted to play at consistently, it was getting harder to do that.
“The last couple of years have been difficult with family and the way things have unfolded.
“I just felt, if I was being honest, that I wasn’t going to be able to give as much as I have been able to give for the past 15 years and that it was the right thing to do.”
Mackay debuted for Adelaide in 2008 and will finish his career in ninth position on the club’s all-time games list.
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