Adelaide’s botched pre-season camp ultimately cost Don Pyke his job but the ex-coach says the ill-fated Gold Coast trip can’t be blamed for the hapless Crows’ current on-field woes.
Having taken the club to the 2017 grand final, Pyke resigned at the end of the 2019 season when his position became untenable amidst the ongoing fallout from the controversial camp.
Following the heavy grand final loss to Richmond, Adelaide failed to make the finals in the next two seasons under Pyke and are bottom of the ladder with an 0-6 record under rookie coach Matthew Nicks.
The 2018 pre-season camp has been widely blamed for fracturing the playing group, with the extreme psychological methods employed still making headlines.
Pyke, who departed the club with football chief Brett Burton and assistant coach Scott Camporeale, admits there were problems with the camp that he subjected his players to.
But he won’t cop the blame for the Crows’ on-field fall from grace.
“I think it’s a long bow to draw,” Pyke told ABC Grandstand on Thursday night.
“I think the list at Adelaide is going through a transitional phase, there’s no question about that.
“We’ve seen that some players have left the club for various reasons.
“They’re starting to expose some of those (younger) guys to AFL footy and with that will go consistency.
“I think if you asked those guys some of them would go ‘Well, the performance now has nothing to do with what happened on a camp two-and-a-half years ago’.”
Nine Fairfax and NewsCorp have published damning exposes of the camp, run by leadership company Collective Mind, in recent weeks.
The club has also been lashed by two-time Norm Smith Medal winner and games record holder Andrew McLeod for its perceived poor culture.
Amidst a backlash over a player exodus since the grand final, McLeod’s premiership teammate and current board member Mark Ricciuto has been heavily criticised for revealing details of the departures of players like Mitch McGovern, Eddie Betts, Jake Lever and Alex Keath.
Nicks, who has been in the job for nine months, has been forced to defend his club’s culture in the ongoing aftermath of a camp that players continue to be asked about.
“It’s probably disappointing that it’s continuing to be discussed,” Pyke said.
“Clearly the club’s viewpoint is that they want to move on.
“I know that talking to some of the players who are still there they clearly want to leave that behind and focus on their footy going forward.
“I think it’s probably a conversation that’s due with the club about how they wish to address this once and for all.
“As I’ve said previously, the intention around that camp was very clear (but) the execution had some gaps and holes and some mistakes were made.
“That’s been addressed.
“But I think there’s also an issue at the moment with some context around some of the things that were done and the purpose behind those, which probably hasn’t been tabled.”
Pyke was not pressed on the specifics of the camp, which is alleged to have included the open use of highly-sensitive personal information of players.
The club was cleared of any serious rules breaches by the AFL integrity unit following an investigation that has also been criticised in some quarters.
