27 Facts About Neil Craig

Neil Passmore Craig was born on 11 January 1956 and is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Norwood Football Club, Sturt Football Club and the North Adelaide Football Club in the South Australian National Football League.

Neil Craig notably served as caretaker coach of the Melbourne Football Club in 2013, and in recent years an assistant to rugby union coach Eddie Jones.

Neil Craig played a total of 319 games in the South Australian National Football League as well as 11 State of Origin matches for South Australia.

Neil Craig played 126 games for the Norwood Football Club, debuting as a 17-year-old in 1973.

Neil Craig was a part of their premiership sides in 1975 and 1978, before leaving the club after the 1979 season.

Neil Craig played 134 games for Sturt between 1980 and 1986 and was captain of South Australia in 1984.

Neil Craig moved to North Adelaide, where he finished his career, playing 61 games between 1987 and 1990.

At one stage of his career, Neil Craig was pursued by Footscray, a Victorian team in the Victorian Football League, but declined the offer as he preferred to stay in South Australia.

In 1991, Neil Craig became the coach of Norwood, a position he held until 1995.

Neil Craig has worked with the Australian cycling team at the Olympic Games and with the South Australian Institute of Sport as a senior sports scientist.

Neil Craig has worked under cycling legend Charlie Walsh at the Australian Cycling Federation and recruited Walsh as part of the Crows' AFL coaching panel.

In 1997, Neil Craig took up the position of fitness adviser with the Adelaide Football Club.

Neil Craig is credited with helping devise the fitness regime that led the Crows to back-to-back premierships in 1997 and 1998 in which players were trained harder mid-season in order to reach peak fitness during finals matches.

Neil Craig left the club in 1999 to help the Australian Olympic cycling team prepare for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games but returned in 2001 to be an assistant coach under Gary Ayres.

Neil Craig took over the senior coaching position at the Crows in 2004 as caretaker when Ayres left the club after Round 13.

Neil Craig was then appointed full-time for the 2005 season and immediately led the Crows to their first minor premiership in 2005, and took the team to two successive preliminary finals in his first two years as senior coach in 2005 and 2006, losing and being eliminated by West Coast Eagles twice.

The club under Neil Craig had a disappointing 2010 season when Adelaide finished eleventh with nine wins and thirteen losses, therefore missing out of the finals.

Neil Craig left the club as the longest-serving coach in the Crows' history.

Neil Craig was then replaced by assistant coach Mark Bickley as caretaker senior coach for the rest of the 2011 season.

Neil Craig's sacking came within weeks of the departures of senior Demons' staff members Cameron Schwab and Don McLardy.

Subsequently, Neil Craig was appointed as the caretaker senior coach of the Demons for the remainder of the 2013 season.

Neil Craig left the club after the completion of the 2013 season with former Sydney Swans premiership senior coach Paul Roos taking over the senior coaching role at the end of the season.

On 10 October 2013, Neil Craig was appointed to the newly created role of head of coaching development and strategy at the Essendon Football Club and then on 15 April 2014, he was promoted to the position of General Manager, Performance.

On 30 September 2015, Neil Craig was appointed to Brendon Bolton's new coaching panel at the Carlton Football Club, taking on the role of Director of Coaching, Development and Performance.

From October 2017, Neil Craig worked as "a consultant for highest performance to look how we operate and see how we can improve" with the England national rugby union team.

In December 2019, Neil Craig joined the Gold Coast Suns in a part-time consultancy role for the coaching group.

Neil Craig followed Eddie Jones from the English rugby union team to the Wallabies, holding a similar support role in 2023.