Eddie Betts pledges allegiance to Adelaide Crows as club legend Mark Ricciuto rubbishes McGovern trade talk
ADELAIDE star forward Eddie Betts says he will finish his career at the Crows, while board member Mark Ricciuto has backed Mitch McGovern’s commitment to the club amid reports the players want to cut their contracts.
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ADELAIDE star forward Eddie Betts has pledged to see out the remainder of his contract at the Crows and end his career at the club after whispers of discontent continue to swirl around last year’s AFL grand finalist.
Betts is the latest to be named as being unhappy at the club after a SEN radio report claimed he was put through personal and emotional pressure during the Crows’ controversial preseason camp on the Gold Coast.
After Mitch McGovern’s management team on Tuesday night slammed as ridiculous suggestions the young forward wanted to leave despite inking a three-year deal late last year — backed up by club great and board member Mark Ricciuto on Wednesday morning — Betts hosed down speculation that he too was contemplating a premature exit.
“That’s not true,’’ Betts told FIVEaa on Wednesday.
“I love the footy club and since I moved across here (from Victoria) the club and the town itself has treated me really, really well.
“I can’t see myself going anywhere else I want to finish my career at the Crows.
“I’ve still got two years on my contract.”
The former Carlton star, who returned home to South Australia for the 2014 season, last year signed a three-year contract extension to stay at the club.
He said the controversial Collective Minds component of the Crows preseason camp didn’t have any bearing on his mindset.
Betts, 31, had more concerns about his physical wellness.
“Not really, people get a lot out of Collective Minds and some people don’t,’’ he said.
“I got a fair bit out of it and I’m happy where I am at the moment.
“At times it was more about my body, I felt like why am I playing why I am doing tis because my body feel like it’s not holding up.
“But I guess having kids and a beautiful family it gives me a reason to play footy. I’ll play until my body tells me I can’t play anymore because I love footy.”
Betts admitted there was a bleak mood at the Crows after three straight losses and a run of injuries, but said the club was working on turning it around.
“It’s a different feeling to last year,” he said. “We were winning. We have three losses on the trot. There’s games out there we should have won. It does get you down a little bit. We’ve got to change that environment.”
Meanwhile, Betts also refused to name and shame the teenager that aimed a racist slur towards the indigenous star because he was worried about the young man being bullied.
The 31-year-old was referred to as a “monkey” on an Instagram account which tagged Betts who posed in a photo for a fan in Perth after the Crows’ three-point loss in the conversation.
Betts said he thought long and hard about the offensive remark which he first read in private in a Perth hotel room before dwelling on the offensive message until he got home in Adelaide.
“I asked my wife what am I going to do here,” Betts said.
“I big part of me wanted to name and shame this young boy, he’s a teenage boy.”
Betts’ radio interview came after Crows board member and club great Ricciuto joined McGovern’s management in rubbishing suggestions the young talent wants to break his contract at the Crows.
McGovern’s management on Tuesday night slammed as “ridiculous” the report that the 23-year-old West Australian wants out of West Lakes to move to a Victorian-based AFL club, potentially North Melbourne.
The report declared McGovern, who is currently on the sidelines with an ankle injury sustained in the dying moments of Showdown 44, came to regret being rushed into a new deal last August and tried to organise a trade in October after taking issue with his salary when learning the Crows’ cap was being squeezed to secure Carlton midfielder Bryce Gibbs in the trade market.
But Ricciuto, after hearing the audio for the first time on Wednesday morning, knocked the report on the head, saying the talks leading up to McGovern signing a new three-year deal last August were protracted.
“Those talks took a very long time to get that contract done. That wasn’t rushed at all,” Ricciuto said on TripleM.
“And it was on big money, as he potentially should have got. “[McGovern]’s got plenty of talent. At the moment he’s only played 44 games and kicked 65 goals, so he’s not exactly shooting the lights out, but he’s got plenty of ability and, you know, he’s done some big things in big moments.
“He’s on very good money for what he’s performed so far and good luck to him.”Ricciuto also refuted the suggestions about Gibbs putting a squeeze on the club’s salary cap, saying the former Carlton star took a pay cut to come to Adelaide and was on less money than McGovern.
“That has been well documented. He’s on less money than what he was on at Carlton and he is on less money than Mitch McGovern. I know that for a fact.
“Sam McClure has got some of his facts wrong there. That’s the first time I’ve heard that grab and that’s my response to it.”
McGovern’s manager Colin Young told The Advertiser on Tuesday night that the report was “ridiculous”.
“Mitch has not indicated that. We’ve all heard in the past two weeks that players are looking to get out of Adelaide, but to put Mitch McGovern in that group is ridiculous,” he said.
McGovern, picked up at No. 43 in the 2014 AFL national draft, rejected offers from WA-based Fremantle to return home last year by signing with the Crows.
He went on to miss the Crows’ disappointing grand final loss with a hamstring injury.
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