Nick Riewoldt says Tex Walker has every right to be ‘ropeable’ after his text to players was leaked
FORMER St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt says Tex Walker has every right to feel ‘undermined’ and ‘ropeable’ after a text message he sent to his teammates about Adelaide’s pre-season camp was leaked. SEE THE TEXT
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ADELAIDE players were repeatedly played the Richmond theme song during their mentally-probing pre-season camp on the Gold Coast.
The Herald Sun can also reveal the text message captain Taylor Walker sent to his teammates as allegations swirled about what happened at the camp.
In part the text said “Boys, there’s some rumblings around the camp. Don’t talk to anyone, let’s discuss it in the morning. Disappointing Tex.’’
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Former St Kilda skipper Nick Riewoldt said Walker had every right to be ‘ropeable’ following the leaking of the text.
“I’m headless if I am Tex Walker,” he said on Fox Footy.
“The content of the text is really irrelevant. The fact that you have some players who are…unhappy and outwardly unhappy and speaking about how unhappy they are, that’s an issue but then for a text from the captain to now be made public, however that has come about, internally I’m thinking, there are people undermining me as captain.
“There are people who don’t like my style.
“The eroding of trust that does to the captain and the leaders within the group, I haven’t seen that before. I would be ropeable.”
On Wednesday the Herald Sun revealed a small group of senior Crows were subjected to the Richmond anthem after being split without warning from the team.
The ear-bashing was one of several testing elements of the week-long Queensland trip, which ran from January 29 to February 2.
The growing controversy over the camp comes as Adelaide prepares to face the Tigers, last year’s Grand Final nemesis, at Adelaide Oval.
Sources said the purpose of playing the Richmond song was part of a “cleansing” process after the Crows were humiliated in last year’s decider by 48 points.
Crows coach Don Pyke admitted not all players reacted well to the program steered by performance experts, Collective Mind.
“The reality is you don’t keep 100 per cent of people happy 100 per cent of the time,” Pyke said.
“Training, whether it be physical or mental; there are components within the program which are challenging.”
The AFL Players’ Association has refused to comment, stating no complaint was made after reports emerged multiple Crows players were “bewildered” and mentally distressed”.
Crows captain Taylor Walker, star ruckman Sam Jacobs, reigning best and fairest winner Matt Crouch and Rory Sloane have since spoken of the benefits of the camp.
“I absolutely 100 per cent came back from that camp feeling like a better husband, a better son and a much better teammate than when I was before I left on that camp,” Sloane said on Adelaide radio.
“We’re never going to give you an absolute blow by blow account of what we do on our training camps, because they are competitive advantages.
“We are working on the mindfulness side of sport, as well ... it was a camp that was pretty important to everyone.
“For me, the experience was unbelievable.”
Adelaide signed a three-year deal with Collective Mind at the start 2017 to “unlock the next frontier of high performance.”
The company is the brainchild of Australian pair Amon Woulfe and Derek Keddie, whose tactics aim to re-train the brain so it can adopt mind performance tactics for high pressure situations.
It was Collective Mind who introduced the national anthem ‘stare off’ to the Crows in last year’s final series.
Woulfe, a self-titled ‘mind performance expert’ who played basketball at the feeder level for the NBL, has a passion for unlocking the DNA of peak performing teams - sporting and corporate.
“My quest has been to unlock the intangible glue that keeps people together under pressure, or tears them apart. This quest led me around the world looking at professional sporting teams, revolutionary organisations, global events and villages in Japan,” Woulfe’s online bio states.
“What I found is that it all comes down to ‘hearts and minds’. It’s the invisible that always drives the visible. And to understand the invisible, I needed to look at the dynamics rather than the mechanics of performance.
“I needed to unlock collective mind.”
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