THIS week’s WATN looks at health worker who was part of one of the most enduring images of South Australian football history.

Shane Bond was a Port Adelaide junior who was taken at pick 21 in the 1992 national draft by the West Coast Eagles.

He played 34 games there and won the 1994 AFL Premiership before returning home in a trade which saw him and Brayden Lyle return to Alberton at the expense of the number one draft pick, which was used to recruit ruckman Michael Gardiner.

“I had had a couple of injuries at the Eagles – I did my ankle, all my ligaments, and had to miss ten weeks – and then I asked to get traded back when Port got in the AFL, and Brayden Lyle and me got traded back and they ended up with Michael Gardiner,” Bond recalled.

“I wanted to come back.

“I knew Gavin (Wanganeen) was coming back and I had obviously played here in the juniors and I wanted to get back to Adelaide so I was looking forward to being home.”

Bond played 57 games with the Power in an injury-riddled career, which ended prematurely at the age of just 25.


The Bond brothers played on each other during several Showdowns between the Power and Crows and featured in an iconic image in The Advertiser after Showdown II when they embraced in the rain after the siren.​He had grown up with then captain Gavin Wanganeen, along with his brother Troy Bond, who had been drafted by Carlton but returned home to play for Adelaide.

The image adorns the new Variety Showdown Shield to be presented to the winning team from Saturday’s game.

Bond remembers his time with the Power vividly.

“They were good memories,” he said.

“Gavin and I grew up together with Troy and playing against my brother was difficult but I look back on those days with fond memories.

“It was a bit difficult when I had to stand him but they were good times.

“We wanted Troy to come back to Alberton, I would have loved to play with him, but I don’t think (Mark) Choco (Williams) was too impressed with his training techniques.”

Retirement came in 2001 for the younger of the Bond brothers as injuries took their toll.

“I ripped my pectoral muscle off the bone in a pre-season game in Perth and missed about ten weeks because it had to heal,” Bond remembered.

“Then my first game back in Sydney I did my knee, I did the lot – the crucial, the meniscus, the lateral, all of it – and I had a few complications when I was coming back.

“The club wanted to see me do a full pre-season before they gave me a contract and I was going through a rough stage so it didn’t end well, but that’s footy.

“I look back and I probably should have attacked the pre-season but having had around two years off footy I wasn’t in a good state of mind and looking back I probably should have done things a bit different.”

Still married and living in Adelaide, Shane Bond works for SA Health leading health programs for Aboriginal communities, the same job he has done for about eight years.

“I really enjoy my work and it keeps me out of trouble,” he said.

“I really enjoy working for and with my community for the betterment of all of our lives.”

Bond said he enjoyed playing golf with his father and watching soccer and cricket, as well as spending time with his three daughters Mariah, 20, Portia, 19, and Isla, 6.

“I still support Port,” he said.

“This is where I played all of my junior footy and the club has been great to me even now.

“And that’s what it is like for everyone who has been here, just a great club.”

Shane BondAFL Games: 91 (34 West Coast, 57 Port Adelaide)

Goals: 31 (20 West Coast, 11 Port Adelaide)

Premierships 1994 (West Coast)

Honours: West Coast Rookie of the Year 1994

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