Adelaide Crows and Collective Mind at odds over key details of the club’s pre-season camp
THE Adelaide Crows remain at odds with the company behind the club’s now infamous pre-season camp, with conflicting reports emerging over key details, including the use of the Richmond theme song.
THE Adelaide Crows remain at odds with the company behind the club’s now infamous pre-season camp, with conflicting reports emerging over key details, including the use of the Richmond theme song.
In June, Crows coach Don Pyke described the camp, run by Collective Mind, as a “fail” and admitted one element included Adelaide players being forced to listen to the song in the aftermath of the club’s Grand Final day defeat.
However, speaking at a media briefing on Monday, Collective Mind bosses Amon Woulfe and Derek Leddie rubbished the suggestions, declaring the song was “categorically” not played.
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“There was a comedy routine in which a comedian sang a few bars. That’s it,” Woulfe said.
“The song on the bus, it absolutely was not played. Categorically, I was on the bus myself with another club official. The theme song was absolutely not played. It was not played on repeat. It just didn’t happen.”
Adelaide parted ways with Collective Mind midway through the season after reports emerged that the psychological nature of the camp had left players mentally distressed.
It was also reported that elements of the camp offended indigenous players.
However, the company refuse to believe players were left scarred by the experience and said the concerns of the indigenous players came down to a misunderstanding over a “talking stick”, which was promptly resolved.
Collective Mind also took the chance to hit back at Pyke’s “fail” claim, confirming the Crows were aware of all aspects of what was planned and that all players had received psychological clearance from club doctors before going.
“We feel that the camp was great … we delivered on the brief that was given to us by the Crows,” Woulfe said.
“If there was anything that happened on the camp that was not okay, the club would have addressed it straight away back in February.
“If half of what has been said and speculated about was true, we would have been fired in an instant.”
Asked whether the Crows had used the camp as an excuse for poor performance, Woulfe said: “It is going to be up to the Crows to decide what went wrong this year. All I can say is that we are one part of a very large high performance program at the club.”
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Originally published as Adelaide Crows and Collective Mind at odds over key details of the club’s pre-season camp