leadership group – Michmutters
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Izak Rankine Adelaide Crows contract offer, Touk Miller and Tony Cochrane urge him to stay at Gold Coast Suns

Gold Coast’s leadership group has made an impassioned plea for out-of-contract young star Izak Rankine to reject Adelaide’s advances and remain a Sun.

News Corp revealed last week that the Crows were making a major play for Rankine, offering him a five-year deal worth as much as $800,000 per season to return to his home state.

Gold Coast is highly unlikely to match that financial offer and will instead rely on convincing him that his best chance of realizing his potential is at the Suns, while still being willing to pay him about $650,000 a year.

Adelaide is increasingly confident Rankine will request a trade to play for Matthew Nicks’ side, but that wouldn’t come until after Gold Coast’s season ends.

Suns chairman Tony Cochrane told News Corp on Monday they would do “all we can to retain him”.

“I think the club has proven over four years we’re doing everything possible to keep him there and obviously he’s a required player,” Cochrane said.

Izak Rankine is weighing up a five-year offer from the Crows. Picture: Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images

“We’ve got a great association and relationship with Izak, as everyone has around the club. He’s bought a house up here, he’s very much settled in up here, so that’s just our position for the moment.

“He’s an incredibly popular person around the club. I know first-hand how much time and effort people like (coach) Stuart Dew have put into him and, importantly, I know how highly Stuart rates him.

“He’s got that message loud and clear at the Gold Coast footy club.”

Co-captain Touk Miller also made it clear that convincing the “special” small forward to stay was a top priority, having already re-signed Ben King, Jack Lukosius, Ben Ainsworth, Elijah Hollands and Mac Andrew this year.

“I know there’s a lot of speculation around him and his future, but for us we really want him to be at this club. He’s a special person, a special player,” Miller said.

“We’ve gone to him and had a few chats about how much he means to us and means to the club, so whether that plays a part in the decision, hopefully it does.

Stay or go? Izak Rankine has a big call to make on his playing future. Picture: Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images

“As a leadership group; that’s part of what you have to do. This club wants success, and he can be a key part of that.”

Miller sympathized with Rankine’s situation as he weighs up a career- and life-changing decision, especially with the Suns looking to have turned the corner as a club.

“I know speculation like that can make it really hard around the club and can make things awkward and nervous, but we want him to feel as comfortable as possible, feel like he can still be himself and play his best footy,” he said.

“He’s human. I can say it’s not easy for him and you probably do have your head down a bit more. In saying that, we’ve still got a lot of good things out of him on game day.

“I’m not in his head, I can’t exactly say what he’s going to do, but we really want him to stay. He’s such a special part and key part to our club going forward. We’d love to have him.”

Miller was famously forthright with ex-Gold Coast co-captain Tom Lynch when he revealed in 2018 he was exercising his free agency rights to join Richmond after meeting with several Melbourne-based clubs.

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AFL news 2022: Eddie Betts spills on Adelaide Crows training camp in new book, details

AFL great Eddie Betts has revealed just how damaging the Adelaide Crows training camp held in 2018 was.

The infamous leadership camp, following the Crows’ 2017 AFL Grand Final loss at the hands of Richmond, thrust the club into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

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A number of players and officials walked away from the club in the wake of the camp and now Betts has detailed even more behind the scenes information in his upcoming autobiography ‘The Boy from Boomerang Crescent’.

The four-day camp held on the Gold Coast left Betts feeling “like a piece of me was brainwashed” with excerpts being reported by the Sydney Morning Herald.

Betts revealed confidential information he had shared in counseling sessions had been misused while writing that the camp misappropriated sensitive Aboriginal cultural rituals.

“The camp ended up appropriating a First Nations peoples’ ritual of a ‘talking stick’ and attempting to apply it to all of us, even the non-Indigenous players and coaches,” he wrote.

“In my view, the talking stick was used incorrectly, and I was not aware that any Elder had given permission for it to be used either.

“There was all sorts of weird shit that was disrespectful to many cultures, but particularly and extremely disrespectful to my culture.”

Betts confirmed the Richmond theme song was played repeatedly during a training session and he was put in a body harness and told to fight his way towards a knife as camp instructors hurled verbal abuse his way.

“Things were yelled at me that I had disclosed to the camp’s ‘counsellors’ about my upbringing. All the people present heard these things,” he wrote.

“I was exhausted, drained and distressed about the details being shared.

“Another camp-dude jumped on my back and started to berate me about my mother, something so deeply personal that I was absolutely shattered to hear it come out of his mouth.”

