DEAKIN University Sharks’ demise left one of its most consistent players searching for a new football home.
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Jimmy Crawford identified Warrnambool and District league beaten grand finalist Old Collegians as the ideal fit.
The marine biology student, readying himself for environmental science honours, hopes to add height and power to the Warriors’ attack.
Crawford, 22, is a centre half-forward coming off back-to-back 39-goal seasons in a side which cobbled together just four wins out of a possible 36 games.
“Once the Sharks said they were having a year off, I had to find somewhere else and Old Collegians seemed pretty good,” he said.
“I think the few times I have played them, they’ve been missing a key forward so I might actually be able to fit in well.”
Crawford concedes the Warriors’ ambitions – they are hurting after winning all bar the grand final in 2016 – differ significantly from the socially-focussed Sharks.
But he is excited to test himself in a side vying for a premiership.
“It will be a bit different, it’ll probably change the way I play a little bit but I am looking forward to A, the challenge, and B, having a good crack every week.,” Crawford said.
The Flinders Island-raised Crawford enjoyed his his three-year stint at the Sharks, who opted to enter a gap year in 2017 following a struggle for player numbers.
“I didn’t know anything about any clubs and I was just at O Week at a couple of parties and the older guys said ‘come over, we’ll give you a carton of beer’,” he said of his introduction to south-west Victorian football.
“Then I didn’t want to leave – it was good fun, a good culture.
“It’s a bit of a shame they’ve had to take a year off.”
Crawford will juggle football with university commitments next season.
Research camps are a major part of his honours program.
“I’ve been to a couple of pre-season trainings but doing my honours I am sort of in and out every couple of weeks up sampling,” he said.
“I am looking at carp control in the Glenelg River, so we go up around Casterton, Balmoral and Harrow.
“At the moment it’s three days every fortnight we go up and camp and set traps and find the larvae but once I finish all that it will be flat out under a microscope trying to identify every little fish.”
Crawford hopes the extra year will help him find career opportunities in the marine biology industry.
“It can be pretty hard (to find work) but hopefully through the honours I am making a lot of contacts and opening doors, which I have already seen start to happen, so hopefully that carries on,” he said.