NO TROLLS EDDIE BETTS, JOSH JENKINS & the Crow's Camp. A knife, a harness and the ‘power stance’: Eddie Betts reveals ‘cult-like’ training camp

Ricketz

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I'm a little bemused why it's taken 4 years for all this to come out.
Why? People who suffer workplace abuse are often unlikely to report immediately. Nothing weird about it - the length of time is usually associated with how long it takes for that employee to no longer be dependent on that employment.
 
Sep 16, 2010
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And pretty much every Crows supporter has owed him a much-deserved apology. Him and Eddie were the only senior players to try and speak up about what happened but were shut down as the club continued to try and cover it up. You only have to watch that press conference to see the evasiveness displayed by Pyke and Burton. What needs to happen:

  • Ricciuto needs to be sacked immediately (and potentially all the other board members who still remain), and Fox Footy should be getting rid of him too. He's firmly in the James Hird category now as a champion player who has completely tarnished his legacy. His commentary is bad enough.
  • Pyke should not have any role at a football club again. It punishes the Swans but the same thing happened to us when the AFL suspended Bailey
  • Sloane should resign as captain. Even if he was coerced to say that the camp made him a better father and teammate, it was still pissweak leadership (he was deputy captain at the time)
Seems to have escaped scrutiny.
Thought the medja would've been all over him.
I imagine he's probably lying very low, shitting bricks
 

Ricketz

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Idiotic to completely misunderstand "victim blaming" to try and make yourself feel the bigger person by throwing out labels.

Victim blaming would be:
  • “Eddie you should have known know what was going to happen if you went on a Crows camp.”
  • “You must have sent mixed messages.”
  • “What were you wearing?”
  • “How hard did you try to stop it?”
To disagree with the medium he uses to publicise his trauma in its fullest (a book which is paid for) is not victim blaming.

Nicky Winnmar did this first, as opposed to writing a book down the track in the first instance.

View attachment 1467064
You're irritated about the medium.

That's what you got from it.

Smfh.
 
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Ricketz

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Mate we literally have an experienced doctor of medicine in our forum who happens to be a committed Christian.

I would say your generalisation about weak mindedness or being mentally challenged is a very very broad statement and one that is not necessarily accurate. Some of your other stuff I agree with wholeheartedly
No. It's fair. If you believe in imaginary things it's because you don't want to face reality.

Sorry, not sorry.
 
Nov 11, 2010
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This year Collingwood is flying. They have the belief, the confidence to back themselves and their team mates, to win the tight games. They have faith in each other, in their coach, there club. McCrae is creating a culture of love and support. A family and is reaping the rewards.

At the beginning of the 2017 season, after a preseason heavily focused on culture, support and belief, Richmond asked each player to stand up and share one hero, one hardship and one history. It was an opportunity to lay their hearts bare, show their flaws and be loved for them regardless. It was a pivotal moment in the clubs fortunes and could easily have divided the group but instead it unified them. Brandon Ellis stood up first and shared a story no one in the club knew of his childhood of poverty, the heartbreak of his dad becoming sick and dying, of his struggle to feel accepted. The team embraced him and then the rest of the side shared their fears and flaws one after the other.

Many clubs have adopted a similar pathway now (Melbourne, Geelong, Doggies and Gold Coast for example), and despite the AFL's slashing of funds to bring in more welfare leaders into clubs, players are blossoming because of it. Dusty was one who went to new levels because of the work he did to improve his mental focus and self improvement. It could easily be argued that, this season when he needed it the most, not having the same support due to the Soft Cap cuts is why he has seemed so lost.

All of this success was built on trust and confidence. Knowing you are valued and supported for who you are and often despite the mistakes you made or hardships you have endured....

....and now we learn that during the Adelaide preseason camp, they did the complete opposite.

  1. They destroyed the players confidence by punishing them for losing.
  2. They focused on the mistakes they made.
  3. They destroyed their trust by throwing their rawest secrets back in their faces.
  4. They divided the players by having them target one another.
  5. and finally, they demanded they hide what had been done to them.
That sounds a lot like abuse to me.

It completely shattered the side, destroyed their trust in each other and coaches, and made them lose their confidence in themselves by always fearing mistakes. You couldn't have done a better job at ruining a powerful club at the peak of their powers. They went from ladder leaders to a rabble in one off season.

