Nathan van Berlo says Crows’ last two seasons were unacceptable, Brenton Sanderson’s sacking was right call

ADELAIDE captain Nathan van Berlo has described the board’s decision to sack coach Brenton Sanderson as a tough call that had to be made.

Crows Nathan van Berlo

ADELAIDE captain Nathan van Berlo has described the board’s decision to sack coach Brenton Sanderson as a tough call that had to be made.

Repeating the line used by Patrick Dangerfield on The Footy Show on Thursday night, van Berlo on Friday said the Crows were in a “performance based industry” and their results over the past two years were unacceptable.

Van Berlo — who missed the entire season after rupturing his achilles tendon during pre-season training — said members of Adelaide’s leadership group had contacted every player on the list in the past two days to discuss the news.

On a recorded message on the club’s website, van Berlo said the team supported the board’s decision to sack Sanderson with two years still to run on his contract.

“As a group, as a collective we are 100 per cent united behind this board decision,” van Berlo said.

“Ultimately we are in a performance based industry and over the last two years our results haven’t been up to the expectations that we expect of ourselves internally and certainly the results our fans expect of us.

“At the end of the day the board is put in place to make decisions in the best interests of the footy club and at times these tough decisions have to be made.”

On Thursday night Dangerfield declared “not playing finals will not be tolerated by our football club” but he strenuously denied reports that a player delegation including himself had pushed for Sanderson’s sacking.

Speaking on Channel Nine, Dangerfield said he had a “really good relationship” with Sanderson but that did not hide the fact that Adelaide had underperformed.

On Friday, Crows board member Mark Ricciuto slammed speculation of a player-led revolt as “absolute garbage”.

“That did not happen and the players did not get the coach sacked,” Ricciuto told radio station Triple M.

“They were one part of the whole jigsaw of all the information that we collated that made the decision so let’s get that crystal clear.”

As the hunt for Adelaide’s new coach begins, Ricciuto did not rule out making a play for Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson who remains under contract, but said he would not make any approach before the Hawks’ preliminary final against Port Adelaide on Saturday night.

Originally published as Nathan van Berlo says Crows’ last two seasons were unacceptable, Brenton Sanderson’s sacking was right call