A ‘cult-like’ pre-season camp debacle left senior Adelaide Crows players distressed
March 26, 2018 5:50pm
Tom Morris
@tommorris32
Source: FOX SPORTS
ELEMENTS of an emotionally distressing Gold Coast-based training camp left several senior Adelaide footballers shaken and frustrated in early February.
Foxfooty.com.au has been told multiple experienced Crows were bewildered and mentally distressed after the club’s first pre-season camp in seven years turned sour.
Unlike Melbourne’s debacle late last year, the cause for concern centred on the emotional wellbeing of players, especially half-a-dozen or so senior members of the team.
They were forced to adopt a mentality, described as ‘cult-like’ by one source, in the bush while the rest of the squad remained on the Gold Coast.
The club became aware of these concerns and was forced to address them in a team meeting shortly after the squad, medical staff and football department returned to Adelaide.
It’s understood the AFL Players’ Association was alerted but no formal complaint was made.
Not all players found the Queensland experience — which ran for a week from January 29 to February 2 — as distressing as a small group of senior footballers who endured the most emotionally intense aspects of mind training.
In addition, players were asked not to talk about the specifics of the emotional hardships they were forced to endure.
Adelaide’s playing list split up into two groups. One stayed on the Gold Coast for the week, while the more senior half-a-dozen or so players ventured to the bush on a “high gradient training” adventure that was designed to break them mentally for part of the camp.
Entitled the ‘Mankind Project’ and run by Collective Minds, players were asked to complete emotionally upsetting questionnaires, as well as a variety of tasks that sources say also had at least one assistant coach questioning the merits of the mental elements of the camp.
Ahead of the 2017 season, the Crows embarked on a multi-year program with Collective Minds to “unlock the next frontier of high performance” last pre-season and continued it over the recent summer.
“The value for us for mind training is that we have made a lot of progression in the physical side, whether it be a weights program, conditioning program, our skill and game program,” Adelaide coach Don Pyke said last year.
“The frontier that hasn’t been tapped into considerably is the mind space.
“A lot of our time is historically spent on the mind. And we think getting our players aware of the mind and the role that plays in performance was really vital. We’ve just unlocked the door and it’s an area we want to continue to expand on.”
Collective Minds have also worked with the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the NRL, plus worldwide brands Nestle and Lendlease.
Much of the training for the week was physical, but when senior players hopped in a bus and were blindfolded, sources have suggested that no medical professional accompanied them. One player in particular didn’t feel well but no doctors were there to assist. This process made some players — not all — question the club.
Speaking on AFL Nation on Friday evening, former St Kilda captain Danny Frawley shed more light on aspects of the training camp.
“I’m led to believe theirs was quite unique,” Frawley said.
“They went to a place in the Gold Coast and they thought they were going there. They had their shorts and they were in a bus and were basically blindfolded for about 24 hours in a bus.
“They were blindfolded and a guy was talking to them. They had food and didn’t know where they were going.
“It was more about the mind than physical … it was in the middle of Australia where they ended up.”
It’s believed the Adelaide Crows Board was not informed about the Gold Coast training camp and was only notified when at least one frustrated senior player mentioned it.
“There were elements of the camp where we deliberately through a little bit of confusion into it,” Adelaide chief executive Andrew Fagan told AFL Nation recently.
“Pykey has done a bit of that throughout the pre-season and just turned up and let the boys run training for themselves.
“They sort of wonder what’s going on. We want ensure the players are developing as leaders and coping with demands that are unplanned for.”
Some players are still “not in a good headspace” after the training camp, said one source.
Foxfooty.com.au has elected not to name the players who became distressed during and after the camp due to their mental wellbeing.
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/a-cultlike-preseason-camp-debacle-left-senior-adelaide-crows-players-distressed/news-story/c49921a32fab6d7e6c672ab4f09ce805
