‘No pause button’: Crows chairman Rob Chapman says Adelaide will push on with external review, list management
Adelaide chairman Rob Chapman says coach Don Pyke’s shock resignation won’t impact the club’s ongoing external review and list management decisions.
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Don Pyke’s shock departure will not derail Adelaide’s external review, list management or player contract negotiations, according to chairman Rob Chapman.
While the club is halfway through its controversial review into its football operations — being run by an independent four-man panel headlined by AFL greats Matthew Pavlich and Jason Dunstall — Chapman said it would be business as usual at West Lakes.
This would include appointing a separate panel to find the Crows next coach following Pyke’s decision to resign with two years left on his contract.
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“Don’s decision is exclusive of anything else that is going on in our football club,’’ Chapman said.
“Is it the right decision, I’m still not sure, to be honest, but Don has made this decision and
he’s a man of the highest calibre.
“He’s an A-grade person with great values, he sets high standards, so this (to lose him) is sad.
“But the pause button hasn’t been pushed in our football club. There are numerous things going on and programs of work that are underway that at this time of the year we all do.
“There is a big agenda there and they are going on side by side and over the next few weeks all of that will play out.
“Any decisions that need to be made will be made.’’
Chapman said the club would appoint a separate coaching panel to find Pyke’s replacement.
“That has served us well in the past and given Don’s decision we will sit down and work through it and probably announce something in a very short period of time,’’ he said.
“It will be a panel, it will be made up of the right people and it will be an extensive search to find the very best replacement that we can.
“We are confident that we can do that and we’ll take as much time as we need to do it.
“We know who exists in the talent pool and we’ll go about that judiciously.
“We have to sit down and look at what the right qualities are, the right behaviours, and what we are looking for in a coach for our club today.
“It’s still a bit embryonic, so we’ll work through that.’’
Chief executive Andrew Fagan, who said he wasn’t considering his future at the club, said the Crows would appoint a new coach “as soon as possible’’ but would take as long as they need to “find the best person’’.
Chapman said the club's list management team would continue to make decisions on players — ruckman Sam Jacobs and small forward Eddie Betts have been linked to Carlton, key defender Alex Keath to the Western Bulldogs and midfielder Hugh Greenwood to Gold Coast — without a senior coach in place.
“Conversations are going on with players, player managers, other clubs, I don’t think we’ll miss anything there, it just goes on as normal,'’ he said, adding the club was in “really good shape’’.