Struggling Crows also fighting to stem bleeding from old wounds

Old wounds have been reopened as the struggling Crows fly out to AFL hub on the Gold Coast.

Adelaide’s Taylor Walker stretches at a Crows training session at West Lakes on Thursday. Picture: AAP

The Crows fly to the Gold Coast on Saturday bearing the good news that relaxed border restrictions mean they might not have to stay in their hub after all.

But whether they exercise the option to return to Adelaide between games, starting with the Suns on Sunday, is another matter given the storm raging on the home front. Past players have joined the chorus questioning the wisdom of Mark Ricciuto’s comments this week, in which he suggested some of Adelaide’s departures were no great loss.

On Thursday, Crows premiership captain Mark Bickley said Ricciuto had inadvertently given Adelaide’s enemies ammunition to attack a club yet to escape the shadow of its notorious 2018 pre-season camp.

“Should he have gone into the details of the salaries of the players at other clubs?” Bickley asked his FiveAA listeners. “I don’t think so.

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“The camp’s been brought up again and other issues have resurfaced (so) the clean air that they were hoping for by clearing the decks last year unfortunately is not cutting through.”

Bickley’s co-host Stephen Rowe said Ricciuto’s comments had undermined the efforts of Adelaide chairman Rob Chapman and chief executive Andrew Fagan to rebuild the club. Rowe said it was time for Ricciuto to choose between his media work and his seat on the Adelaide board.

“I think it reflects poorly on all of them,” Rowe said. “I think it’s come to the time where Roo has to pick one or the other.”

Their comments followed Melbourne coach and ex-Adelaide star Simon Goodwin disputing Ricciuto’s remarks about defender Jake Lever’s move from Adelaide to the Demons.

“The term of the contract’s not right (and) the number’s not right,” Goodwin said.

The Crows are used to criticism from outside — ex-Port forward Warren Tredrea, for example, said on Thursday that “delusion has really set in” at the Crows.

But questions from within will sting the Crows and give weight to accusations the club has cultural problems. The fresh controversy has rehashed talk about the 2018 pre-season camp and emboldened those who say the purge should have gone further than coach Don Pyke, assistant coach Scott Camporeale and head of football Brett Burton.

Player manager and former Bomber Adam Ramanauskas said on Friday that Adelaide were great at finding and recruiting good players — keeping them was the problem. And it wasn’t just about the go-home factor of interstate recruits such as Patrick Dangerfield, because even native South Australians had left.

“It all goes back to Phil Davis, to Nathan Bock, when those good players were leaving the club,” Ramanauskas told 927AM’s The Breakfast Club. “There’s been a consistent pattern out of Adelaide for a long, long time. The question for Roo should be ‘why do they continue to be picked off?’

“Forget about the number of what they’re getting offered or the length of contract. Is it because of culture? Is it because they’re homesick? Is it simply because they’re getting more money?”

Ricciuto was criticised for saying he was “very comfortable to let (Lever) go” and for questioning whether forward Mitch McGovern was a significant departure: “Has he delivered for Carlton yet? No.” McGovern’s manager Colin Young countered by saying his client left because of the infamous camp and “the Adelaide football department”.

Inaugural Adelaide coach Graham Cornes rallied to his former player’s defence on Friday.

“In one instance, the club has always been criticised for a lack of transparency,” Cornes told SEN Breakfast on Friday. “Now here’s a board member who gives great clarity as to why these players have left the club. As soon as he does, he’s criticised for being so open. The club can’t win.”