By Kym Morgan from the Adelaide Advertiser.
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Adam Gulden didn’t expect any guarantees when he relocated to SA to chase his football dream at South Adelaide this year.
An opportunity to show what he could do at training was all the New South Welshman asked at the start of the pre-season and the Panthers obliged. About six months later Gulden stands out as one of the recruits of the SANFL season.
“That’s all I was expecting basically was a chance to train and for me that was enough to come over here and have a crack it at,’’ Gulden says. “I wanted to play at a higher standard and after talking to my coach (in NSW) at the end of last season, he advised me the SANFL was the place.”
Gulden was a dominant player for AFL Sydney club the University of NSW/Eastern Districts Bulldogs and was best-afield in their 2012 grand final win. But his effort in adjusting to the vastly higher standard of the SANFL this year has turned heads.
“He kicked four goals from the midfield in one of our practice games and was massive,’’ South coach Brad Gotch says. “Some of our senior players like Joel Cross and Nick Liddle were saying ‘wow, this guy’s going to be pretty special for us’.”
Gulden hasn’t missed a match since and he’s now a mainstay of South’s on-ball unit. He is finding himself at home in Adelaide, where he lives at Glenelg North and works as a barista at the Bay. The 23-year-old in part attributes his skills in traffic to his background in soccer.
Gulden’s father is Turkish and played professionally in his homeland before moving to Australia. Gulden played junior soccer but his mother, who hails from Bendigo, ensured she exposed her son to Australian Rules. “I think I take a lot of the skills I learnt playing soccer into footy,’’ Gulden says. “As soon as I started playing footy, dad was right behind me and now I’ve got a little brother and a little sister who play as well, so dad’s all about Aussie Rules.”
Gulden is one of many players in the SANFL from a different ethnic background.
The competition will celebrate this diversity with Multicultural Round today. Matches will be played with orange footballs as a symbol of international harmony and the 50m arc will be painted orange.
Last Modified on 17/07/2014 13:30