By PETER CORNWALL
He’s never been one to chase attention but Matthew Snook sure deserves it as he brings up his 200th game with the Tigers.
He’s also never been on the lookout for individual awards or honours. But he’s certainly – and deservedly – won his fair share of them.
While you hear plenty of footballers sprouting a team-first attitude, Snook actually lives and breathes it. So much so, he doesn’t like the idea of being in the limelight – even when he’s joining the 200 Club.
“I don’t want to be bigger than anyone else. It’s a team game and you’re not as good as you can be unless your team goes well, the players around you,” he said.
It’s fair to say Glenelg wouldn’t have been as good as it could be without Snook as it has become a SANFL powerhouse again over the past half-dozen seasons.
Snook agrees reaching 200 games is “a massive honour and achievement” but he says, “I’m probably not someone who really likes the limelight and the recognition – it’s always been a team game … I’ve always shied away from it”.
But, with the 32-year-old playing his 200th game at the Bay on Saturday against Norwood, Snook has earned the recognition. Modern-day SANFL greats often don’t get the credit they deserve because people too often rate the AFL the be-all-and-end-all of our great national game. But Snook is an all-time champion, no matter how you look at it.
Tigers legend and Australian Football Hall of Famer Peter Carey declared Snook the greatest Tigers footballer since the arrival of the Crows in 1991, when the SA football landscape changed so dramatically.
Great of Glenelg Laurie Rosewarne, a club vice-captain and general manager among countless roles over the past six decades, rates Snook in the top seven greatest Glenelg players in the 104-year history of the club. No. 1 is Carey and No. 2 Stephen Kernahan, so he’s among a pretty elite group.
Rosewarne loves the bloke, not just because he wears his old favourite No.3 guernsey, but because of the way he plays – 100 per cent effort and commitment at all times, enormous courage and a selfless team game – and the example he sets on and off the field.
The numbers show Snook belongs among the Tigers’ elite. He is the 27th Glenelg player to reach 200 games. He has won four best-and-fairest awards – only one Tiger, 1934 premiership hero Len Sallis, has won more, with five. He is one of only three to have won four, along with Colin Richens and Nick Chigwidden, while he’s also finished runner-up once and third three times. But it’s a team game and what Snook’s more proud of are his two Tigers league premierships. Only one player – Carey – has won more, with three. Snook is one of only 24 players to have won two.