Hawthorn great Shane Crawford has revealed he considered leaving the club after receiving a lucrative offer to join Port Adelaide.
Crawford was in the early stages of his AFL career when the Power approached him with a multi-year deal that included a share in a prominent fast food chain.
“I got offered to go to Port Adelaide, when I was a player, I was probably only three years in," Crawford told I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!
“Port Adelaide were just starting. They said, ‘You’ll be the captain of Port Adelaide’. They said, ‘We will give you a five-year contract, we’re going to give you a share in McDonald’s’.
“But I was so connected to Hawthorn. I was like,‘s--t I should be leaving really for the …’ I should have left. I couldn’t, but I knew that was a game changer right there.”
Port Adelaide’s offer was almost half-a-million dollars a season more than what the midfielder was earning at the Hawks.
“I had all new friends at Hawthorn, I felt like I was very much part of the club," Crawford said.
“They offered $800,000 a year and back then that was good money, compared with what I was getting at Hawthorn, would have been $300,000 or something, plus leadership, plus McDonald’s franchise.
“Not regrets but like, it was a pretty good opportunity. If I had have gone there, they came in, they won a premiership.”
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The 1999 Brownlow Medallist also revealed he agreed to join Sydney but would later change his mind after they went on to win the premiership in 2005.
“I was so over Hawthorn, because we were changing coaches and whatever,” Crawford said.
“So I met with Sydney and I first agreed to go. I needed to go and walk away from all the leadership stuff. I needed to go and concentrate on myself and finishing enjoying footy, and I was really excited.
“Then Sydney won their Grand Final about month later, and I said, ‘I’m not going’.
“Because they won, if they had of lost … because they won, I just knew it wasn’t the right time to go now.”
Crawford played 305 games in the brown and gold and finally won that elusive premiership in his final season in 2008.