KEVIN Sheedy has a long memory ... and a good one when it comes to recalling deals struck with SA football.

The Essendon premiership master returned to Adelaide on Friday to collect on an agreement struck 25 years ago as South Australian football was being transformed by the advent of the Crows as the city’s first AFL entry.

It was Sheedy who recommended the Adelaide Football Club start its AFL journey with a practice game against the Bombers at West Lakes in February 1991 — a match inaugural Adelaide coach Graham Cornes still says ended the uncertainty on how the Crows would be received in their home town.

More than 45,000 filled Football Park for the Crows’ first official game against an AFL rival.

“And all I asked for,” Sheedy told The Advertiser on Friday, “was that you buy me a drink 25 years later.”

Sheedy collected with a bottle of Bollinger champagne — that he paid for — in a lunch with former SANFL president and interim Crows chairman Max Basheer.

“What he forgets to tell you,” Basheer adds, “is the Essendon Football Club took 30 per cent of the gatetakings that night — and the SANFL got nothing.”

“And more importantly,” adds Sheedy, “the AFL never saw a dollar that night.”

Sheedy on Friday revealed the untold story behind how the Adelaide Football Club’s on-field story began in 1991 by one of his typical enterprising moments in November 1990.

“Essendon had been taking the game around the nation, from Darwin to Perth — and we wanted to do the same in Adelaide,” Sheedy said at Friday’s celebratory lunch at Louca’s restaurant at Hutt Street.

“I’d pleaded with (AFL chief executive) Allan Schwab to let Essendon to be in the first official game with Adelaide, but he said he couldn’t because the AFL had committed to Geelong. It was a no from Schwab — like, No!”

Adelaide was drawn to play Geelong in the opening round of the 1991 Foster’s Cup pre-season series at Football Park on Wednesday, February.

“I met with (inaugural Crows chairman) Bob Hammond at the Oberoi Hotel at North Adelaide to work out that Adelaide had no game the week before playing Geelong,” Sheedy said.

“I asked Bob, ‘Do you want to be beaten by Geelong by 10 goals in your first game or have a nice practice game with us?’ It was the best game of tanking ever — 45,000 at Football Park in still the best-attended practice game in Australian sporting history and the Crows had a nice start to their AFL story.”

Adelaide beat Essendon by 27 points — 13.14 (92) to 10.5 (65) — and still opened its Foster’s Cup series with a 77-point win against Geelong, albeit with only 20,069 at Football Park for the follow-up match after facing the Bombers.

Inaugural Crows chief executive Bill Sanders, who was noted for stuffing bags with cash from the Football Park turnstiles to deliver the share of the gate to the Bombers, was not able to attend Friday’s commemorative lunch because he was interstate. But Sheedy paid tribute to Basheer and Hammond for making the game unfold against the AFL’s wishes.

“And,” said Sheedy, “I’ll never forget Max Basheer yelling across the room at Football Park with Allan Schwab listening, ‘Would you like to come back next year?’”

The Bombers did return in 1992 — for an official AFL premiership match in round 14 that was won by Essendon by 44 points.

“We did learn a bit from that trip in 1991,” said Sheedy.