Young and old have their say as Crows hold hotel meeting after shock loss to Gold Coast Suns
Some of Adelaide’s youngest players spoke up in an hour-long team meeting on the Gold Coast on Sunday night as the Crows try to fight their way out of their current crisis.
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Some of Adelaide’s youngest players addressed their teammates and coaches during an hour-long crisis meeting on Sunday night as the Crows try to fight their way back from the lowest point in their 30-year history.
The Crows have admitted they are no longer even competitive after Sunday’s 53-point loss to the Suns came a week after a 75-point record Showdown loss to Port Adelaide.
Adelaide midfielder Brodie Smith, who is part of the club’s leadership group this season, said everyone from experienced defender Daniel Talia to its youngest players spoke up during the meeting at their Gold Coast hotel.
And he said by the end of the discussion players left on a positive note that they could turn their horror season around.
“We sat around in the meeting room for an hour or so once we got back to the hotel and talked about where we’re at and how we’re going to get out of this slump and get better,” Smith told The Advertiser’s Lowdown Podcast.
“We got back and did our recovery and had dinner, then went into the meeting room and Nicksy kicked us off.
“It was more about looking at the bigger picture, where we’re at and why we’re struggling to even be competitive, it’s not about winning games at the moment it’s about actually going out and being competitive and playing a good brand of footy.
“We had a big focus around our contest work and defending hard this week and the first quarter numbers were the lowest of all time in contested footy and clearance work.
“We went out and didn’t deliver at all so it was more about how are we going to get better, what are we going to do on the track, and a lot of the guys spoke up about their experiences in footy - the older guys - and things that have worked for them.
“Guys like Daniel Talia who is the ultimate professional and a consistent performer, he gave his views, and some coaches in the room who have been around the footy club a long time, and we had a couple of young guys speak up about their feelings as well at the moment
“So it was a really good chat and from a negative night it felt like a positive chat that we can put some things in place that we’re going to stand for and attack the rest of the year and be really competitive.
“It’s definitely still sitting with us today but we’re all up here together and there are a lot of guys playing golf so we can take our mind off it, reset the week and come tomorrow in our first training session for the week and get going and put our mind on training as hard as we can to try to turn this around.”
Adelaide’s battle with the Suns continued after the game on Sunday night when former Crow Hugh Greenwood hit back at his former football director Mark Ricciuto for comments he made about him during the week.
“It was very interesting to read, it popped up and spread around the group pretty quickly,” Smith said.
“I guess he felt Roo came at him during the week and he replied, but I think a bit of the college basketball system coming out in Hugh they like to get on social media and have a bit of beef after good performances.
“He walked the walk and then he had the right to talk the talk, there’s not much we can do about it if Hugh wants to jump on Twitter and pump himself up that’s up to him.
“It was more of a shock that he’d Tweeted it, but it’s ballsy, he’d want to keep playing good footy but they stitched us up last night so he’s got every right to have his say.
“We know how passionate Roo is and the hard thing about Twitter and those conversations they are hard to read (how serious they are).
“He’s a really good fella, Hughy, and has a lot of good relationships here so there wasn’t too much firing back and forth (on the field).”
reece.homfray@news.com.au
Originally published as Young and old have their say as Crows hold hotel meeting after shock loss to Gold Coast Suns