Adelaide’s search for new mind power has created doubts that were not cleared away by the Crows awkward media conference

CROWS football boss Brett Burton - and coach Don Pyke - were to have cleared away the Collective Mind saga on Saturday. But in leaving more questions than answers, the controversy will not go away

Crows football boss Brett Burton, left, has left more questions than answers in his search to clear away the Collective Mind controversy in a media conference with Adelaide coach Don Pyke at the Adelaide Football Club on Saturday. Picture: Daniel Kalisz (Getty Images)

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SOME stains never wash out. Inaugural Crows coach Graham Cornes - and Nigel Smart - will never get away from the firewalking moment in Adelaide’s second pre-season in 1992.

Current Crows football chief Brett Burton - and coach Don Pyke - will never remove the stigma of the contentious pre-season camp with the Collective Mind program at the Gold Coast in January.

Burton can say again and again, “There are no lingering issues from the camp”. But the stain - and the questions - will never go away.

Burton, who draws some harsh criticism across the AFL for his work as the commander of Adelaide’s football department, had a chance to clear away so many doubts on Saturday with the Crows’ much-watched but little understood media conference at West Lakes.

When a rival club president - Collingwood’s media savvy Eddie McGuire - closes the Fox Footy coverage of the press conference with the line “More questions than answers”, Burton can take his stand-up work as a fail.

The critical problem for Burton is his confirming details that were vehemently denied in March always was to be awkward. And hiding behind the “we’re not going into specifics” made it far more awkward for Burton.

There were times Pyke, appreciating the need to be transparent, took control to over-ride his football boss with far more-detailed answers than Burton was offering. He had a greater sense of the moment - and the need to re-establish credibility for a football program that has fallen from highly respected to highly questioned.

Pyke, as he noted, certainly does not need to apologise for trying to make the Adelaide football program better. The telling point from this is pushing new boundaries in physical and mental conditioning of his AFL team has delivered horrible results with a heavy injury list and a disjointed player group that has found mental demons rather than mental strength.

In question - and needing to be asked - is whether Pyke feels he owes an apology to his players for putting them through the Gold Coast camp, the Collective Mind process and the controversy that has followed.

There are Crows players who have not felt comfortable with how their inner feelings - expressed in the confidential bubble of the team’s inner sanctum - became the basis of Collective Mind’s work at the Gold Coast. A bond of trust has been challenged.

If Burton had hoped to close the Collective Mind saga on Saturday - while ripping the contract with the mind coaches - he has failed. There are lingering issues by, again, the lack of transparency at a club that is now seen to have much to hide.

This saga goes beyond the team. To avoid the bill from Collective Mind hitting Burton’s football program with the AFL-imposed luxury tax, the process was turned into an “all of club” campaign. This led to one female staff member taking issue - a fall-out Burton insists has been cleared away.

But the stain remains. Along with some serious questions. In sacking Collective Mind, Burton has delivered a scapegoat for Adelaide’s failure on the field this season. It might not be the last.

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