Adelaide Crows vice-captain Rory Sloane has defended his praise of pre-season camp

A WAR of words has erupted between Rory Sloane and Chris Judd over the Crows controversial pre-season camp. Sloane, who rarely comments on social media, hit out at Judd on twitter after the former West Coast and Carlton star said he was toeing the company line with his comments about the Crows’ Collective Mind camp.

Dane Swan, Brendan Fevola and Chris Judd are part of The Footy Show. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

ADELAIDE vice-captain Rory Sloane has hit back at Brownlow Medallist Chris Judd over suggestions he was just toeing the company line when he was full of praise for the club’s contentious pre-season camp.

It comes as Crows coach Don Pyke continues to be confident about playing finals this year.

Judd, speaking on Footy Classified on Monday night, said he found it difficult to believe Sloane had been genuine when he said the camp had made him a better husband, son and teammate and also posed the question: if that was the case, why would the program run by Collective Mind be axed?

But Sloane, who rarely posts on social media, fired back on Twitter on Tuesday night.

“Juddy, as nice as it would be if we were married, I think the only people who can comment on whether I have become a better husband or son is my wife and parents,” Sloane said.

Judd had been frank in his disbelief at Sloane’s praise for the camp on returning to Adelaide.

Sloane’s evaluation went like this:

“I absolutely 100 per cent came back from that camp feeling like a better husband, a better son and a much better teammate than what I was before I left on that camp,” Sloane said. “For me the experience was unbelievable.”

Judd was cutting after replaying Sloane’s comments.

He also spoke about the dangers to players in continuing to trot out the company line.

“It’s possible that Rory Sloane found the camp as transformational as that but given all the evidence we now know it’s probably hard to believe,” Judd said. “When I did hear Rory talk like that about the camp it just reminded me about the pressure players are under for group think and to tow the party line.

“And when you do tow the party line for an extended period of time there is a big cost to players.

“A little piece of you dies each time you say something publicly that you don’t actually believe.”

Meanwhile, Pyke was on Wednesday morning still bullish about finals for Adelaide.

The club is 6-7 and is likely to need to win six of its remaining nine matches to make it but Pyke said the Crows would start afresh after the mid-season break.

“We’re very clear that finals is well within our reach,” Pyke told Roo and Ditts on TripleM. “The reality is that most years 12 wins will get you in the finals.

“We’ve got six on the board to date, which means you need to win six out of the next nine.

“And the reality is that’s got to start for us this week against West Coast.

“We’ve had that week’s break; we’ve cleared the decks in terms of some things that are going to be changed.

“I’ve seen enough this year and over the last two years in my time here to have complete faith and belief in the players and their capacity to play some really good footy.”