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Adelaide Crows chairman says class action over controversial camp remains ‘hypothetical’

Adelaide Crows chairman John Olsen addresses the media.

Adelaide Crows chairman John Olsen says the club has not sought legal advice despite talk of a class action in the wake of Eddie Betts’ claims about a controversial 2018 training camp.

Mr Olsen described any such move against the club as “hypothetical”, and also defended the way the club had responded in the seven days since the publication of Betts’ memoir The Boy from Boomerang Crescent.

The book details Betts’ anxiety and anger following the preseason camp, and prompted former Crow Josh Jenkins to speak out as well.

Adelaide lawyer Greg Griffin said he had begun investigating a potential class action against the club, on behalf of several players who attended the camp.

“Any action would be brought in the Supreme Court of Victoria, which requires a minimum of seven group members to bring and maintain a class action,” he said.

“The number of persons, or players, is well in excess of the number that we require.”

But Mr Olsen, who earlier this week issued a public apology to Betts and Jenkins, told ABC Radio Adelaide such a development would be addressed if and when it arose.

“It is hypothetical, because until it takes place it’s not fact, and if it takes place, we’ll address the issue at that time,” he said.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
Adelaide Crows chairman John Olsen speaks to ABC Radio Adelaide’s Stacey Lee and Nikolai Beilharz.

Mr Olsen said he had spoken to all the club’s board members in the past week, but issues for discussion did not include the position of board member Mark Ricciuto who, on his Triple M breakfast show last week, said “the club has moved on from “the camp.

“Mark’s position at the board was not discussed at the meeting over the weekend. That’s not on my agenda at the moment,” Mr Olsen said.

Mr Olsen joined the club in 2020, two years after the now infamous camp.

Denials of a ‘cover-up’

The former SA premier denied the club had sought to conceal the controversy at the time, and said player welfare was the current “priority”.

“I think that’s a stretch to say there was a cover-up. People were dealing with a difficult situation,” he said.

“A number of individuals indicated to me they had a very positive experience at the camp.

“[But receiving] confidential information given by a player, and that being used in front of others at the camp, is inexcusable.

“Those circumstances cannot, and will not, happen again.”

Eddie Betts salutes the crowd.
A crowd favorite during his time at Adelaide, Betts returned to Carlton at the end of the 2019 season.(AAP: David Mariuz)

Since the publication of Betts’ book, Mr Olsen has confined himself to individual interviews and statements, rather than holding a media conference — an approach he defended.

“I have made myself available across the board, to radio, print and television,” he said.

“Shortly after Eddie Betts’s book had been released, and his comments related to chapter 17, [chief executive] Tim Silvers was immediately available on that Wednesday and immediately apologised.”

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South Australia’s Crows chairman and chief executive apologize to Eddie Betts, Josh Jenkins amid training camp fallout

South Australia's Crows chairman and chief executive apologize to Eddie Betts, Josh Jenkins amid training camp fallout

Adelaide Crows’ chairman and chief executive have apologized to former players Eddie Betts and Josh Jenkins over their experience at the controversial 2018 pre-season training camp.

Adelaide Football Club chairman John Olsen and chief executive Tim Silvers have penned an open letter to club members and fans after Betts’ released a book last week revealing how confidential information was used to verbally abuse him during the camp.

Former Crows Josh Jenkins and Bryce Gibbs also expressed their disappointment at the camp and how players were sworn to secrecy about what had occurred.

“We apologize to Eddie, Josh and any other player, coach or staff member, who had a negative experience during this time,” Olsen and Silvers wrote.

“It has been confronting to hear Eddie Betts and Josh Jenkins describe their experiences during the 2018 pre-season training camp on the Gold Coast, as well as the subsequent hurt they have carried.

“Equally we are sorry to hear Bryce Gibbs express his disappointment at the way in which the camp and events surrounding it were handled and its impact on the playing group, and we acknowledge there are others who may feel the same way.

“The most important thing we can do now is listen and offer our support.”

A man wearing a suit speaks to microphones in front of a blue and red banner
Adelaide Crows chief executive Tim Silvers apologized to Eddie Betts last week.(ABC News: Camron Slessor)

Olsen and Silvers said “moving on” as a club would be “difficult”.

“Everyone will do it in their own time and in their own way, and we sincerely hope that, with the passage of time, the healing process can take place,” they wrote.

“We are committed to emerging from this painful and challenging period and getting better.

“While we cannot rewrite history, we remain determined to learn from the past.”

The pair stressed that the club culture had shifted in the past few years, with changes to several leadership positions.

