The burning questions Adelaide Crows now need to deal with in wake of external review
The futures of Mark Ricciuto and Andrew Fagan, the importance of new coach Matthew Nicks and Lleyton Hewitt’s chances of joining the Crows board. Straight-shooting Adelaide chairman Rob Chapman on how the club will move forward.
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Adelaide bosses Rob Chapman and Andrew Fagan concede the club must ‘own’ its football change program and ‘improve’ as they answer burning questions from Jason Dunstall’s classified review.
List manager Justin Reid is safe despite extended contracts that led to estimated $300,000 payouts for offloading Josh Jenkins and Eddie Betts to Geelong and Carlton.
Football director Mark Ricciuto has heavyweight backing to remain on the club board while chief executive Fagan emerged enhanced from Dunstall's’s independent football review.
Chapman concedes there is a thirst for information from members starting with why reform was contained to a section of the football department.
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“We do need to engage with our fans and members through the media and we are going to do that,” Chapman told The Advertiser.
“The rest of the football department is running pretty good. Is there room for improvement? Yes!
“The board will be pressing management to make sure we are improving all aspects including member engagement.
“I will put my hand up to say we could have done things better and this board will insist management works with us to make sure we get better at that going forward.”
Dunstall’s review recommended football department change and recruiting a head of leadership. Adelaide is expected to pay a football luxury tax given financial settlements with former senior coach Don Pyke, assistant Scott Camporeale and outgoing head of football Brett Burton.
Asked what responsibility the board took for club appointments, Chapman explained: “The responsibility for all management appointments is the CEO.”
“What the CEO will do is for senior appointments bring them to the board for endorsement.
“Brett at the time, (some) people thought he was inexperienced to do that. He came in to do a specific role as head of high performance and did that really well and we elevated him to the head of football role.
“In 2017 he was head of football when we played in a grand final.”
The case for Burton’s appointment to head of football in November 2016 replacing David Noble was solid. Fagan had labelled 177-game Crows forward Burton a ‘strategic and innovative thinker’.
Burton was a high performance expert with strong administration skills, a past players association president and sat on the league’s rules of the game committee.
‘Birdman’ Burton faced a nightmare scenario early in his new role by a 2018 Gold Coast camp that fractured relationships beyond the control of the most hardened operator.
“Brett’s very talented and very capable in many aspects of the head of football role,” said Chapman.
“In making the change it was as much as we are bringing in a new coach, needed a clean slate to have the best chance of success.
“You are always learning. We will learn from that as well.”
Adelaide’s private, 50-page external football review authored by Dunstall, Matt Pavlich, Tim Gabbett and Jonah Oliver paved a ‘fresh’ path for senior coach Matthew Nicks.
Reid’s position is secure as Adelaide’s hierarchy believes it was right to offer Jenkins a five-year deal in 2016 at his peak and damned if they didn’t following Patrick Dangerfield’s departure. Betts fell out of love with Adelaide after the infamous Gold Coast camp and round 19 demotion last season.
Player concern over Ricciuto’s multiple media and director of football roles was noted which Chapman said the 2003 Brownlow Medallist ‘understands and will deal with’.
Ricciuto’s input is under-appreciated, argues Chapman.
“I would love people to fully understand the amount of effort Mark puts into this role, particularly in the last six weeks while we have been looking for a senior coach,” Chapman told The Advertiser.
“Some of the criticism that gets levelled at Mark … he is a wonderful football director.”
Ricciuto says he’s ‘highly unlikely’ to be Adelaide’s next chairman.
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Chapman is ‘comfortable with the skill set’ of the board he will exit at next October but welcomed Lleyton Hewitt’s interest in joining it.
“Someone like Lleyton with professional sporting experience would definitely add to it but there would be dozens who would complement,” said Chapman of tennis legend Hewitt.
Fagan says ‘it is for others to judge’ his performance but is ‘committed’ to delivering Adelaide’s football overhaul. There can be no passengers.
“Everyone has to own this now, it’s what do we want to define ourselves by in terms of elite standards into the future,” said Fagan, steering the club’s move to North Adelaide.
“We have good people leaving the footy club, that hurts. It is a really brutal industry.”
A head of leadership will address poor player culture that Dunstall found turned to a self preservation focus through failed 2018-19 seasons. Former captain Taylor Walker resigned but Rory Sloane is rated highly by Nicks for leading by example.
“There are plenty of reasons to look forward to the next few years. A new coach leading a younger playing group and footy program that will be running at the level it needs to be,” said Fagan.