Adelaide Crows ruckman Reilly O’Brien calls Nic Naitanui ‘lazy and unfit’ in accidental tweet

An AFL rival’s “heart would have sunk” after inadvertently posting a personal note on Twitter, savaging superstar Nic Naitanui.

Nic Savage

@nic_savage1

2 min read

July 9, 2020 - 3:27PM

Adelaide Crows ruckman Reilly O’Brien has accidentally posted a series of match strategies to social media, in which he calls West Coast Eagles star Nic Naitanui “lazy and unfit”.

Yet to register a win in the 2020 season, Adelaide will come up against the 2018 premiers at the Gabba on Saturday afternoon.

In preparation, O’Brien put together some notes on the West Coast veteran ahead of the round six clash, but inadvertently shared the text to Twitter on Thursday afternoon in a post which has since been deleted.

“Beat Nic Nat. Run off him hard, he is lazy and unfit. Will have a field day getting ball and marking everything,” O’Brien’s tweeted.

“Get to front and have grunt around the ground, and get ball on deck, beat him in this area.”

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Rather than blaming the mistake on a fictional hacker, O’Brien revealed his phone was malfunctioning, and immediately posted a follow-up video apologising for the bizarre tweet.

“Check this out — my phone has decided to cark it, and I’ve had an absolute ‘mare on my social media today,” O’Brien said.

Adelaide Crow ruckman Reilly O'Brien tweets about how to beat West Coast and Nic Naitanui

“I tweeted some of my game notes in my Notes on my iPhone, I take these notes every week before the game to try and pump myself up and get a bit of confidence going into the game. Make a few things up, as you can see in the notes.

“Coming up this week who I think probably is the best ruckman in the competition, Nic Nat, I was just trying to get some confidence and get going.

Reilly O'Brien apologising for his accidental tweet.

“I’ve really put the pressure on myself now, so I’ve really got to walk the walk and try and get a kick against the superstar that is Nic Nat. So we’ll see how we go.”

WEST COAST
âƒcan't bowl
âƒcan't throw
âƒcan really play footy

Reckon it's time to sort you out with a new phone ROB ðŸ“±ðŸ˜œ#weflyasone https://t.co/2BJzOp7fgq
— Adelaide Crows (@Adelaide_FC) July 9, 2020

O’Brien became the Crows’ No. 1 ruckman after Sam Jacobs joined the Greater Western Sydney Giants in the off-season. He is yet to face Naitanui in the AFL.

The 24-year-old is averaging 13 disposals and five tackles per game this season.

The footy world was both mortified for O’Brien and impressed by his humble response to the note blunder.

Many footy commentators pointed out that O’Brien’s incident is likely to be a feature story in the Amazon Prime AFL documentary currently in production which includes a camera crew following the West Coast giant around for the 2020 season.

I can't wait to see how they cover the "Reilly O'Brien game" in Nic Nat's Last Dance-style documentary
— Brett Sprigg (@BrettSprigg) July 9, 2020

Looking forward to the O'Brien v Nic Nat duel on Saturday. Wondering who ROB will be thanking too. https://t.co/nnEnhL062z
— Matt Turner (@mattturner1986) July 9, 2020

Other high profile footy commentators felt sorry for O’Brien and the extra attention he will receive this weekend.

“It’s a big game this weekend coming up between the Adelaide Crows and the West Coast Eagles, it might not have been such a big game before (O’Brien’s accidental tweet),” AFL great Dwayne Russell told SEN.

His heart would have sunk the moment he realised this went on Twitter. More eye balls on this game and contest now. https://t.co/Ki4XuSLmcm
— Matthew Lloyd (@MatthewLloyd18) July 9, 2020

Good on him for accepting and owning the mistake and not going with â€˜my phone was hackedâ€™ couldâ€™ve been worse. #AFLEaglesCrows https://t.co/txq6TGAJxL
— Kane Cornes (@kanecornes) July 9, 2020