New details from the Adelaide Crows' infamous 2018 pre-season training camp continue to emerge as the club stares down the barrel of the worst start in the club's history.
Shocking revelations detailed by The Age earlier this month revealed players were "petrified" and "unnerved" when they realised sensitive information they had provided to club staff had likely been handed to the facilitators of the 'Collective Mind' camp to be used during activities.
In the same report, players said they were confronted by men in army fatigues, carrying fake automatic weapons and told to keep their heads down on a bus as heavy metal music blared through the speakers.
An AFL Integrity Unit investigation previously found that there had been a lack of due diligence conducted by the Crows, but little further consequence has come since.
The sordid camp was intended to take the 2017 AFL runners up squad to the next level.
Sitting at the bottom of the ladder, winless and staring at the worst start to a season in club history – it's done nothing but tear the Crows apart come 2020.
Now, shocking new details have been revealed by the Herald Sun, reporting that players on the camp were told they needed to be "so tight that if a teammate slept with your wife it would be OK".
When those allegations were put to a camp member, his response was perhaps more troubling.
"We were in such a state of confusion, it was like a trance, there were times where we would come-to two days after and say, 'What did we just do?'," he said.
"It's hard to remember exactly what we did or what was said and we were in different groups."
On the final day of the camp players and coaches reportedly gathered in a room and openly wept.
A Crows spokesman said: "The camp was more than two years ago and there has been considerable personnel changes both on and off the field, and the club is now focused on this season and beyond. As previously stated, the AFL conducted a thorough investigation and found there was no breach of industry rules."
Earlier this month, The Age reported that Crows players were "certain" sensitive information was handed to Collective Mind boss Amon Woulfe and business partner Derek Leddie for a bizarre "harness" exercise.
"In order to get out of the harness, the player would have to crawl on his hands and knees towards a combat knife that Wolfgang had set on the ground, about 10 metres away," McClure wrote.
"Each player could choose two teammates in the group to sit on chairs and offer moral support. Nine other teammates were instructed to pull the other way.
"As the nine others pulled the player away from the knife, facilitators encouraged them to hurl abuse at him. At first, it was relatively harmless; "Come on, mate. You're weak, you'll give up!"
"But as the struggle increased, the insults became more personal.
"Episodes of childhood trauma, relationships with partners and incidents of domestic abuse were among the subjects referenced as players tried to crawl across the mud.
"In some cases, the information was so sensitive that players hadn't even shared it with their partners."
from WWOS https://wwos.nine.com.au/afl/adelaide-crows-preseason-camp-new-details-emrege/7fc159b8-e3bf-4636-a88d-8dc6ee26349a
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