Chris McDermott

Club

Representative

Chris McDermott (born 4 November 1963) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) and the Glenelg Football Club and North Adelaide Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL).

He was an inaugural inductee into the South Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2002.

Chris McDermott was the inaugural captain of the AFL club Adelaide Crows. He was initially signed by the VFL team Fitzroy in 1981, but stayed in the SANFL with Glenelg Football Club after the South Australian player retention scheme was developed to pay top players to remain in South Australia. He was "chased by Carlton", and eventually drafted by Brisbane in 1986, but still never made his VFL debut. He played 275 games for his SANFL club Glenelg, playing football in his home state of South Australia. It was not until 1990 when talks of Port Adelaide becoming the South Australian team in the national competition that McDermott looked to Victoria for another club. However, when it became clear that the Adelaide Crows were going to be South Australia's entry into the AFL, he remained in his home state as the club's inaugural captain.

McDermott is commonly referred to as "Bone", a nickname referring to the damage done to his nose due to excessive facial trauma experienced whilst playing in both the SANFL and AFL.

McDermott served as playing coach for North Adelaide in 1997 and non-playing coach from 1998 through 2000.

McDermott set up the McGuinness-McDermott Foundation, which raises funds to provide oncology treatment for South Australian children, with fellow former Crows team-mate Tony McGuinness.