New coach creates fresh hope for Adelaide Crows, but but should change at leadership level stop there?
Adelaide’s football program is to get more than a new coach to replace Don Pyke. But the accountability for the Crows’ fall from AFL powerhouse must go beyond its football department.
Michelangelo Rucci
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Don Pyke’s exit from the Adelaide Football Club will spare some staff at the AFL club’s West Lakes headquarters from seeking new jobs.
But Pyke should not stand alone — even after the findings of the “external” review hit the boardroom — from accountability and responsibility for the Crows drawing comparisons with Fremantle and St Kilda for damaged football programs.
The questions of how Adelaide reshapes its football program under a new coach do not sit solely with the football department. They must extend to the football director Mark Ricciuto, who is increasingly conflicted by his media roles — and the Brownlow Medallist needs to accept responsibility for how the Crows have fallen from a much-admired football team to be virtually mocked.
It is worth reflecting on the words of club chief executive Andrew Fagan on his introduction as Steven Trigg’s successor exactly five years ago.
Fagan said of his mission statement: “The vision should be (to make the Crows) the most respected and successful (team) in the country.
“That is my history,” added the former Canberra Brumbies rugby boss, “deliver the best football program because that is what you can control. Put the right people in the right seats — and get the right systems in place.
“That is the focus for me — give the Adelaide Crows the best football program in the AFL.”
By September 2017 — after the Crows had been tested by the most-demanding circumstances with the death of coach Phil Walsh — Fagan was watching Pyke and his football department take the Adelaide Football Club to its first AFL grand final in 19 years.
Fagan did appear to have the right people in the right seats — and good systems in place at West Lakes. He could devote his attention to expanding the club’s business to eSports, baseball and lifestyle television to give the Crows financial streams to underwrite investment in the football program and beyond.
In September 2019, Fagan has to find a new senior coach, he has a football program under review and the Crows have a player base that revealed itself as fractured — as noted by the Western Bulldogs players at Ballarat in the season closer last month. Several Bulldogs players speak of never knowing an opposition team to be so argumentative with each other on the field.
Does the blame for this rest solely with Pyke, who after losing the 2017 AFL grand final to Richmond had well-meaning intentions to make his team mentally tougher but very poor execution of this agenda?
No, it certainly does not. And the accountability goes well beyond the obvious targets of football chief Brett Burton, senior assistant Scott Camporeale and SANFL State league coach Heath Younie, who sowed the seed for the disastrous Collective Mind pre-season camp on the Gold Coast last year.
The responsibility for Adelaide not living up to Fagan’s vision to be “the most respected and successful team in the country” is at his desk too. More so when senior players brought key issues from the football program to his attention late last year.
Nor is Ricciuto free of accountability. Yet, the 1998 AFL premiership hero escapes major questions with Pyke’s resignation and again is a critical part of the Adelaide panel seeking the next coach.
There will be change at West Lakes in October when the fallout of the external review takes shape. Pyke’s exit will allow some to stay in their jobs — or be ushered to new jobs — in a revamped football department.
A new coach will create new hope. But does Adelaide need new leadership beyond the football department? This question falls at the feet of Fagan and Ricciuto — and more so on Fagan when Crows members are taking issue with the way they have been informed (or, as some say, “misinformed”) in the past two years.
Adelaide is fortunate that the club’s constitution, ratified in the transfer of the club’s sub-licence from the SANFL to the AFL, makes it almost impossible for a rebel group to challenge the board. But this should not deter Adelaide’s current leaders from putting themselves under deep scrutiny for how they allowed the Crows football program — and Pyke — to fall from AFL pacesetter to be subject derision around the nation. Never should Adelaide be tagged as a “laughing stock” as it has been recently.
Perhaps they will learn from their mistakes.
The Roast e-newsletter Roast will arrive in inboxes from 11am on Tuesday. This week the Roast looks at the message in Pyke’s critical parting words from Adelaide and note who is missing from the search for the next coach Crows coach.
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