Mark Alan Bickley (born 4 August 1969) is a former
Australian rules football
Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...
(AFL). Bickley was a player for the Crows from 1991 until 2003, captaining the team to both the 1997 and 1998 AFL premierships. He was a media commentator, most notably with Channel 9 in
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
as their sports presenter. In 2011 he had a brief coaching career as caretaker coach of the Crows after the retirement of
Neil Craig
Neil Passmore Craig (born 11 January 1956) 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 (SANFL).
...
.
Playing career
Adelaide Crows
Recruited from
South Australian National Football League
The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport.
Originally formed as t ...
(SANFL) club
South Adelaide
The South Adelaide Football Club is an Australian rules football club that competes in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Known as the ''Panthers'', their home ground is Flinders University StadiumWindy Hill, as an inaugural member of the Adelaide Crows squad. In 1997 he was appointed captain of the Adelaide Football Club, and captained the 1997 and 1998 premiership sides.
After retiring from the AFL in 2003, he began presenting the weekend sports report on Nine News Adelaide alongside
Georgina McGuinness
Georgina McGuinness (née Allan, formerly Thomas) is a newsreader who was the anchor of Nine News#Adelaide, ''Nine News Adelaides weekend 6pm news bulletin from 1989 to 2011.
Career
An Adelaide native, born 29 August 1966, she studied at Seymo ...
, and in 2004 he became a panellist on the
Nine Network
The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...
In 2009, Bickley became an assistant coach at the Crows, thus ending his career on the ''Sunday Footy Show'' and Nine News.
Adelaide Crows
In the 2011 season, Bickley took over as caretaker senior coach at
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
after
Neil Craig
Neil Passmore Craig (born 11 January 1956) 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 (SANFL).
...
stepped down at the end of Round 18. His reign as Adelaide coach began with a convincing win over Port Adelaide in Showdown XXXI. It was just their fifth win of the season, and their second since the end of April. This was followed up with a narrow 5-point victory over the
Brisbane Lions
The Brisbane Lions is a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL).
The club was formed in late 1996 via a merger of the Melbourne-based 1883 foundation VFL c ...
at
the Gabba
The Brisbane Cricket Ground, commonly known as the Gabba, is a major sports stadium in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia. The nickname Gabba derives from the suburb of Woolloongabba, in which it is located. Over the years, the Ga ...
in Round 20, for the Crows' first win outside of Adelaide this season. Overall, Bickley coached Adelaide to three wins and three losses, the last of those a 96-point loss to . At the end of the 2011 season, Bickley was not retained as Adelaide Football Club senior coach with the appointment of
Brenton Sanderson
Brenton James Sanderson (born 27 February 1974) is a former Australian rules football player and is the former senior coach of the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Career
Early career
Originally from Adelaide, S ...
as the senior coach.
In November 2014, Mark Bickley joined the 5AA talk radio station as a co-host of the top rating weeknight sports show.
Bickley stepped away from full-time radio in 2021, and currently coaches the
Immanuel College, Adelaide
, mottoeng = Ever Higher / More Beyond
, established =
, type = Independent, Lutheran, co-educational, day and boarding
, religious_affiliation = Lutheran Church of Australia
, principal = Kevin Richardson
, faculty = 92 (2009)
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...