Showdown still leaves issues unresolved after Adelaide's wasted season
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The discomfort among the players and some staff and the fall-out from 2018 intensified with the departure this week of medical services co-ordinator Rohan Hattotuwa, who will be replaced in a fashion by former Kangaroos fitness guru Steve Saunders and his KangaTech. Saunders will join the club in a non-traditional, full-time role with the proviso he can continue to consult to other AFL clubs — notably North Melbourne, whose CEO Carl Dilena is a KangaTech shareholder, and Melbourne — along with other Australian and international sporting codes that have adopted his program, which has revolutionised the measurement and predictive strength and frailty of players’ hamstrings.
Given the misgivings held by the club’s high performance boss Matt Hass over some elements of the program this year — KangaTech’s defenders insist it requires Saunders’ direct management — the dynamics in the fitness department remain unpredictable.
The Crows players held their Mad Monday at the Weymouth Arms in inner-city Adelaide, which coincided with the somewhat bizarre and mutually destructive move by the Collective Mind bosses to defend their practices at a heavily publicised and strategic media conference at the MCG. The players’ reaction to some of the comments ranged from disbelief to anger.
‘‘We delivered on the brief,’’ claimed Derek Leddie, Collective Mind’s co-owner. Watching that performance only further underlined the Crows’ imprudence in entrusting their precious cargo to the consultants the club still claims did great work in 2017. And demonstrated how even highly professional organisations such as the Crows – who handled the horrific murder of their former coach Walsh and its aftermath with such professional clarity, precision and empathy – can lose their way when the wrong people are handed the keys.
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