Don Pyke sitting next to Rob Chapman with microphones in front of them
Coach Don Pyke (left) and Crows chairman Rob Chapman (right) have since left the club.(abcnews)

Then-coach Don Pyke, head of football Brett Burton, chairman Rob Chapman and chief executive Andrew Fagan have since left their roles.

The camp was held after Adelaide’s defeat to Richmond in the 2017 Grand Final.

Silvers and AFL boss Gillon McLachlan have apologized to Betts for the hurt caused by the camp amid a potential class action.

Betts’ biography further detailed misappropriate use of Aboriginal rituals while Jenkins claimed details about his upbringing were used against him during the camp, despite him explicitly requested it not be shared.

The AFL and SafeWork SA completed separated investigations and found no breaches to work safety laws.

However, the AFL Players’ Association is contacting all players from the 2018 camp to gain better understanding of the issues that were raised.

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Former Adelaide Crow Bryce Gibbs speaks out about infamous training camp after Eddie Betts book release

Bryce Gibbs celebrates a goal for Adelaide

Former Adelaide Crows footballer Bryce Gibbs has admitted a controversial pre-season training camp fractured the playing group and says he regrets not speaking up about it.

Gibbs is the latest player to speak publicly about the camp, echoing concerns about the Gold Coast trip raised by former teammates Eddie Betts and Josh Jenkins.

Betts wrote in his book, released this week, how personal details he confidentially shared with a counselor were used to verbally abuse him in front of teammates, in an experience he found “traumatizing.”

In another example, Betts details how First Nations rituals were misappropriated, which he found “extremely disrespectful”.

Gibbs said incidents shared by Betts and Jenkins about the camp should not have happened.

“When I reflect, this is where I feel really disappointed in myself, this is when I started to take a back seat, watching guys stand up and say ‘this is not on, we need to address this, we need to tell people what happened’, they seemed to get shut down pretty quickly,” Gibbs told radio station SEN SA.

Gibbs was traded from Carlton at the end of 2017 and joined Adelaide weeks before the players went on the camp, where he was included in the more intensive “group one” version of the camp alongside nine other players and two coaches.

The retired AFL player said he was disappointed he did not support teammates who experienced a more difficult time during the camp than he did.

books of eddie betts on bookshelf, with his face on the front cover.
Eddie Betts’ biography, The Boy from Boomerang Crescent, includes claims about his traumatic experience during the training camp.(ABC News: Ben Pettit)

“Reflecting on those ongoing conversations when we were trying to flush it out, I do regret not speaking up when I probably should’ve been a more experienced and senior player of that group,” he said.

“It did fracture the playing group, it fractured relationships in the football department, players lost trust with members in that football department.”

In a statement made in 2021, the Crows said a SafeWork SA investigation “found neither the club nor any other person or organisation, breached any work-health-and-safety laws during or in relation to the camp.”

“We tried to move on where that was obviously the wrong thing to do and that’s probably why we’re speaking about it four years on,” Gibbs said.

“If it was handled correctly and people had taken responsibility, put their hand up and knocked it on the head a lot earlier when it happened, it still would’ve been hard as people still went through what they went through – and people will still carry some emotional scars from it — but at least it would’ve been dealt with in the proper manner then and there.”

‘It shouldn’t have happened’

Gibbs said he took a call from a counselor before the camp to discuss his childhood and past experiences, which he thought was “a bit of a red flag.” He said he was “pretty calculated” in what he disclosed.

He said by not divulging too much to the counsellor, his experience of the camp was different from what Betts and Jenkins spoke about this week.

“Reflecting on it all, it just shouldn’t have happened. It was easier for me to move on as I didn’t have that level of experience and trauma put to me, I found it easier to suppress it and squash it and just try and move on personally which I was able to do, which made it easier for me,” Gibbs said.

“That’s my experience of the camp, obviously very different to a lot of people.”

Eddie Betts jumps onto Josh Jenkins as the crowd cheers a goal in the background.
Eddie Betts and Josh Jenkins (right) have both spoken publicly about the 2018 pre-season training camp.(AAP: Tracey Nearmy)

Jenkins recalled an exercise involving players being hoisted up in harnesses while having abuse hurled at them by facilitators and teammates, including “some of the barbs” being thrown at Betts.

Gibbs said he was told not to reveal details of the camp to players in the other groups of the camp.

“Getting spoken to and getting educated on what to say to family, friends and the other guys in the other groups, we were told not to go into detail about what happened and for whatever reason most of us stuck to that at the time,” he said.

