Loved AFL great comes clean on burner phone incident

Adelaide Crows champ Rory Sloane has spilt a secret kept for seven years with a “burner” account almost re-writing history.

Rory Sloane has come clean seven years after the fact.

The Adelaide Crows legend on Tuesday night shared his thoughts on the storm that was engulfed Oscar Allen since it emerged the West Coast captain recently met with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell.

Sloane was critical of Allen’s behaviour, but in doing so shared a secret he has kept for seven years.

The former Crows captain has told Channel 9’s Footy Classified he spoke with St Kilda about a possible trade in 2018.

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Sloane has shared the incredible detail that his discussions with St Kilda were covertly conducted via a “burner” account.

When asked if he would have considered a trade when captaining the Crows, Sloane responded: “No, definitely not as captain.

“I would have waited until later in the year. In 2018 I was a pivotal leader at our footy club and I spoke to St Kilda and we did it through a burner account on Instagram later in the season.

Rory Sloane has come clean. Photo: X, @FootyonNine.

“I followed a burner account on Instagram and they did a full presentation of this is what you (can) expect from St Kilda. That’s how discreet I was, but that was way later in the season.

“I followed an account and they presented. No one could trace it.”

The star midfielder went on to sign a monster contract extension with the Crows and was promoted to a vice-captaincy role in 2019 and took over as sole captain in 2020.

Sloane in 2018 had also been linked with a move to Collingwood and it came as details continued to leak out about the Crows’ infamous pre-season camp that brought the club to its knees following the 2017 Grand Final loss to Richmond.

Sloane’s revelations about the bizarre Instagram operation staggered the other members of the Footy Classified panel with footy journalist Tom Morris responding by saying, “Amazing”.

Sloane said Allen should have been “more discreet” about his meeting with Mitchell.

“It’d be awkward for Oscar inside the four walls right now,” he said.

“He would have to get up in front of that group and apologise.

“It is disrespectful and it’s because he’s the captain of the footy club. He’s entitled to explore his options, but he needs to be later in the year and he has to be discreet about it.”

Essendon legend James Hird responded to the news about Allen by saying: “If you take the captaincy, your responsibility is to lead the club and lead it without any distraction.

“I understand the money. You want to look after your family. But don’t take the captaincy.”

It comes as another footy great spilled details of his own shock recruitment operation.

Collingwood great Dale Thomas said on Channel 7’s Agenda Setters on Tuesday he had been courted by GWS with a mega-rich offer.

Thomas sad the Giants made an approach to him in 2011 ahead of the club’s entry into the competition in 2012.

“I met with the GWS Giants when they were coming into the league and was pitched about what was to come, what the offer was and everything to go along with that,” he said on Channel 7.

“That was at a time when we very successful at Collingwood.

“Six years for six million - a million bucks a year in 2011.”

When asked if he gave the offer serious consideration, Thomas responded: “I thought about it

“Obviously you had to sit there and weigh up everything. It’s a lot of money, it’s a lot of time, but also moving away to the west of Sydney.

“At that point in my career all I had known was winning so the thought of actually going to a club, and whether I was to be the captain, and have the responsibility to take them from nothing to where they needed to go. I was not sure how that would sit.

“As I’ve learnt since, you cannot pay your bills with good faith.”

Originally published as Loved AFL great comes clean on burner phone incident