Veteran midfielder Bryce Gibbs breaks silence on Adelaide Crows ‘disaster’

It’s regarded as one of the AFL’s biggest blunders this decade, and now a former star of the Adelaide Crows has shared his insight.

Bryce Gibbs of the Crows.

Former Adelaide Crows midfielder Bryce Gibbs has opened up about the club’s infamous pre-season camp, which he bluntly labelled a “disaster”.

Following an 11-year stint with Carlton — during which he won the John Nicholls Medal — Gibbs signed with the Crows in 2017.

Having just lost the 2017 AFL Grand Final, Adelaide organised a pre-season camp which aimed to strengthen the players ahead of the 2018 season.

Unfortunately the experiment backfired — instead of bonding and making the squad more resilient, the camp tore the club apart and left players severely unhappy with those in charge.

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“The hard thing was we weren’t told what was going to be involved on this camp,” Gibbs said on the Greats with Garby podcast.

“We didn’t really have any details, to be honest. So we went in blind and not knowing what to expect.

“I think their intentions were good and genuine that it was going to help us, but it was obviously a disaster. It affected players in different ways for different reasons.”

Bryce Gibbs of the Crows.

According to The Age, personal secrets of childhood trauma were divulged to the club and then used as a form of abuse directed at players during a confronting team-building exercise.

Gibbs said he was not overly impacted by the ordeal, but conceded several of his teammates struggled to cope.

“I’d been on that many SAS camps and I thought I’d seen it all, so I could filter what I thought I could get out of what we were doing and I could ignore the rubbish that was going on,” Gibbs said.

“I was okay with it, I knew some guys were struggling from time to time with it. All you can do is put your arm around them and make sure they are okay and check in with them. It wasn’t until the debrief it later down the track, they probably should’ve debriefed it earlier than they did just to squash it on the head.

“The club have put their hand up and said it was a complete miss and if we could do things differently we would’ve.”

Gibbs represented the Crows for three seasons before announcing his retirement earlier this year. The midfielder played 37 AFL games for Adelaide, averaging 23.03 disposals per match.

Bryce Gibbs of the Crows is chaired off by Kade Simpson and Marc Murphy of the Blues after playing in his final match.

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Although Gibbs’ career was largely unaffected by the 2018 camp, the 31-year-old believed it had a detrimental influence on the club.

A cluster of players requested trades to rival clubs as the Crows spiralled from grand finalists in 2017 to wooden spoon recipients in 2020.

“It certainly hurt the group probably more so than I thought it did at the time looking back,” Gibbs said.

“I think the playing group lost a bit of trust with the footy department. Obviously a lot of details we weren’t allowed to know going into the camp, we all had to sign waivers just to say we can’t speak about it after.

“It was just strange the way it played out and I think the playing group lost trust with some of the decisions the club was making and some of the decisions going forward.”