‘Strange rules’ during camp

Gibbs said he experienced “unusual things” and “plenty of red flags” during the infamous training trip but convinced himself to keep an open mind and that the camp would help build stronger relationships with his teammates.

The 268-game veteran shared that on the trip to the campsite, Crows players were blindfolded and were not allowed to talk on the bus, which had blacked-out windows.

They played heavy metal music on the bus and talked about the 2017 Grand Final, in which Adelaide were heavily defeated by Richmond, and Gibbs’ departure from Carlton.

Gibbs said “strange rules” were enforced during the camp, including players being required to walk in a straight line and not being allowed to use their mobile phones or shower.

A football player crouches with a yellow ball while surrounded by other players
Bryce Gibbs plays for South Adelaide in SANFL since retiring from AFL in 2020.(Supplied: Nick Hook via South Adelaide FC)

He said some of the rules imposed were “hard to justify” and players were doubting the benefits of the training.

“I felt like we were in a bit of a state of mind, this whole experience was happening around us and a couple of guys spoke up about their concerns, it was sort of negotiated that we would continue on with what we were doing,” Gibbs said.

“I think Eddie used “brainwashed”, as he described it, but in the state of mind and in the moment we just continued doing what they’d set out to do.

“It probably wasn’t until later on when reflecting on it that it was probably an opportunity to speak up a bit more.”

The AFL and the Adelaide Football Club have both apologized to Betts for the trauma caused by the camp.

Prominent Adelaide lawyer Greg Griffin said he had spoken to at least seven players who were on the 2018 Crows’ list about a potential class action.

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Adelaide Crows apologizes to former AFL star Eddie Betts following new book airing claims about preseason training camp

Inside the 'weird' and 'disrespectful' training camp that robbed Eddie Betts of his passion for football

Former AFL champion Eddie Betts says his form slumped after he felt disrespected and traumatized at an Adelaide Crows preseason training trip, accusing the camp of cultural insensitivities.

Betts’s biography The Boy from Boomerang Crescent, which was released today, includes a chapter on the controversial 2018 Adelaide Crows’ preseason training camp following a devastating defeat to Richmond in the 2017 grand final.

In it, Betts describes the anxiety and anger he felt following the camp and the subsequent fallout.

AFL Players’ Association chief executive Paul Marsh said the association would contact all players who attended the 2018 camp to get a better understanding of issues that might have arisen.

In a statement, he said the association had previously spoken to players about the camp, but based on the experience detailed in Betts’s book, he now believed “players felt pressured into remaining silent.”

“The details outlined by Eddie Betts in his new book about the 2018 Adelaide Crows training camp are extremely concerning and difficult to read,” he said.

“We commend Eddie on the courage he’s shown in telling this story and are troubled by the ongoing hurt caused to Eddie and his family.”

In one example, Betts wrote how personal details he had confidentially shared with a camp counselor were used to verbally abuse him in front of teammates during a physically and emotionally grievous “initiation.”

Among the insults yelled while he “crawled through the dirt” was that the father-of-five would be a “sh** father” as he was “raised by only his mother.”

Betts, who joined the Geelong coaching team following his retirement last year, described the incident as “traumatizing” and had him “broken to tears”.

Eddie Betts holds his hands out and looks at a yellow AFL ball while being challenged by a Suns player
Eddie Betts returned to Carlton in 2020.(AAP: Dave Hunt)

The 350-game veteran said teammates were recruited to verbally abuse each other during the same exercise.

“I’ll live with this shame for the rest of my life,” he said.

Betts said players at the camp were prevented from showering, had to surrender their phones, and were transported blindfolded on a bus that “reeked of off food” with the Richmond theme song loudly playing on loop.

Betts details how First Nations rituals were misappropriated, which he found “extremely disrespectful”, and references to sacred Aboriginal words “were chucked around in a carefree manner”.

“When I started to talk to people around me about my experience, I started to realize that what we’d been put through was all just a bit f***** up, and I rightly became angry,” he said.

A man and a woman with five children gathered around them stand on a dirt path in front of a tree
Eddie Betts with his wife Anna and five children in Darwin in November 2021.(Instagram: annascullie)

Betts said he raised his concerns with the club and asked to remove Aboriginal players from further “mind training exercises” with the company behind the camp, which continued to work with the Crows until later that year. The club “mutually agreed to part ways” with the company in June.

“Three weeks after I addressed the team about my concerns, I was told that I hadn’t been re-elected to the leadership group. I was devastated,” he wrote.

