Crows ruckman Sam Jacobs says pre-season camp was part of the reason Adelaide failed in 2018

THE AFL gave the Crows’ Gold Coast camp the all-clear during the week but ruckman Sam Jacobs says it still had an impact on the Crows’ slide down the ladder.

Sam Jacobs contests with Paddy Ryder in Showdown 45. Picture: Sarah Reed

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ADELAIDE ruckman Sam Jacobs has dismissed reports he was distressed after the Crows’ contentious pre-season camp last summer but called it a fail and said it was part of the reason the club fell from 2017 grand finalist to missing the eight.

Jacobs said the Gold Coast camp — coupled with players coming back unfit from holidays — was part of a pre-season that failed to give Adelaide the right momentum into the season.

He also said he had not enjoyed the camp.

“I think pre-season — and these are my thoughts — is you create your momentum through pre-season,” Jacobs said.

“If teams generally have a good pre-season they’re going to have a good season.

“We’re not hiding from the fact as a club that we didn’t have the pre-season we wanted.

“We obviously came off the grand final, we didn’t come back in the best position (condition) we would have liked.

Sam Jacobs of the Crows with coach Don Pyke in August. Picture: AAP Image/Kelly Barnes

“Put on top of that the camp that didn’t go to plan.

“It just sat over the top of us for pretty much the whole season.

“No doubt that played a part, along with injuries and a few other things.

“No doubt it played a part and the club’s owned it.

“If we had our time again we would have done things differently.”

Jacobs’s situation was addressed by chairman Rob Chapman in The Advertiser this week, with several personal conversations being held on the camp.

Jacobs’ was dealing with the loss of his brother, Aaron, but said it hadn’t upset him to talk about the issue.

“No (I wasn’t distressed),” Jacobs told TripleM show Dead Set Legends on Saturday. “The simplest was to put it — I can only talk about my experience; I don’t know about other guys — I wasn’t distressed, I wasn’t put in the situation which gets spoken about.

“It was just a camp that I just didn’t enjoy.

“It was a lot of meetings, we spoke all day about different things in our lives and the footy club.

“It was just an experience … techniques that I didn’t enjoy.

“It wasn’t that I got put in a position where I was made to feel uncomfortable.

“I wasn’t embarrassed. I wasn’t any of the stuff that’s been linked to me.

“Nothing was said to me by people that made me upset.

“My situation was a very public situation so a lot of my things were already out there.

“I wasn’t bringing anything new to the table to speak about.

“It was probably more the process that I didn’t enjoy.”

Originally published as Crows ruckman Sam Jacobs says pre-season camp was part of the reason Adelaide failed in 2018