Former Essendon high flyer from the mid 70’s to the early 80s Max Crow and his wife Sue certainly have something to crow about (not that they would), not only about their own personal achievements, but also about those of their children, Justin and Kim.
Wearing Number 31, Max played 136 games and kicked 139 goals for Essendon as a follower and forward, and at times as a defender. He was runner-up in Essendon's Best and Fairest award in both 1978 and 1979 and also Essendon's equal second top Brownlow medal vote scorer in those years. He represented the Victorian State side in 1979. Max moved to St Kilda in 1983 where he won a Best and Fairest and played another 40 games and from there, he moved to Footscray for another 12 games.
Max’s wife Sue, has an impressive managerial record in Australian sport, extending from Executive Director of Women’s Cricket Australia and CEO of Softball Australia to the first female appointed in Game Development at the AFL. She is currently Head of Community at the Melbourne City FC where her aim is to make Melbourne City a leader in engaging the community in innovative and inclusive programs that use football to make a positive difference to peoples’ lives.
As CEO of Netball Victoria, Sue successfully established the Melbourne Vixens Netball team which won the ANZ Championship in its second season. An advocate for opportunities for women and girls, Sue was instrumental in the integration of women’s and men’s cricket and initiated the establishment of the Women’s National Cricket League. She was also involved in the successful Victorian Water Safety Campaign “Play it Safe by the Water".
Sue was the first female appointed to the Cricket Victoria Board on which she has served for the past 8 years. She is also a member of the VicHealth Board and is a past member of the State Sports Centres Trust.
Many Bomber fans will already know that Max and Sue’s son Justin is currently High Performance Manager at Essendon FC. As such, the team he leads is responsible for the health and fitness of the playing list and includes strength and conditioning coaches, physiotherapists, performance analysts and a dietician. Justin is a registered physiotherapist and also an exercise physiologist and recently completed a Master of Enterprise (Executive Leadership) at Melbourne Business School.
Since Justin took over as High Performance manager, Essendon’s injury rates have been brought back to below AFL averages and he and his team have had to manage the introduction of top-up players in 2015 and also the arrival of 10 new players to the club during late pre-season in 2016.
In his younger days, Justin played football at Oakleigh Chargers and trained at Essendon once a week in 2000. He was later rookie-listed by Collingwood and made his AFL debut in 2004. He later played 114 VFL matches for Williamstown, Collingwood VFL and also Bendigo Bombers. Before starting in his current role at Essendon, Justin worked at Collingwood FC as a rehabilitation coach and was also their club runner for the 2010 premiership. He also volunteers one night a week working with disadvantaged kids from the Fitzroy commission flats in a basketball program called Helping Hoops.
Max and Susan’s daughter Kim is probably the best known of the Crow family although she changed her name to Brennan after her recent marriage in Hobart to Beijing Olympic Men’s double scull gold medallist Scott Brennan. Prior to taking up rowing, Kim was 400m hurdler and won the silver medal at the 2001 World Youth Championships in Athletics. She won the Australian junior title at two Australian Athletics Championships and in 2003/2004, Kim was ranked the Number two in Australia to Jana Pittman. In 2005, Crow took up rowing after a leg injury ended her hurdling career. Crow is a member of the Melbourne University Boat Club in Melbourne and represents Victoria at the national level. At the Australian Rowing Championships in 2012 and 2015 she won the Nell Slater Trophy in the Interstate Women's Single Scull. During the Victorian Women's VIII's eleven year consecutive victory run from 2005 to 2015, Crow was seated in the boat on seven occasions for seven Queen's Cup victories up till 2015.
Kim with her partner Sarah Cook finished fourth in the Women's Pair B-Final at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. At the 2012 London Olympic Games, Kim won a silver medal in the Women's Double Sculls (with Brooke Prately) and a bronze medal in the Women's Single Sculls. At the 2015 world rowing championships Crow qualified the Single scull for Australia to race at Rio in 2016.
Kim was a member of the Australian Women's Eight that won the bronze medal at the 2006 World Rowing Championships . She teamed with Kerry Hole to win silver medals in the Women's Double Sculls at the 2010 and 2011 World Rowing Championships. At the 2013 World Rowing Championships in Chungju, Kim won gold in the single scull taking a lead from the 300m mark and holding it to the line. In the same event at the 2014 World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam, Kim took silver behind New Zealand's Emma Twigg. She became a dual World Champion by winning gold at the 2015 World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette by defeating 2012 Summer Olympics champion Mirka Knapkova.
Kim is coached by Lyall McCarthy at Rowing Australia's Centre of Excellence in Canberra. And if all that is not enough, Kim is Chair of the Australian Olympic Committee's (AOC) Athletes Commission and a full voting member on the AOC Board.
Kim is also a qualified lawyer and has been a regular columnist for The Age.
No doubt all Australians will be on board with Kim in her quest for rowing gold in Brazil later this year and Bomber supporters, in particular will have a special place for her in their hearts as she takes on the world.
