You'd think the Adelaide Crows would want to avoid anything to do with cats in the lead-up to this weekend's AFL Grand Final against the Tigers at the MCG.
But there's a distinctly feline vibe ahead of the match, with the Crows' players getting kitty namesakes from the RSPCA.
The organisation is using the players' nicknames for some of the dozens of cats in its care at its Lonsdale shelter south of Adelaide, in an attempt to attract new owners.
Among them are Tex (Taylor Walker), Buttsy (Eddie Betts), Boogie (Riley Knight), Snake (Jake Lever), Bull (Jake Kelly) and Sauce (Sam Jacobs, a redhead).
"We've gone and renamed all our cats with the Crows players' nicknames," animal operations executive manager Tim Charles said.
"We're sitting on 170 cats at the moment and we've got the kitten season pending, so we're really keen to prepare the shelter to take in a whole lot of cats and kittens as the weather warms up.
"Sauce, luckily enough, has found his new home and he'll be watching the Grand Final with his new family on Saturday.
"But the captain's still here. Tex still needs to get out so he can watch the football as well."
Some of the cats were named deliberately to match their AFL counterparts. For example, Sauce is fittingly a big ginger.
If the campaign proves successful, the RSPCA said it could be expanded.
"There are some older cats we'd like to get out as well so Mods (Tony Modra) might be in there, as well as Roo (Mark Ricciuto)," Mr Charles said.
"It was just such a good opportunity ... to use this as a way of getting the message out there that we've got lots of cats available for adoption."
The AFL is no stranger to unusual cat stories. In the late 1990s, Geelong star Garry Hocking temporarily changed his name by deed-poll to Whiskas as part of a promotion for the cat-food label.
And in 2014, Crows defender Daniel Talia pleaded guilty to speeding, telling a court he was driving too fast because his cat was vomiting in the back seat.
But whatever happens on Saturday, one thing's for sure. The Crows will have their tails up and their claws out.
