Don Pyke says silent treatment was to make Crows realise severity of dire Dees situation

IT was a sight rarely seen in AFL footy. An AFL coach strode to the middle of his team huddle and simply stood, eyeballing his men. Don Pyke revealed the reason for the stare down. WATCH IT

Don Pyke at three quarter time. Pic: AAP

ADELAIDE coach Don Pyke says his three-quarter-time stare down in which he eyeballed his players without speaking for an extended period was to make them realise how serious the situation against Melbourne was.

The Crows trailed by 80 points at the final break and rallied briefly in the fourth term only to lose by 91.

Pyke walked into the huddle and stared furiously before eventually speaking.

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“I was trying to engage with them and bring them back to the present and get them to actually feel what was going on, I don’t think there was any point ranting and raving at that point,” he said.

Don Pyke at the three quarter time huddle. Pic: AAP

“We had a good conversation about what we want to stand for in the last quarter and a small positive is we at least won contested possession in the last quarter, but we saw a repeat of the things that caused us problems in the first three.

“It wasn’t by any stretch a great quarter of footy.

“We’ll stick together and review it, we’ll be pretty direct in terms of the review and what creates winning and what is poor.”

The Crows lost Paul Seedsman before the game and Luke Brown in the first quarter to injury but Pyke said it was no excuse.

“We came here with a side we thought was capable of winning the game and we didn’t perform to our level,” he said.

Pyke eventually opened up to his men. Pic: AAP

“That’s take nothing away from Melbourne who were very, very good.”

Without their captain and vice-captain, Pyke said it was a challenge for others to stand up and provide on-field leadership.

“That’s a growth opportunity for them, we don’t want to be relying on one or two leaders with Taylor and Rory both out at the moment,” he said.

“I thought they were outstanding in that space last week against the Bulldogs, today not so, but that’s part of their development and learning about what it takes to consistently play hard and solid AFL footy.

The workrate was down, all credit to Melbourne, they played a really strong game but that was really disappointing from our end ... We walk away, lick our wounds and get ready to go again.”

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Originally published as Don Pyke says silent treatment was to make Crows realise severity of dire Dees situation