“In my experience Toyota always wants some level of performance in return for that sort of money,” he said.

In 1991, Toyota was pushed by its South Australian dealers to become sponsors of the then new Adelaide Crows AFL team.

It was at a time when the Camry was number three or four on the mid-size car ladder after the Adelaide-made Mitsubishi Magna and Holden Commodore.

Adelaide crows

Professor Miller said he set the dealers the target to become the number-one in sales in Adelaide and they had to achieve that by the date that the Crows won the premiership.

“Everyone agreed (to the sales target) because they all knew these guys (the Crows) would take a decade to get off their backside and win,” Prof Miller told Premium.

“Tragically for the dealers, six years later, the Crows won the grand final. We hadn’t realised just how quickly it was going to happen. And it was time (for the dealers) to pay the piper.

“In fact the dealers clearly had something going on. They sort of got up to number two (in the six years). It wasn’t bad.”

Adelaide Crows women’s team co-captain Chelsea Randall poses with the Toyota RAV4

Prof Miller said that it was important to see an outcome from the sponsorship and it needed to be a motivational outcome for the retailers.

“It’s not just guys with too much money blandly sticking their name on the footy field. It’s got to have a purpose and a deadline,” he said.

“We said, ‘We don’t know when that deadline is, but if these guys become the champions, well why aren’t you (the dealers) the champions?

“So we said ‘If they (Crows) are number one and you are number four, how does that work?’ The dealers could understand that.”

By Neil Dowling

The Adelaide Crows’ Eddie Betts (left) and captain Tex Walker