Following the now infamous camp, Betts approached the club and voiced his concerns with the camp and said he wouldn’t take part in any future mind-training exercises. Three weeks later he was dropped from the leadership group.

“After a meeting with all the Blackfullas at the club, I decided to address the playing group and talk about how I found the camp, mainly addressing the cultural safety implications for us brothers,” Betts revealed.

“I sought permission to remove all the Aboriginal boys from any further interactions with the ‘leadership specialists’ and their mind-training exercises.

“I told the club I wouldn’t be involved in any more mind-training exercises at all.”

The camp had a major impact on Betts’ on-field form and left the star forward questioning his place in the game. Betts left the Crows and returned to Carlton at the end of 2019 before retiring at the end of 2021.

The Crows were cleared of any work health and safety breaches after an independent investigation into the training camp by SafeWork SA.

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Erin Phillips’ heartwarming Port Adelaide captaincy reveal melts AFL

WNBA-turned-footy superstar Erin Phillips has brought her footy legend father to tears after revealing she would be Port Adelaide’s inaugural AFLW captain.

Erin, who has been a three-time premiership player, two-time league best-and-fairest and two-time Grand Final best on ground winner with the Adelaide Crows, revealed she would be joining Port Adelaide after winning last season’s decider.

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Erin’s father Greg Phillips was an eight-time Port Adelaide SANFL premiership player and the captain between 1991 and his retirement in 1993 — before the club joined the AFL in 1997.

Greg, who was a 1980 All-Australian, played 343 games for the club and an addition 84 games for Collingwood in the VFL in over 18 years in top-flight footy.

He was also named in Port Adelaide’s greatest ever team, is a life member of the club and is an inaugural inductee into the South Australian Football Hall of Fame and a 2020 inductee into the AFL Hall of Fame.

So it’s safe to say the club means a fair bit to him and the family.

When joining the club, Erin said she would wear her father’s No. 22 when joining the club.

But after getting Greg down to the club for a photo shoot, he immediately realized the jig was up when the No. 1, which is reserved for the club captain, was on the back of the jersey.

“What’s this number? What’s this? Put another twenty one numbers on … plus twenty one?” Greg asked.

“Well you know how you said the best part of being at Port Adelaide was being captain?” Erin said.

“Are you already?” Greg replied.

He immediately wrapped her in a hug.

Clearly emotional, he said simply: “Well done”.

“I don’t get to wear the 22 but I get to wear the No. 1,” Erin added.

“Oh good girl,” Greg added. “Did they vote that in?”

Phillips was voted captain, while Ange Foley was named vice-captain and Hannah Dunn, Gemma Houghton and Justine Mules also made up the leadership group.

But he couldn’t hold the emotion back rubbing his eyes, saying: “This is a shock”.

He then joked: “Are they sure you’re not too old?”

“Pretty special, huh?” Erin said.

“Well done, well done,” Greg said. “Well, it doesn’t matter what number you wear, I’m proud of you.”

They were lovely scenes and Erin also spoke about letting her dad know in the press release from the club.

“My dad always said to me the only thing better than playing for this club is being captain of this club and, he was right,” Phillips said.

“Telling him the news that I had been named captain was a very special and emotional moment for both of us.

“I’m so excited to be following in his footsteps and can’t wait to lead the team onto the ground for the first time. It will be yet another special moment for this group and for Port Adelaide.”

The 37-year-old Erin has had an incredible athletic career, having started as a basketball star and winning the WNBA twice.

She also won a World Championship gold for Australia in 2006, playing in two Olympic Games, including winning silver in 2008, and won 2006 Commonwealth Games gold.

She instantly made an enormous impact in the AFLW after retiring from basketball in 2017.

But in joining Port Adelaide for its first season in rugby league, Erin told Howie Games podcast with commentator Mark Howard being able to play for the Power was like going full circle.

“It was pretty emotional,” she said. “I reckoned the whole build up to deciding whether to stay at the Crows or go to Port Adelaide was very emotional. It was emotional for him. As a father, he was more concerned about me and just wanting me to make a decision and feel comfortable with it and then get on with life.

“When I told him, he obviously was ecstatic because it was Port Adelaide. He would have been just as happy if it was the Crows to be honest. I think he was just so relieved because he knew how hard a decision it was for me and now that I had made a decision and could just focus forward. He was absolutely pumped.

“I think the Port Adelaide part will hit him a little closer to when we run out for the first game. Running out the exact same race as he ran out.

“I’d be hanging over the fence trying to get a high-five from him and his teammates. It’s unbelievable to think I play for Port Adelaide, a team I was pretty much born into. It still blows my mind.”

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