Neil Craig Information & Neil Craig Links at HealthHaven.com

**Neil** **Craig**
	;
Personal information
Birth	11 January 1956 (age 53)
Recruited from
Playing career¹
Debut	1973, Norwood Football Club vs. , at
Team(s)	319 games 220 goals SANFL Norwood Football Club (1973-1979) 126 games; Sturt (1980-1986) 134 games; North Adelaide (1987-1990) 61 games;
Coaching career¹
Team(s)	Adelaide (2004-) 128 games, 79 wins, 49 losses, 0 draws;
	¹ Statistics to end of 2009 season
Career highlights
	; South Australian Football Hall of Fame inductee; Norwood Football Club premiership player 1975/78;

Neil P. Craig (born 11 January 1956) is a former Australian rules footballer, fitness adviser and the current coach of the Adelaide Football Club in the AFL.

[edit] Playing career

Craig played a total of 319 games (and kicked 220 goals) in the SANFL as well as 11 State of Origin matches for South Australia.

He played 126 games for the Norwood Football Club, debuting as a 17-year-old in 1973. He was a part of their premiership sides in 1975 and 1978, before leaving the club after the 1979 season.^[1]

Craig played 134 games for Sturt (captaining the side in 1985 and 1986) between 1980 and 1986 and was also captain of South Australia in 1984.

He moved to North Adelaide, where he finished his career, playing 61 games between 1987 and 1990. At one stage of his career, Craig was pursued by Footscray, a Victorian team in the VFL, but declined the offer as he preferred to stay in South Australia.^[2] At that time there was a great rivalry between the VFL and SANFL and both competitions considered themselves the best in Australia.

[edit] Post-playing career

In 1991, Craig became the coach of Norwood, a position he held until 1995. In 2002, he was inducted into the South Australian Football Hall of Fame^[3]

[edit] Fitness advising

Craig hails from a fitness background and holds a sports science degree.^[4]

He has worked with the Australian cycling team at the Olympic Games and with the South Australian Institute of Sport, as a senior sports scientist.^[5] He has worked under cycling legend Charlie Walsh at the Australian Cycling Federation (where he was Sports science co-ordinator)^[6] and also recruited Walsh as part of the Crows' AFL coaching panel.^[7]

[edit] Adelaide Crows

In 1997, he took up the position of fitness adviser and assistant coach in the AFL with Adelaide Crows. He is credited with helping devise the fitness regime that led the Crows to back-to-back premierships in 1997 and 1998 in which players are trained harder to reach peak fitness during finals matches.^[8]

He took over the senior coaching position in 2004 as caretaker when Gary Ayres left the Adelaide Football Club after round 13. He was then appointed for the 2005 season, leading the Crows to their first minor premiership and a preliminary final in his first full season as a senior coach. Under Craig the Crows have reached the major round for five consecutive years, for a finals coaching record of three wins and six losses.

[edit] Coaching record

Year	Games	Won	Lost	Drawn	Win %
2004	9	4	5	0	44.44
2005	25	18	7	0	72.00
2006	24	17	7	0	70.83
2007	23	12	11	0	52.17
2008	23	13	10	0	56.52
2009	24	15	9	0	62.50
Total	128	79	49	0	61.72

[edit] Trivia

TV and radio personality Sam Newman regularly calls him Craig David, due to the relatively low profile of Craig outside of Adelaide and the fact that he has "two first names", much like the popular singer.

[edit] References

^ Full Points Footy
^ Crows' imperfect science, Mark Stevens, 2 September 2006, Herald Sun
^ Hall of Fame Inductees Including Career Records, SANFL, accessed 8 September 2006.
^ X-Men Want AFL Pledge | Australian Football Association of North America
^ Thompson, L., Engineering the World's Fastest Bicycle, Powerhouse Museum, accessed 8 September 2006
^ Sheactive - Scientific Heart Rate Book (on ZoomInfo)
^ The Adelaide Crows Neil for their coach Craig :: ABC Adelaide
^ Craig still coach of the year? [Archive] - Injury Update Forum

Preceded by Gary Ayres	Adelaide Football Club coach 2004-	Succeeded by Incumbent

[0] Full Points Footy

[1] Crows' imperfect science, Mark Stevens, 2 September 2006, Herald Sun

[2] Hall of Fame Inductees Including Career Records, SANFL, accessed 8 September 2006.

[3] X-Men Want AFL Pledge | Australian Football Association of North America

[4] Thompson, L., Engineering the World's Fastest Bicycle, Powerhouse Museum, accessed 8 September 2006

[5] Sheactive - Scientific Heart Rate Book (on ZoomInfo)

[6] The Adelaide Crows Neil for their coach Craig :: ABC Adelaide

[7] Craig still coach of the year? [Archive] - Injury Update Forum

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