Crows Boss Apologises To Eddie Betts After He Shares Experiences Of Controversial Camp

Adelaide Crows CEO Tim Silvers has apologised to former club legend Eddie Betts after he penned his horrific experiences at the club’s controversial pre-season camp in 2018.

Betts’ book, The Boy from Boomerang Crescent, was released today, revealing he would have to live with the ordeals and shameful experiences at the camp for the rest of his life.

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“Anyone who leaves our club that doesn’t have a positive experience, we’re sorry,” Silvers said.

"We've got a leadership and a culture (now) that we're driving that prioritises others and I think we can move forward, but we would like to say 'sorry' to Eddie and anyone else who had a negative experience throughout the camp.”

Silvers said he had exchanged text messages with Betts on Wednesday, with a more detailed chat to be had later in the week.

“For a long period of time, Eddie, Anna and the family have been an integral part of the club,” he said.

“So, what I read I was actually saddened to read it.

“People’s welfare and well-being is paramount to our club.

“We’ve got a number of new pillars here we’ve got a new head coach, new head of footy new chair, new CEO.

“I like to feel we’re moving in a different direction and we’d love to see Eddie and his family back at our club.”

In the book, Betts described the camp as “weird” and “completely disrespectful” and said private information he had shared in a counselling session at the camp has been misused.

He detailed one in-club exercise where players were made to stand in a circle and make “awkward eye contact with one another scream ‘f*** you’ as we thrust our groins in the other person’s direction”.

The playing group was told the exercise would “increase our masculinity or something”.

He also said the camps chose to use Aboriginal cultural rituals which offended him, jeopardised the wellbeing of other, younger Indigenous players at the club and affected his family life. 

“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,” Betts 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.”

It led to his fall in form in 2018, ultimately resulting in his departure from the club.

In 2021, a SafeWork SA inquiry cleared the Adelaide Football Club of wrongdoing, including breaching health and safety laws. 

An AFL investigation in October 2018 also cleared the club of breaching any of the league’s rules.

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