{"id":34901,"date":"2026-06-20T04:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T04:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/34901\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T04:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T04:32:13","slug":"adelaide-crows-fans-wish-tony-modra-well-as-they-take-on-melbourne-at-adelaide-oval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/34901\/","title":{"rendered":"Adelaide Crows fans wish Tony Modra well as they take on Melbourne at Adelaide Oval"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adelaide Crows fans erupted in applause at the sixth minute of the team’s match against Melbourne to wish former number-six player Tony Modra well in his recovery from a serious truck crash.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SA Health said on Saturday that the 57-year-old Waitpinga man was now in a stable condition at the Flinders Medical Centre.<\/p>\n

He underwent facial surgery on Friday after the truck he was driving hit a tree<\/a> near Victor Harbor on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The Crows’ match against the Demons at Adelaide Oval on Saturday<\/a> was the first chance for many fans to pay tribute to one of the first superstar players for the team from the 1990s.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tony Modra played 118 games for the Crows, as well as 47 for Fremantle. (Getty Images\/Michael Wilson)<\/p>\n

Many stood up and clapped six minutes into the first quarter.<\/p>\n

“Of course, we wish him all the best in his recovery,” fellow former Crow Mark Ricciuto said from the commentary box.<\/p>\n

Adam Geisler came to the game wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with Modra’s image from his heyday.<\/p>\n

Mr Geisler was due to meet the two-time All-Australian and one-time Coleman Medallist at “The Bunker” behind-the-scenes experience.<\/p>\n

“Hopefully, he recovers well,” Mr Geisler said.<\/p>\n

“The show will go with him \u2014 of course it will, he’s Modra, he’s Godra \u2014 so he’ll make a full recovery, and we’ll see him back.”<\/p>\n

\"Adelaide<\/p>\n

Adelaide Crows fans held signs wishing Tony Modra well during the match against Melbourne. (Mark Brake\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Fond memories of Modra<\/p>\n

Kathie Hams met Modra when her husband and son were playing for Willunga against Modra’s Encounter Bay team, after he retired from the AFL.<\/p>\n

“He’s a lovely, lovely man and I’m very sad that he’s had to go through this, but very grateful for the 78-year-old lady that found him and looked after him<\/a> until the ambos got there \u2014 that was brilliant,” Ms Hams said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Mother and daughter Kathie and Sally Hams admired Tony Modra during his heyday. (ABC News: James Wakelin)<\/p>\n

Her daughter, Sally Hams, called for more trees along country roads to be trimmed to make driving safer.<\/p>\n

“I think we need to chop these down because it’s devastating that this has happened,” she said.<\/p>\n

Another fan, Frank Kleinig, wished Modra “best of luck and a speedy recovery”.<\/p>\n

“It was just ‘wow’ and a freak accident \u2026 pretty bad news, but it’s good to see that he’s recovering,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Got a few scars he’ll have as war wounds.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Frank Kleinig was shocked to hear the news about Tony Modra on Thursday night. (ABC News: James Wakelin)<\/p>\n

Emergency services honoured<\/p>\n

The Crows had already planned to honour emergency services during Saturday’s match, with free tickets handed out to 3,000 first responders.<\/p>\n

South Australian Emergency Services Minister Rhiannon Pearce urged more people to consider taking on volunteer roles.<\/p>\n

AFL Saturday live<\/a><\/p>\n

The Crows take on the Demons at Adelaide Oval, with a spot in the top four on the line, in the first of three games of Saturday football. Follow live.<\/p>\n

“It really put at the forefront of our minds just how crucial and important it is, the work of our emergency services personnel,” she said.<\/p>\n

“They played a really important role in ensuring that Tony was able to get care and support as quickly as possible and it’s also a reminder that they do put themselves at risk to do what they do and we thank them for what they have done.”<\/p>\n

Speaking to SA Grandstand, former Port Adelaide AFL player Josh Francou said Modra was known for being competitive but not a smart alec or foul-mouthed on the field.<\/p>\n

“He just went out there and did his job \u2014 and did it pretty well,” Francou said.<\/p>\n

He said Modra was “three rungs” above other early Crows favourites Mark Ricciuto, Andrew McLeod and Darren Jarman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adelaide Crows fans erupted in applause at the sixth minute of the team’s match against Melbourne to wish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[10761,395,404,12191,77,1991,3009,262,29969,30310,6919],"class_list":["post-34901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adelaide","tag-accident","tag-adelaide","tag-adelaide-crows","tag-adelaide-oval","tag-afl","tag-crash","tag-crows","tag-melbourne-demons","tag-tony-modra","tag-tribute","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}