Time for Adelaide Crows to talk the talk on football field after off-field disaster

ONLY actions matter now for the Adelaide Crows. There have been too many words and those words, as destructive as they have been, mean nothing, writes Graham Cornes.

Adelaide Crows football manager Brett Burton and coach Don Pyke.

ONLY actions matter now. There have been too many words and those words, as destructive as they have been, mean nothing.

In particular, words spoken and written by an ill-informed, prejudiced legion of trolls and commentators who see only failure when there has been genuine intent, mean nothing.

Theodore Roosevelt, in his most famous quote (albeit written in an era of male dominance) said: “It’s not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.”

Adelaide Crows football manager Brett Burton and coach Don Pyke speak to the media.

Don Pyke and his players are in the arena this afternoon facing the West Coast Eagles, one of this season’s better-performed teams.

They may not win, for as determined as they may be and as much as their fans are willing them to succeed, there is always an opponent with same goal. Not all of them will play well, because that is the nature of football.

However, their actions and their efforts will be obvious — palpable even — and it is by those actions and efforts alone on which they should be judged. Only whole-hearted effort and contagious spirit and enthusiasm will be acceptable.

It has been another tough week for the Crows. An awkward press conference called to clear the air, only complicated the issue by posing more questions than it answered.

Chris Judd, one of the more interesting football commentators, virtually accused Rory Sloane of lying when Sloane defended the club, Dom Cassisi expressed his bewilderment and Meredith Gibbs, Phil Walsh’s wife, savaged the club in a social media post.

Of course all the other critics (“those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat”) reprised their ill-informed opinion.

Adelaide Crows coach Don Pyke and Bryce Gibbs at a training session at Football Park.

However, as defensive and awkward as that press conference might have been, it did address one of the issues — that of the aboriginal talking stick. The artefact had apparently offended one of the Crows indigenous players — or so the critics said.

They ignore the fact that the club took the precaution of having an indigenous elder at the camp and that the player’s concerns were eventually allayed.

The critics refuse to listen to those with the most credibility — the players who have actually experienced a Collective Minds training camp. Rory Sloane said the camp had made him a better “husband, son and team-mate”.

Former Crow Jake Lever, in an unsolicited opinion, sang the praises of Collective Minds on Melbourne television. And while it could be regarded as hearsay and second-person opinion, I was stopped during the week by the father-in-law of one of the Crows players whose daughter had told him how the whole Collective Minds experience had made that player a much better husband.

Not one Crows player has expressed any public concern about the camp.

Not one Crows player has registered a complaint about the camp, unlike those precious Melbourne footballers who protested to the AFL Players Association to have their pre-season camp cancelled because it was “too hard”.

But the critics will never be satisfied. Their myopic, fixed opinions won’t be altered. They will resort to ridicule to support those opinions.

They will regurgitate and distort the Collective Minds saga whenever the Crows falter. In time the distortion may even become reality in the same way perception can become reality, whether it is true or not.

The Crows finals chances of playing finals football again this year are slim, very slim.

When you start talking about the “mathematical possibility” of making the eight it’s almost a death knell — almost. However there remains a glimmer of hope.

Some of those injured players, the major reason for the Crows predicament, are back this afternoon. They are playing at Adelaide Oval in front of a crowd that will be willing, almost imploring them to win. And West Coast is missing a couple of its stars.

A win will silence the vultures who circle — but only temporarily.

In time Don Pyke will leave the Adelaide Football Club, either by his own volition or an impatient board’s.

When that time comes it is almost certain this Collective Minds experiment will be revisited. But at least he “dared greatly”. Who would damn him for that?