Why calling the Crows a “basket case” is a shocking over-reaction to an injury-fuelled form slump
CRITICS have lined up to pot the Crows after their recent poor form. But those with longer memories will recall an SA-based AFL club that hit a much lower on and off-field ebb before being bailed out by generous benefactors, writes Graham Cornes
Graham Cornes
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IT may seem hard to believe but there was a time when the Adelaide Football Club attracted very little media attention.
In those first few months of training as the first squad was being assembled, we rarely saw a reporter or television crew at West Lakes.
It all changed after that first trial game against Essendon on February 1, 1991. It was just a trial game, but The Advertiser reported “the fervor of 50,000 screaming fans”.
From that moment on there was always a camera crew and reporters at training.
The latest from the Crows led every sports bulletin and often was the opening news segment. It seemed crazy then. It’s much, much worse now. It was great when it was a good news story.
However, when the wheels started to fall off the pressure of negative publicity was crushing. There was nowhere to hide. Nothing has changed. In fact it is now much, much worse.
The reporting of the Crows woes and the assaults on the character, integrity and veracity of the club, and those within, have descended to new depths.
Rumour, hearsay, innuendo and mischievous gossip are being presented as fact.
The character assassination of some Crows’ executives and officials has been disgraceful. The hypocrisy of those perpetrating such calumny is astounding. You know who you are!
The words “basket case” were thrown out there this week. It’s the ultimate insult that can be directed at a club.
Of course some clubs are deserving of such an insult. They are the ones who have languished at the bottom of the ladder for several years.
They are the ones whose recruiting strategies have failed miserably; whose supporters see no hope; whose chances of competing in finals are remote.
The finances of such clubs are precarious. Their crowds steadily diminish. Their coaches come and go.
Not all that long ago, Port Adelaide was such a club – until the SANFL bailed them out and another act of football treachery saw them gifted the riches that have flowed from Adelaide Oval.
On the field they are now strongly poised – more credit to the resilience of coach Ken Hinkley, a tough and demanding coach. Off the field, despite the enterprise of the China experiment, the club’s finances are still delicately poised.
Keith Thomas would never insult another club by describing them as a “basket case”.
He is painfully aware of that old mantra: “there but for the grace of God go I”.
He only has to look at his club’s records books to see that in season 2008, following the club’s second grand final appearance, the team under Warren Tredrea’s captaincy, crashed to
13th position in the then 16 team competition. It was the first of five years of misery and mediocrity disguised by tarpaulins.
Perhaps the definitive word on the state of the Crows should come from Gillon McLachlan, the most powerful man in football.
When asked at a business luncheon this week about the plight of the Adelaide Football Club, the AFL chief executive paused, then answered thoughtfully: “Really well governed, really well managed. I don’t lose a wink of sleep over the Adelaide Football Club.”
It is true that the Crows form has been disappointing, particularly over the past month, but anyone with half a football brain can see that the absence of star players is the major reason.
“Injuries are no excuse”, the critics bleat. Well, that is simply incorrect. Injuries are an excuse. It’s just that coaches don’t want to take that easy way out because a coach lamenting the loss of key players can be seen as insulting the players who are replacing them.
No, Adelaide, despite its position on the ladder, is far from a basket case.
Over the years the club has often refused to respond to mischievous gossip.
“Never complain, never explain” has been a strategy that has worked for them.
However times have changed and over the past month the club’s public relations strategies have contributed to the maelstrom of criticism.
There is little doubt the club has alienated most media outlets by denying them access while at the same time feeding its own, now extensive, media department.
Although it can be explained by long-term holiday plans arranged around the bye week, shutting down shop this week when there were genuine and reasonable questions to be answered has further infuriated the football media and impacted on supporters who are being fed sensationalised, exaggerated opinions.
The team’s first full-scale training session is this afternoon at Adelaide Oval.
Coach Don Pyke and head of football, Brett Burton simply must face the media and put these outrageous accusations into some sort of perspective.
They might owe the media nothing but they owe their fans everything.
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While Adelaide hasn’t won a premiership during Andrew Fagan’s tenure, he has led the club through some of its most testing times, writes Graham Cornes.