Crows co-captain Taylor Walker angered by speculation claiming Sunday’s gathering at Don Pyke’s house was a crisis meeting
Co-captain Tex Walker has scoffed at suggestions the gathering at Don Pyke’s house on Sunday was a crisis meeting and says the players are “100 per cent” behind their under-fire coach.
- Why Betts return would make sense
- Pizza at Pyke’s as Crows seek to stop the slump
- Pyke is safe, Ricciuto says
- We’ve lost confidence and energy: Pyke
- Look forward, not back to save season, Pyke tells Crows
Crows co-captain Taylor Walker revealed he missed coach Don Pyke’s pizza and beer gathering at the boss’s home on Sunday afternoon, hosing down suggestions that it was a crisis meeting in disguise.
The 29-year-old said he was still in Melbourne after a game of golf at Riversdale Golf Club on Sunday as teammates gathered at Pyke’s place less than 24 hours after the Crows lost to 16th-placed Carlton at the MCG on Saturday.
“I didn’t get back until Sunday night and I wasn’t there,’’ Walker told Triple M Adelaide’s Roo and Ditts on Tuesday morning.
“He (Pyke) invited players and partners, yeah it was all about getting around and having a bit of fun together.
“Kids went, it was very lighthearted and people (critics) are just talking that sort of garbage that it was a crisis meeting this and that … bullsh--. Honestly, how can blokes and wives and kids just not have a Sunday session and not have a few beers and knock off a Hawaiian pizza?”
Live stream the 2019 Toyota AFL Premiership season on KAYO SPORTS. Every match of every round. Live & anytime on your TV or favourite device. Get your 14-day free trial >
Walker was also resolute on suggestions Pyke had lost the playing group, saying he and his teammates were “100 per cent” behind their coach.
“Pykey is one of these coaches who isn’t in it for money or fame. He wants the best for you as a person off field, he wants the best for you as a person as a footballer, he 100 per cent cares and we understand that,” Walker said.
“But right at this point in time we are not playing the best footy we can. “We don’t fall into eighth just by luck. We’ve played some really good footy just at this point in time we are being challenged as a group.
“For us now it is about fighting and seeing who wants to fight for our footy club.”
Walker said the Crows were down in all areas — contests, attack and defence — but backed his teammates to turn it around despite ongoing scrutiny of the age and lack of speed in the playing group.
“Our pressure is not on the opposition as consistently as it should be and we are not winning our fair share,” Walker said.
“We got beaten quite heavily on the contested ball (On Saturday). As I’ve said all year with the new rules and how teams play now, if you lose field position, it is so hard to transition the ball from your back half to your forward half, we weren’t able to do that. We still had some inside 50s where we had trouble connecting, but it’s probably where we lost against Carlton.
“I still believe in the group we’ve got. It’s not like I’m putting my head on the pillow at night and thinking ‘our group cannot play good footy’.
“I still believe you back your experienced people in because we’re eighth. We’re not 15th. And we still have a heartbeat.”