When he walked into the London bar to talk football before the grand final he was even less sure why Phil Liggett, the man whose voice is as synonymous with the Tour de France as sunflower fields and the Pyrenees, was there as well.

It was an AFL Europe function and as he was flying from Canada to meet family in Greece Zaharakis figured on stopping in.

Liggett had a connection to the Adelaide Crows through Neil Craig and Charlie Walsh but clearly knew little of football. He thought Zaharakis played for Adelaide. The pair and a couple of Adelaide ex players were there to talk sport to AFL starved expats in London in grand final week.

To break the ice between them an organiser mentioned to Liggett that Zaharakis was interested in rhinos and what was happening to them in Africa. The pair spent the rest of the night locked in conversation about African wildlife. Football brought them together but was incidental to their relationship.

The next night Zaharakis went for dinner at Phil and Trish Liggett's house in Hertfordshire.

They talked about the shocking plight of the rhino. Trish Liggett is especially passionate. Zaharakis took no persuading of the cause but thirsted for more knowledge of what was happening and what else he could do. They mentioned the advocacy group helpingrhinos.org. Zaharakis said sign me up.

Phil and Trish have a property that bounds Kruger National Park in southern Africa. They have no fences on their property so the wildlife can roam free from Kruger and on to their place. Zaharakis will in October this year spend a week with the Liggetts and volunteering to help with the rhinos in any way he can. Tackling poachers often ends in gun battles so he'll leave that for others but he'll offer whatever else he can.

The rhinos are the latest cause for Zaharakis who has made a life of helping animal causes, donating his time and profile to advocate for help. He adopted an orangutan. Last year he joined test cricketer Peter Siddle in advocating for an end to duck shooting - in a sport like AFL with its share of robust country types who embrace shooting it was a contentious move. He clarified he was opposed to the sport of duck shooting - and leaving dead shot birds in the wetlands - not the shooting of birds to eat.

He has campaigned against bear baiting, to protect the habitat of tigers and volunteered at Edgar's Mission farm sanctuary near Lancefield.

"I was just into it through loving animals. My sister used to rescue animals from back when I was a kid, she did wildlife rescue in our area around Eltham Diamond Creek," Zaharakis said.

"She used to go out and rescue joeys that were still in the pouches of roadkill kangaroos, she would rescue any animals.

"I would come home and in my bathroom there would be a cockatoo in a box or a little kangaroo. Every night there was a different animal so she got me into loving them and it progressed from there.

"The rhino thing, I just love rhinos and couldn't believe they were getting hunted and killed just for their horn. On average three are killed a day but two or three weeks ago 12 or 13 were killed in 24 hours.

"You have trophy hunters then you get villagers killing animals like giraffes for food, then you have got those killing animals like elephants for ivory for money or with the rhinos killing them for what they think is medicinal purposes for the horn but tests have proven that it is nothing."

The horns can fetch up to half a million dollars from one animal alone so the poaching trade is well organised.

They are inquisitive animals; they walk straight up. They can't look left or right they look straight ahead. Their hearing is good but their vision is straight. They reckon for that reason they are easy to poach.

"The poachers are able to get right up on them and they give them one or two bullets then try and hack the horn off with a chainsaw. They find a lot of them alive bleeding out or alive with a full cut nose and they try to save them they have these big masks they put over the horn and it covers the huge gash and gaping hole in their head. They pretty much have these big bolts they put in the face.

"It's just outrageous."

Zaharakis today plays his 150th game. His football life is passing in an whirl that unless he forces himself to stop and reflect it passes before realising it. Part of that reflection is an understanding that not only is football passing quickly but with it is his ability to leverage profile to a personal passion that is driving him. Like saving the rhinos.