Crows coach Don Pyke has addressed the ‘outside noise’ of player unrest at Adelaide, saying: ‘I don’t buy it’
Crows players have spent the week reattaching to their love of playing footy in an attempt to rediscover their form and keep their finals chances alive
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Crows coach Don Pyke has addressed the week’s most persistent rumour — that he’s lost the confidence of his players — with a simple response: “I don’t buy that”.
“We’ve lost some games of footy, and it’s a bit of an easy one to throw out there: ‘Oh, we’ve lost the players’, but I don’t buy that,” he said.
“The reality of any organisation, it doesn’t matter if you’re running a bank, or you’re running a deli … you’re always going to get some people who are potentially either not happy with the direction that you’re going in or happy with the feedback they’re getting or how they’re performing, I think that’s inevitable and we’d be no exception.
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“Some guys who might be disappointed they’re not playing, that’s the reality of the high performance environment, we can’t play all 44 on the list, some guys are injured and probably flat the fact they’re injured.
“I’m aware of that, but I think that’s a minority.”
Pyke said the club addressed any individual unhappiness by engaging with each of the players.
“You just keep talking to them, just keep building those relationships,” he said.
Pyke and the Crows have this week recealled veterans Eddie Betts, Bryce Gibbs and Richard Douglas from the SANFL for Saturday night’s must-win clash against St Kilda at Adelaide Oval, along with 2017 first-round draft pick Darcy Fogarty for his first game of 2019.
Josh Jenkins has been dumped to the SANFL for the second time this season along with Paul Seedsman, Tyson Stengle and Patrick Wilson.
Having won only one of their past five games, this week’s training sessions have been important for the embattled Crows who are fighting to regain their pre-bye form.
Pyke said much of the past week had revolved around encouraging the players to rediscover their love of the game in time for Saturday night’s clash against St Kilda.
“I think what’s happened is that fun’s been drained a bit by the results,” he said.
“When you’re losing games of footy, that’s not enjoyable. So for us, it’s reattaching ourselves to why we love playing the game.
“The players are in the same boat (as the coaches), they’re walking around not happy with how we’re performing and playing and so all of us sit down and go: ‘Right, how do we give ourselves a fresh start with four weeks to go knowing that we sit at 9-9 and we win this week, we advance to another week’.”
To that end, there’s been a trip to AFL MAX for some skills sessions and some social soccer, anything to shake up the usual “game reviews and line meetings” that make up any ordinary week. Except that this is no ordinary week.
With Adelaide’s finals’ chances hanging on by a slim margin, Saturday’s match against the Saints is a must-win.
Pyke said the squad trained “outstandingly” at Thursday’s training session at Adelaide Oval and was well versed in what the team’s picture of winning looked like.
“Our numbers don’t lie,” he said. “Our contest and our tackle work when that’s to a high standard, we win games of footy.
“There’s no real magic there, it’s really just going back to the basics and the process of what we need to do and embracing the fact that we need to do that for longer to win games of footy. That’s the secret, in my view.”