Ex-Crow opens up on devastating broken promise, says doctor filed ‘damning’ report on camp

An Adelaide Crows doctor filed a report about the welfare of players who attended the controversial Gold Coast pre-season camp, according to former Crows player Josh Jenkins, who alleged the contents of the report were not acted upon.

Jenkins, who attended the 2018 camp and played 147 games for the Crows before moving to Geelong for the 2020 season, shared his experience of the camp on SEN radio on Friday.

Former Adelaide teammates Josh Jenkins and Eddie Betts.Credit: Getty Images

In a 16-minute, prepared statement, Jenkins said club doctor Marc Cesana had written a detailed report based on what players told him had happened at the camp, run by a group called Collective Mind, and the impact it had on their emotional welfare.

“No one has ever acted on that report, which I know is damning,” Jenkins said.

“The report must see the light of day. It’s the only example of a medical professional who had day-to-day dealings with the people and the players involved.”

A senior source at the AFL told The Age they were aware that a doctor’s report existed but would not comment on whether anyone at the league had read it.

The Age has contacted Cesana for comment but he did not respond. The Age has also contacted the Crows for comment.

Jenkins said Cesana wrote the report because he was concerned about the welfare of the players, both individually and as a group.

“I recall, during one meeting, our doctor expressed in front of the entire playing group and most the staff that what occurred on the camp was totally unacceptable - and I know the report captures that,” Jenkins said.

His comments follow the release of Eddie Betts’ book this week, in which the former AFL star detailed the emotional distress the camp caused him, his family and other players. Betts said on Friday he has not joined a mooted class action against the AFL and the Crows, and had no intention of doing so.

Jenkins and Betts were part of the same group on the camp, which the Adelaide Football Club and AFL have now apologised for. The AFL Players’ Association also admitted to failings in its investigation.

Jenkins said he knew the Crows “were going down the wrong path” when they were told in December 2017 that 10 players and two coaches would be involved “in the most intensive version of the camp”.

“The sales pitch was an immediate red flag to me. The sales pitch was this: ‘This will be the scariest thing you have ever done but the safest thing you have ever done’,” he said.

“I was thinking sleep deprivation, starvation ... and how I wish that were the case. I resisted big time. I recall us going around in a circle accepting the challenge one by one whilst a couple of players were withdrawn due to injuries issues as well as one player being removed from group number one because of some personal trauma he had recently experienced.

“Hearing him removed because of his own personal trauma was alarm bells inside my head.”

Jenkins, who was raised by his non-biological grandmother, and had “no meaningful relationship” with his biological parents, said his “unusual upbringing” was used against him by counsellors at the camp.

“My childhood is a source of shame and pain but also pride. I stated more than once I wanted none of my upbringing to be used or even spoken of during or after the camp, something which was promised to me but, in my view, a promise that was broken,” he said.

Jenkins said the “secrecy and lack of info” when the Crows arrived on the Gold Coast was “astounding”.

“Our welfare manager, who at the time was receiving 90 per cent-plus approval ratings via the AFLPA survey, was iced out of discussions and planning as well as everything afterward. My belief of that is largely because she is a female but I am happy to stand corrected on that,” Jenkins said.

“She fought the good fight for us as players and I will always be grateful for that. She no longer works for the Crows.”

Jenkins said Cesana, also frozen out, would have stopped the camp had more information been available.

In his book, Betts recounts how Jenkins reacted to an incident in which players watched a “camp dude” struggle against a harness while others swore at him during an “initiation” process.

“I remember walking single file back to our hut again [after the initiation] and Josh Jenkins saying: ‘This is a f---ing cult.’ He wanted to leave straight away but he was pressured to stay, even though he made it clear that he objected to what we’d all just witnessed,” Betts wrote.

Jenkins said the activities went from “dumb to disgraceful”, including the “harness ritual”.

“The reason why he was on the harness are up for conjecture but I heard comments thrown his way, including some he offered himself about sexual misbehaviour and womanising,” he said.

“Following that person’s harness ritual, I got up from under the three we were all sitting under, fronted ... (coach) Don Pyke and said: ’We lost a game of footy (’17 grand final), we are all good people, this is rubbish and I think we should all leave’.

“After a heated conversation between me and camp co-ordinators, and mostly to honour the greater good, I was convinced to stay and watch a few of my teammates go through the ritual first.”

Happier days: Eddie Betts and Josh Jenkins were key members of the Crows’ attack during their grand-final run.Credit: Morne de Klerk

Betts also wrote that Jenkins supported him at a club meeting after the camp. While some players have claimed to have enjoyed the camp, Jenkins said players who had a “normal” upbringing had little to be “poked and prodded about”, aside from needing to be a better teammate and person.

On the final morning of the camp, the players gathered with camp organisers to be told how they should explain to family and friends what had unfolded.

Jenkins said the club fell apart in 2018, with players even “sworn to secrecy even from teammates on different versions of the camp”.

“Myself and one coach stood up after one meeting and demanded that we tell each other what had happened but the CEO and/or football manager, I can’t exactly recall who, stood up and said we were unable to because the club had signed confidentiality agreements on everyone’s behalf,” Jenkins said.

“I said: ‘I did not sign a damn thing’. We continue to undertake activities, for example, of berating our most senior players for failing us on the biggest stage (’17 grand final), something that made me feel incredibly uncomfortable at the time, and still does.”

Former Crows’ chief executive Andrew Fagan and chairman Rob Chapman were contacted for comment.

Jenkins was astounded when the club’s leadership group, including staff, met and “the outcome was to exclude the Indigenous players from the program”.

“I stood up and I said, and I recall this vividly because I knew it was the beginning of the end for me as a Crow: ‘You cannot be seriously considering isolating the indigenous portion of the leadership group in favour of this program, a program that we have already largely stated we wish to be removed. We have lost our way’.”

As the fall-out continues, AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said on Friday he had been “wounded” by the pain Betts has felt.

McLachlan re-iterated that there had been “disgraceful things done” at the camp.

“I am not going to comment on the investigation other than [to say] it was investigated thoroughly, not only by our integrity team but also by WorkCover SA [sic],” McLachlan told 3AW.

“There have been, frankly, some disgraceful things done as opposed to breaking laws or rules. That is a challenging one, to deal with that part.

“In terms of the lack of action, I don’t agree with that, either. Our response has been to make changes, to say, every camp has to be signed off by the AFL to make sure we protect the physical and mental wellbeing of all the participants. I now have structured, regular communications with our Indigenous cohort, both male and now, of recent times, female. But the male one has been going on for quite some time.

“We mandated a push at the behest of that player cohort to make sure that we have prevented this stuff going forward, that there is an Indigenous liaison officer at all 18 clubs.”

McLachlan said he had been in regular contact with Betts and had been emotionally hurt by what had transpired.

Meanwhile, current Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks will reach out to Betts in light of his bombshell revelations. The Crows coach committed to providing support to the club great and anyone else affected.

Nicks, who replaced Don Pyke as senior coach after Betts had departed for Carlton after the 2019 season, told reporters on Friday that he was upset by his harrowing account.

“We’re doing a lot of work around our past and trying to reconnect to get those guys back into the footy club.

“They’re a really important part of our history.

“This is a moment where we want to do the right thing, we’re working on prioritising others, which has been my motto since I arrived here … and part of that involves trust and part of that is putting others first.”

The Age reported on the Adelaide Crows’ camp in 2020, in a story which included a number of similar allegations to those in Eddie Betts’ autobiography, as well as other claims. Collective Mind sued for defamation. In December 2021, The Age and Nine made a business decision to settle the case and issue an apology without admitting that the story was inaccurate.

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