Crows chief executive Tim Silvers, who only joined the club last year, said he would investigate Betts’s claims that he had been dropped from the leadership group as a result of raising his concerns.

Silvers said he was “saddened” to read the impact the camp had had on Betts.

“It obviously hurt him in a number of ways,” he said.

Silvers described Betts as a “legend” who “lit up the Adelaide Oval for a long period of time”.

A man wearing a suit speaks to microphones in front of a blue and red banner
Adelaide Crows chief executive Tim Silvers apologized to Betts for his experience at the camp.(ABC News: Camron Slessor)

Silvers acknowledged the camp “probably wasn’t the right move at that time” and apologized to Betts and “any of our playing group who had a negative experience.”

“To have someone like Eddie, who has now left our club, to have a negative experience, saddens me,” he said.

Silvers said the club had new leadership and was moving “in a positive direction”.

Betts acknowledged in the book that a SafeWork SA inquiry had cleared the club of breaching any workplace safety laws, but he wrote: “My view remains that the activities there were inappropriate, counter-productive and culturally unsafe.”

books of eddie betts on bookshelf, with his face on the front cover
Eddie Betts’s biography, The Boy from Boomerang Crescent, reveals claims about the Crows’ preseason training camp.(ABC News: Ben Pettit)

In a statement made in 2018, the Crows said SafeWork SA’s investigation “found neither the club nor any other person or organisation, breached any work health and safety laws during or in relation to the camp”.

SafeWork SA provided no more information about the investigation.

Crows player Rory Laird, who also attended the camp, described Betts as one of his “close mates” and a “loved figure” at the club.

“I think each individual had different experiences and I actually wasn’t on that part of the camp I guess, so I can’t really comment on the ins and outs of it,” he said.

“But obviously as a former teammate and a friend, you don’t like hearing about that.”

Betts, who moved to Carlton in 2020, wrote of the continuing toll the camp took, saying his “on-field form slumped” at the start of the following season and describing 2018 as “tough.”

“Personally, I felt like I’d lost the drive to play footy, and to be honest I’m not sure I ever had the same energy I did before that camp,” he wrote.

The ABC has contacted Collective Minds for comment.

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Carlton’s Adam Saad calls for more education after spectator’s alleged Islamophobic remark

Adam Saad at Adelaide Airport

Carlton Football Club’s Adam Saad has expressed his disappointment over an Islamophobic remark allegedly directed at him by a spectator during Saturday night’s game at Adelaide Oval.

While at the airport waiting to fly out of Adelaide, Saad said he was aware of the alleged remark, which is being investigated by the AFL.

“It’s disappointing,” he said.

“At the end of the day, I know who I am as a person and us as a Muslim community.”

“As long as we can educate the person and move things forward.

“Those things shouldn’t be said.”

The Carlton Cheer Squad posted on Twitter that they were frustrated with the response by police and security at the oval, tagging the AFL, Carlton Football Club, Adelaide Football Club, the Adelaide Oval and SA Police in the post.

“Cops, Security, Ground Staff ‘talk to her’ and say ‘it’s been dealt with’ and tell us to leave it at that and she isn’t even kicked out of the ground.”

“Absolutely disgraceful.”

The AFL issued a statement on Sunday, saying that it is allegedly investigating comments made by a spectator at Adelaide Oval.

“Football is a place of inclusion and belonging, and there is no place for racist behavior in our game,” the statement said.

“Nobody in our game, or in the community, deserves to be discriminated against and vilified against due to their faith or race and there is simply no excuse for it.”

A large stadium with windows facing out
Police and stadium security spoke to the Crows fans who were allegedly involved. (abcnews)

The Adelaide Football Club has also confirmed it is investigating.

“We do not tolerate, and strongly condemn, any form of discriminatory behavior and it has no place in football or society,” the statement said.

“Adelaide Oval should be an inclusive and family-friendly environment.”

A spokesperson for South Australia Police said officers and Adelaide Oval security attended the area on Saturday night and obtained the details of the people allegedly involved in the incident.

They said the matter had been referred to the AFL and Adelaide Oval Stadium Management Authority for investigation.

South Australia Premier Peter Malinauskas said it was hard for him to comment on the matter because he did not know all of the circumstances.

“What I can say is this: Those sorts of comments aren’t welcome at the footy but also it’s true that, when they occur, they represent an absolute minority,” he said.

“The majority of people go the footy, they can get fired up but do it in an appropriate and respectful way, cognisant of the fact that it’s a family friendly environment.”

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