Seven years ago former Adelaide Captain Rory Sloane was at a crossroads in his career.<\/p>\n
Sloane, who was 28 at the time, was torn between remaining with the Crows and staying in Adelaide, or joining his childhood club, St Kilda, who were offering him a chance to return home to Victoria.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Trade Radio on Tuesday, Sloane revealed he seriously considered taking the Saints up on their offer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was one of those periods in my life where the unknown – I was 28 – I knew I could sign a longer deal, I was probably at the peak of my career,\u201d Sloane said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like \u2018one, you\u2019ve got to maximise what you can make and what sort of deal you can get at that period of your career\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut two, with where I was at personally as well, we\u2019d just been married Belinda and I, we knew we wanted to have children and we didn’t know what that would look like in Adelaide.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always thought if we were ever going to make a move home to Melbourne, St Kilda would be the one – my old man would\u2019ve loved seeing me play for the Saints, he\u2019s a mad Saints supporter. I thought \u2018you\u2019d be silly not to look at it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sloane said his discussions with St Kilda were much more lowkey than the type of meetings players have with rival clubs these days.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey (St Kilda) came, but I did things a bit more discreetly back then, there was no being followed or door stopped or having meetings face-to-face,\u201d Sloane said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a fake Instagram account. I was so conscious of being caught having a discussion with St Kilda, I just wanted that to stay really in house.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite entertaining the Saints\u2019 offer, Sloane opted to remain with the Crows.<\/p>\n
He went on to become one of the Club\u2019s most well respected and highly decorated players, lining up in 255 games across 16 seasons, before hanging up his boots<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cI looked at it, (the Saints\u2019 offer), entertained it, but in the end for us, we\u2019ve just loved Adelaide all these years and that\u2019s what it came down to,\u201d Sloane said.<\/p>\n \u201cMy wife and I said \u2018do we enjoy Adelaide?\u2019, and we loved it here, we love the people, we love the place.\u201d<\/p>\n