Crows co-captain Rory Sloane has revealed one of the reasons he is one of the best tacklers in the AFL — a lifelong passion for the Melbourne Storm.
Sloane, Adelaide’s most prolific tackler with and average of 6.4 a game, learned to appreciate the art at a young age.
His father, Brandon, used to drag him along to Melbourne’s old Olympic Park — now rebuilt into AAMI Park — in the Storm’s formative years when he was all of eight or nine years old.
It made a big impression on young Rory.
He remembers how hard they hit and how his father told him to take it all in.
"Back then, because it was a bit smaller and crowds weren’t as big, you could hear every tackle," he said.
"Every time someone hit someone you could hear the tackle.
"It’s one thing I admire about the NRL game and it’s something I try to emulate in my game - just to make sure that I’m always tackling with the right intent and the right technique, because you rarely see those guys get (side) stepped."
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Photo credit: Tricia Watkinson / Newspix
