The Crows have gone from the envy of the AFL to also-rans in less than a season

AFTER an outstanding 2017 season ended with a horror grand final loss, the Crows have been plagued by poor decision making which has resulted in their 2018 season coming off the rails, writes Warren Tredrea.

Don Pyke, right, and his coaching team Scott Camporeale and Brett Burton enjoy a win earlier this season. Picture: SARAH REED

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ADELAIDE’S football department has gone from the envy of the AFL to a basket case in under nine months.

Winning can mask many things and right now the Crows’ poor leadership and decision making has been laid bare.

After what seemed destined to be their third AFL premiership in 27 years, they’ve quickly gone from the competition’s measuring stick in 2017 to battling to play finals in a horrible fall from grace.

Coach Don Pyke and inexperienced football manager Brett Burton are under the pump.

They’ve clearly underestimated their players fragile mental state following last year’s 48-point grand final walloping by Richmond.

It’s not as simple as blaming injuries as the reason for their demise, it goes much deeper than that. And while they’re a reality, they’re never an excuse. The Crows are still fielding a highly competitive team with experienced players each week.

I’ve lost count of how many hamstring injuries the Crows players have suffered in 2018, with the latest casualty being superstar Eddie Betts for the second time this year.

Adelaide’s fitness department is in disarray. Internally, some have turned the heat up on the club’s hamstring strengthening program while others are blaming mind training for short cuts in their fitness work.

The reality is we’ll never know the cause but what’s certain is inside football clubs people will always divert blame elsewhere to save their own skin.

And while much of the heat is on GM of high performance Matt Haas, I’ve been told by reliable sources he isn’t totally to blame as the club is still using Burton’s old fitness program.

The off-season exit of former player and fitness staffer Matthew Bode to Carlton smells, especially after he offered to take a significant pay cut to stay at West Lakes.

I’ve also been surprised by what I’ve seen and heard since the grand final.

In the post-game press conference coach Don Pyke’s said “One thing that’s very hard from a coaching view point is to provide effort, players are responsible for that.” While its true I didn’t like then and still don’t now. He was effectively separating himself from his players. In footy clubs you win together and lose together.

No less than a week later the club childishly banned Jake Lever from attending the club best and fairest after he revealed he was leaving for Melbourne. It was a toys out of the cot moment – it’s well known Adelaide low-balled Lever in contract negotiations in turn forcing him to go to market.

The acquisition of Bryce Gibbs seemed to calm the masses but it wasn’t going to be the end of the off-field issues at West Lakes.

I’m all for pushing the envelope to get better, but it’s the clubs two most senior football people coach Don Pyke and footy manager Brett Burton’s job to make the right call when formulating a plan of attack for the upcoming season, it appears they’ve made grave mistakes.

There’s been huge fallout from Adelaide’s desperate, old-fashioned get tougher approach to go one better in 2018. They have clearly underestimated their players’ mental struggles to deal with the grand final loss and as much as Adelaide has tried to manipulate the media narrative the reality is the truth always gets out.

On day one of pre-season it was reported that players had come back in poor shape following their break. It’s since been revealed they were set unrealistic fitness times in testing.

Don Pyke and Brett Burton at Crows training last year. Picture: Sarah Reed

The clubs’ leaders had to tell the coaching group to chill out and not be so intense.

Enter the Collective Minds program and that fateful Gold Coast camp in late January.

It was reported in late March that players were “distressed” about what happened on the camp. Allegations of blindfolding players and repeated verbal and audio taunting of various types, something I have never heard of in my 22 years in the game.

The club went into damage control sending out skipper Taylor Walker to deny the story saying “the journalist has got things completely wrong” - all the while he was text messaging his team-mates telling them to effectively shut up shop, naive considering some players were upset and the messages not surprisingly found their way into the media.

Fast forward to last week and finally Adelaide softened its approach with Don Pyke revealing “there were some things that were a bit a miss” admitting “we’d do it differently” – too little too late.

They should have been upfront from the start and admitted their errors in judgement, but because they chose to the tactic of “deny, deny, deny” it gave the story more air and heaped more pressure on their players.

While Adelaide says they’re committed to mind training and the club is still paying Collective Minds, the players refuse to work with them.

Transparency with injuries has been poor, needn’t I mention the Brad Crouch osteitis pubis debacle, where the coach said he wasn’t suffering from OP only for Crouch to contradict his coach days later. It was also reported he would have surgery, this was denied only for Crouch to go under the knife shortly after.

Burton famously claimed: “I find it offensive for anyone to suggest we aren’t upfront and open with injuries.” He along with many others have egg on their face. All preventable, unwarranted distractions the players have had to deal with.

On field it’s not surprise the playing group looks mentally shot, lacks spark and appears unwilling to play desperate hard football that was a given from the Crows in 2016 and 2017.

This could be the reason why coach Don Pyke headed to the bench on the weekend to work more one on one and reconnect with his players as the message isn’t getting through.

It’s impossible to see Adelaide replicating its wonderful season of 2017. The players appear bereft of confidence and not willing to pay the price.

And for those who think they’ll get a swag of players back from injury after the bye and flick the switch, it doesn’t just happen.

Adelaide has failed to live up to the lofty expectations in 2018 and its all been its own doing.

Pyke and Burton must be willing to put their hands up and admit they got it seriously wrong, with the once premiership favourites caught in footy’s mire.

These mistakes must never be repeated.