Graham Cornes column: Adelaide Crows triumph puts paid to week of psychological dramas

IT’S far too early to claim success, but the pendulum of prejudice that measures a team’s reputation in the football world has started to swing back in the Adelaide Crows favour, writes Graham Cornes.

Lachlan Murphy, Bryce Gibbs, Darcy Fogarty and Tom Doedee celebrate their first victory in Crows colours against reigning premier Richmond on Friday night. Picture: SARAH REED

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IT was hardly redemption. Grand final losses are too difficult to reconcile and are beyond redemption. They stay buried in the psyche forever.

However, on a beautiful Maundy Thursday evening (which ironically commemorates the Last Supper), against the magnificent backdrop of St Peter’s Cathedral, the Crows feasted on the reigning premiers.

It was a perfect night after what had been another week of controversy, even ridicule, as the club and Don Pyke endured half-baked speculation and ill-informed criticism. Had it not been for the self-destruction of the Australian Test team in South Africa, the Adelaide Football Club’s innovative experiments with “mind training” would have faced even more scrutiny and ridicule.

It’s far too early to claim success, but the pendulum of prejudice that measures a team’s reputation in the football world has started to swing back.

The Crows had to do it the hard way; they had to win the game on its merits because Richmond came to play.

Led by the best player in the country, Dustin Martin, they were fierce, combative and talented with that touch of arrogance befitting a reigning AFL premier. Not only was it a vital victory, it was a courageous one. Undermanned and down to 20 fit players after a disastrous hamstring injury to the team’s club champion, Matt Crouch and concussion to David McKay, Adelaide found depths of resolve and endurance which can only endorse the influence of the club’s psyche consultants, Collective Minds.

“Uncomfortable”, extreme pre-season camps are nothing new. Whether it is Alastair Clarkson trekking with his Hawks across the Kokoda Trail; Mick Malthouse almost losing his team during a whiteout on a mountain in Arizona; Terry Wallace asking his players to jump out of a plane over Port Phillip Bay; or Mark Williams pushing his players to breaking point on Mount Harper in New Zealand, AFL coaches have strived for that mental edge by demonstrating just how much the body can endure if the mind is strong enough. And don’t mention fire-walking!

Hawthorn players Stuart Dew and Brendan Whitecross lead the stretcher gang along the Kokoda Track during a Hawks preseason camp.

Actually, despite the ridicule and the public relations disaster that was the Crows fire-walking exercise, there is one thing that will always intrigue me. Nigel Smart actually walked across those coals. I still don’t know how he did it and ended up with only a couple of minor blisters. Whether it enhanced him as a footballer (or person) is debatable but he did have a great career, on and off the field. However the Collective Minds experience, despite the ridicule, was nothing like extreme.

These new, young millennial footballers will challenge anything that takes them out of their comfort zones and some sections of the media feast on the controversy. It is “fake news” to claim that “multiple Crows players were bewildered and mentally distressed” by the Collective Minds experience.

Don Pyke with Josh Jenkons after the Crows’ victory. Picture: SARAH REED

Don Pyke, quite rightly stood his ground and refused to explain or apologise for trying to make his team mentally tougher and more resilient. Aussie footballers need to be led strongly and their tasks clearly defined. The majority will do anything for their coach but there will always be a couple who resist. The challenge is getting those couple to conform to the team ethos before they break it. The Australian cricket team is the most recent example of the destructive influences of a few.

Thursday night was a triumph for Pyke and his team, albeit a brief one. It was a football match of the highest standard. Rory Laird, perhaps the greatest success story of any Crows player, coming off a rookie list and being elevated to the senior list with draft pick number 86, was again superb. Josh Jenkins, as enigmatic as ever but delightfully unfazed by his critics, fought hard to overcome the AFL’s best defender and kick five goals.

However, it was the young players: Lachlan Murphy, the private school kid from Victoria; Darcy Fogarty, already a colossus wanting to take on the world; and Tom Doedee, making the most of a long-awaited opportunity, who generated the most excitement. Those doubts that had arisen because of injuries, early season fade-outs and the residual impact of the grand final devastation were magically dispelled.

For this week!

Twitter @Cornesy12