Crows chairman must follow the lead of other AFL club chiefs and deliver a message to its members
ADELAIDE football club chairman Rob Chapman must get on the front foot and put all the club’s key officials in front of a members forum and explain how the club expects to move forward.
CROWS chairman Rob Chapman must follow the path of his Collingwood counterpart Eddie McGuire by facing the Adelaide Football Club members - as soon as possible.
Not in February, with the annual members’ information meeting at Adelaide Oval. But within the next month.
Collingwood put all its key officials - executives and team management - before the Magpies members with a members’ forum in early December to explain the critical review led by Geoff Walsh and the plan that has delivered Nathan Buckley’s team from mediocrity to be a serious challenger to Richmond’s AFL crown this month.
Chapman has to put himself - and every key Crows official and team staff, in particular football chief Brett Burton - before the members in a critical meeting where the Adelaide Football Club is upfront about everything. In particular, all that happened at West Lakes (and on the Gold Coast) this season and everything the Crows are planning to do in 2019 to correct a major fall from AFL pacesetter to 12th.
If the Adelaide Football Club is to be authentic and inclusive - as it has professed to be for so long - it must embrace its members rather than fear facing up those in the 97,675 who have serious questions about the Crows’ on and off the field.
Burton’s famous claim at that awkward press conference at West Lakes in late June declaring there was “no lingering issue” from the contentious pre-season camp on the Gold Coast in late January has proven to be the biggest misread since Harold Macmillan declared “peace in our time” in 1938 and lost his job as British Prime Minister as World War II broke.
There are many issues still to be resolved from the Collective Mind camp. There are too many doubts that cannot be brushed away by coach Don Pyke simply saying “mistakes were made - that’s what humans do”.
And the Crows members have many questions that need to be answered direct by the club’s leaders rather than from endless leaks from a staff and player base that has lost confidence in their club’s football program and, critically, in Burton’s capacity to salvage the mess at West Lakes.
If, as Burton would have it, there is no lingering issue, it will be a short meeting - and the Crows fans can return to their summer duties having heard direct from their club how Adelaide has reset with the lessons from a disastrous 2018 season and who has been held accountable for the mistakes.
There is nothing to fear.
But Adelaide’s behaviour this season suggests quite the opposite. And the revelations that keep coming from an endless stream of leaks from West Lakes are more than concerning.
The Adelaide membership base deserves - just as McGuire delivered at Collingwood - an open and frank discussion about what has happened and what will happen at West Lakes to make the Crows an AFL pacesetter again.
Right now, the majority of the Crows membership base is tired of needing the join the dots from the media reports that are more detailed with each bulletin. Even the most-dedicated Crows members cannot load up their bullets at the media - not when every claim, including the reports that contracted forward Mitch McGovern would seek a trade, have proven to be true.
The membership base needs the Crows leaders - those who are ultimately responsible to the membership - to stand before them with every question answered honestly and every doubt cleared away with no tricky language. They should remind their hand-picked director, Rod Jameson, of his responsibilities to the members.
There is no interest in how many hits the Crows are getting on their website, how many followers they have on Twitter or Facebook, how the value of its eSports program has increased or how the pitching staff at Adelaide Bite is preparing for the new-look national baseball season.
There is no joy in hearing how much the club made in selling merchandise.
The members - and the players - want to clear away the Collective Mind mess.
They want to know who is accountable for the soft-tissue injury mess at West Lakes.
And they should be told that the Crows are totally rethinking their communication and media policy that has become a major fail and drawn more and more criticism for delivering misinformation.
Chapman owes this - and more - to the membership. To put up the shutters will be yet another insult to the Crows fans who have copped far too much from within their own camp this season.
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au