“That’s where my love of footy stems from I think, the footy and netball every Saturday in winter was something you really looked forward to. There’s no real egos in a small town, everyone is pushing for the same thing, everyone wants to represent the community in the right way, and do it with your mates. That’s probably it, the love for the community is where I built all my morals from, the love for the community and the people within it.”
A young Jordan Dawson in South Australia.
Unlike a lot of teenagers with their eye on the AFL, Dawson was a natural talent with few pretensions about a professional career in the game until he was about to start one. Back then, he was primarily a Crows fan, admiring Andrew McLeod and Mark Ricciuto.
“I wasn’t one of the touted young juniors coming through the ranks, where I was always destined to play AFL,” he says. “It was about enjoying school footy, being in Adelaide, making new mates, widening the eyes a little bit and getting out of a small town.
“Then it wasn’t until my draft, the year after I finished school where I was playing footy for Sturt and had a little bit of interest from AFL teams and that was where I started believing that maybe I might end up getting drafted, but it wasn’t until the back end of the season.”
Sydney, as Jack has documented, was the hardest of finishing schools, with a core of midfield talent that Dawson was never able to crack. Jack was a kind of Falstaff to Dawson’s Prince Hal – as befits someone whose favourite pub in Sydney is called the Shakespeare Hotel.
“In my fourth and fifth years at the Swans, nearly every night I would go to Dawso’s place,” Jack says. “He was living with James Rose, another Adelaide kid at the time. I would go around, and we’d order pizza, watch a movie, watch YouTube or just hang out.
Jordan Dawson in his Swans days. Credit: Getty Images
“So I spent a lot of time with Dawso, and he has told me that in those first couple of years when he was struggling, it was important to have someone like that in the same way I had someone like [then Swans assistant coach] Rhys Shaw.
“It was important to Dawso to have someone like me who understood how shit it can be, but also with Dawso it was saying ‘you can do it’. My skill set was limited, but with Dawso it was like ‘you aren’t staying here, it can get better for you’.”
Reminded of those years, Dawson says he has learned to be much more “professional” in subsequent seasons, but also that they built resilience and breadth.
“It was guys like Brandon who spurred me on to keep fighting and pushing to play,” Dawson says. “Building those relationships and learning on the job is crucial to your development as a human and also a footballer.”
Dawson in his All-Australian blazer, alongside Ed Richards and Max Gawn. Credit: AFL Photos
Jack recalls that in Dawson’s first two years at the Swans he played a string of reserves games “where he would have numbers like 45 [touches] and four goals”.
“That was his standard game. And if he wasn’t behind Josh Kennedy, Luke Parker, Hanners [Dan Hannebery], probably Kieran [Jack] as well in the Swans midfield, and Heens and Millsy [Isaac Heeney and Callum Mills] got put ahead of him as well … He’d be in every other club’s midfield.
“So the decision he made to leave, to go back to Adelaide yeah, but he deserved to be the number one player at a club, and he’s definitely proven why.”
Helped along by the strictures of COVID-19 and a blossoming relationship with his partner Milly, Dawson put up his hand to move home in 2021.
Quickly, he became loved by the Crows faithful, especially after wobbling through a post-siren goal to beat Port Adelaide in his first showdown. In 2023, the club appointed Dawson captain.
There’s a line in C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books that if someone thinks they are sufficient to lead, it is proof they are not. Dawson’s trepidation about taking the job, assuaged in part through long discussions with Milly, turned out to be evidence of how much he cared.
“I’ve been pretty open about how I wasn’t sure if I was the right man,” he says. “You’re never really sure if you’re ready for those types of roles and especially in Adelaide, it’s a footy state and they ride the highs and lows. I wanted to be sure I was able to perform on field, but also to lead a bunch of young men is a pretty daunting task.
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“I’m extremely competitive, but calm with the way I go about it. I understand there are moments when you need to change your tone and be a bit more aggressive. So it’s about picking your moments of what to say and when to say it.
“I’ve also become a bit better at delegating and empowering others. That’s when you see the most growth.”
Jack says Dawson’s lack of ego has served him well as a captain.
“He doesn’t puff his chest out that much unless he has to on the field. But he does really care about the guys he plays with,” Jack explains. “[He] will put his arm around people, as opposed to giving them a bake.”
Still, this year’s success took time to build. In 2023, the Crows played a highly attacking, entertaining brand but were brittle at the back. Last year saw a correction in defensive accountability, but a bad start was never shrugged off. Questions were beginning to be asked about coach Matthew Nicks, and those whispers could not escape Dawson’s ear.
For those reasons, this year’s round one belting of St Kilda meant far more than it looks like now, when 17 wins followed and top spot was secured for the second time in the club’s history.
“Honestly round one against the Saints, it was the first time since I’ve been here that we won in round one,” Dawson says. “I think mentally that was something we really wanted to hone in on and narrow our focus on round one and getting that done.
“Then from there we’ve grown so much, but as a group we were able to put a team performance together and you saw the growth in the team in that game alone, and then from there we’ve been able to take massive strides.”
One of the more telling Dawson stories concerns Taylor Walker. Entering his mid-30s, Walker was troubled by back spasms. He brushed off numerous attempts by others to get him to try Pilates before Dawson got through to his captaincy predecessor.
“I’d always thought to myself a 34-year-old man can’t be seen doing Pilates,” Walker said last week. “But it wasn’t until Daws said, ‘trust me just have a go at it’, so I tried it and started getting a bit of pain relief and now I’m just addicted to it.”
Dawson was given added help on the field, much as Nicks was aided off it by the addition of Murray Davis to the coaches box and Neil Balme and James Gallagher to the Crows’ board. James Peatling, Alex Neal-Bullen and Isaac Cumming have, in Dawson’s words, added polish, experience and more “class around the ball”.
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That polish was scuffed by the furore around Izak Rankine’s suspension for a homophobic slur delivered against Collingwood in the penultimate round. Rankine has left the country to train, with Dawson left to address the male and female players. It’s not an episode he wishes to discuss, as the Crows prepare for a qualifying final against the Magpies, but Jack is more forthcoming.
“I know Dawso is a very caring and empathetic person,” Jack says. “I think he’d be disappointed in his teammate for saying what he said, and as captain of the club as well, he’s got to do more interviews and things like that.
“There’s got to be another way to change something besides say ‘yes, there’s a widespread issue with homophobia’. How do you talk to those people, how do you actually talk to them? You have to understand why they would get there to say that, and why they would say it.”
The memory of those years on the fringes in Sydney will be priceless as Dawson navigates Adelaide’s first finals series since 2017. Both in terms of dealing with the players likely to be tipped out by the likes of Max Michelanney, but equally with those who must step up for Rankine.
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“I can relate to them because I’ve been in that position,” Dawson says. “I’ve been in the team and then out of the team for a final, and it hurts. But you’ve just got to stay ready.
“We’ve seen every year in finals there’s guys who come in just before the finals start or even the first final and they end up holding their spot and they’re able to achieve something great. So that carrot to dangle to always be ready is a crucial one.”
The power of Dawson’s care for others can be measured in how Jack, despite some well-developed cynicism about the AFL system, regards him.
“I really enjoy seeing a guy who is genuinely a good person have success, in an industry where the good people can get weeded out and numbed down, and their niceties can be cut off. To see somebody like that has almost given me a bit of positivity about footy, which is the gift that keeps on giving the longer his career goes.”