Adelaide coach Don Pyke denies his AFL playing group is fractured over a challenging pre-season mindfulness camp.
Pyke says the Gold Coast camp in January has given his players a “sense of togetherness”, rubbishing reports some were distressed and complained to the AFL Players’ Association.
“This is a space we’re operating in: there’s a competitive advantage associated of what we’re doing,” Pyke told reporters on Wednesday.
“I’m not going to apologise for us trying to get better.
“The reality in our world is that training, whether it be physical or mental, there’s components within the program which are challenging.
“All we have done is taken our players and given them an opportunity to get better in the mental space.”
Adelaide captain Taylor Walker reportedly sent a group text wanting to find who leaked details of a camp designed for in-house keeping.
But Pyke rejected suggestions players were left distraught by the camp.
“That is not the reality we walk around with,” he said.
“We haven’t had any complaints from the PA. None or our players either before or after the camp have spoken to the AFLPA.
“And our internal discussions with our players is not flagging those things.”
The Crows went on the camp months after last year’s grand final loss to Richmond, a club which hailed the influence of its own mindfulness program in their premiership year.
“The majority of players walked away from the camp going ‘wonderful experience, got a lot out of it’,” Pyke said.
“And they’re able to now put that into their life and into their football.”
The mental activities “brought a sense of togetherness, brought a sense of vulnerability and allowed them to actually work on that space to make them better players”.
“The reality is, you don’t keep 100 per cent of the people happy 100 per cent of the time,” Pyke said.
The third-year Adelaide coach said the camp’s program was “well thought through … resourced with high quality people”.
“The mental space is a space which I think you’re seeing a fair chunk of the clubs actually working in,” he said.
“We have been in that space for a couple of years and the camp was an opportunity for us to get better.”
