Wily Wednesday, Tidy Tuesday replace Mad Monday

Sep 25, 2014, updated May 13, 2025
Norwood's captain Kieran McGuinness with brewery boss Jake Parkinson and coach Ben Warren
Norwood's captain Kieran McGuinness with brewery boss Jake Parkinson and coach Ben Warren

The silly tradition of Mad Monday – where footballers celebrate their season’s end in fancy dress boozing sessions – may be going out of fashion.

While some clubs continued the tradition this year, Adelaide chose a lower profile end to their disappointing year. Port canned the idea completely and SANFL premiers Norwood kept it tidy at the Tuesday tradition of repainting the West End Brewery chimney.

Adelaide’s had some high profile efforts in recent years, including their performance at the Marble Bar in Waymouth Street – 100 metres from The Advertiser building where photographers couldn’t believe their luck – leading to a front page splash the next day.

Last year the Crows assembled upstairs at the Hackney Hotel with club officials posted downstairs to keep wanderers in check.

This year the lads got on a bus and went for a drive in the Adelaide Hills while the coaching staff, led by the now-sacked Brenton Sanderson, gathered at the Hackney’s front bar.

SANFL premiers Norwood celebrated their third successive flag with the chimney unveiling and reports back to InDaily suggest it was a tidy day.

Our snoop at the function says the players had a great time reliving the match on the screen in the Tower Bar.

Port Adelaide, runners up in the SANFL and preliminary final losers on Saturday, had a much clearer concept – no celebrations or drinkies until they win a flag.

That edict came from the AFL side’s captain Travis Boak, who penned a letter of thanks to club supporters and then joined his colleagues on leave as of Wednesday.

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Boak, perhaps, understands the cultural roots of Mad Monday: it was the name given to celebrations for country football league premiers when they were traditionally offered a keg of beer at their town’s main local hotel.

The losers stayed home.

And that’s perhaps how it should be.

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