And when the aboriginals players said that they felt that they were being abused, they club wanted to isolate them from the others. When Josh Jenkins tried to pursue the abhorrent nature of the camp with the club, PA and the even the AFL - he was told to 'move on' (in other words - 'we don't want to deal with this!'

I don't blame everyone at Adelaide over this, I blame the people that ran this camp and the officials that failed to address it. In a time when we have never had more mental health issues, punishing people for past mistakes does nothing but ensure they make the same ones again.

I hope Adelaide's error serves as a strong warning to others and the AFL learns that to truly succeed you need to build people up, not cast them down.
 
Oct 6, 2012
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Is it true the players have to cup each other's balls?

If there is any cupping still going on, then it’s between those in administration at West Lakes who were there at the time or complicit thereafter and those at AFL House.

A broom the size of the QE2 needs to go through the AFC admin and board with their papers stamped for ever and a day, and then those at AFL House who also failed to be the ultimate back stop.

My real fear here and what I expect to happen is AFL House to reinvestigate, throw a bunch of financial penalties at AFC, but all the pigs with their snouts in the trough just keep on rolling forward.
 
Adelaide lawyer Greg Griffin is talking to at least seven Adelaide players who were part of the club’s notorious 2018 pre-season camp about launching a class action against both the Crows and the AFL.
Stated that it's "a lot more" than 7. 7 is the minimum required for a class action in Victoria apparently. Action against AFC and AFL.

Ricciuto, and any other board members who were aware and didn't act must resign TODAY!
 

JDC!

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Eddie would never be booed. Absolute pure human with such humility.

Think you’ll find all the footy fans will be dirty on the afl and Adelaide for this taking place.

It’s absolutely disgusting


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

A lot of people have, unfortunately, turned on Eddie judging by the cesspool social media comments. I think the poster you quoted has a solid point.
 

Capt Haddock

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I wonder how long it will be until the campaigners who booed Goodes but held up Eddie as 'a good Aboriginal' because he didn't make them feel uncomfortable turn on him too? In a way it's probably lucky he's retired, will probably blunt some of the bile spewers as he's no longer front and centre on the tv each week.
It has already started and it will get worse. Bolt will be on to it shortly no doubt.
 
Oct 13, 2017
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Betts Jenkins and Liam Jones, three strong men prepared to stand against the mob.

Three men abused and vilified for speaking their truth.

Three men owed an apology by so many.

#LiamJonesvindicated

#Eddiebettsvindicated

#JoshJenkinsvindicated
Liam Jones???.. and his anti-vaxxer stand?

Bahahahahaha..

Reciting conspiracy theory nonsense couldnt be any further from “speaking the truth”..

Its a complete and utter insult to the crows players that went through the experience they did at the camp to even try to put liam’s name up there next to them.
 

Goosecat

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This psychological breakdown trend that has spread through so many performance "enhancement" programs in all sorts of environs has lost it's way completely.

I remember reading a report where hundreds of leading USA business and sporting executives and leaders were canvassed regarding the effectiveness of these types of "training" programs on performance and productivity and the results were frankly dismal.
Something like 25% of total canvassed leaders reported positive outcomes whilst 75% reported neutral or negative outcomes. The return on investment was actually a considerable loss. It often engendered the opposite of the intent including feelings of mistrust, splitting of groups, feelings of being abused that were never going to suddenly enhance an individual or groups performance. The basis of some of this stuff being borrowed from military performance training always involves forms of testing cognitive and emotional response when placed under some form of stress and as so often occurs in "scientific" fields social or other, fail to provide the practical benefits that theoretically were thought to exist.

There are so many reasons for that it's too numerous to bother with but resorting to this stuff and these programs; outside of military "ONGOING" environs fails more often then succeeds. Personally; I have taken the position that the next organisation that resorts to such failing programs and demands such from myself personally, will instantly receive my resignation. If the organisation has got to the point where the only way it can envision behavioural change or productivity improvement is through negative investment return, 75% fail rate programs, then I know it's time to look elsewhere.
 
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Bryce Gibbs has made a statement saying the camp should never had happened.

Having now read (snippets) from Eddie and the Statements from Josh and Bryce (I'll buy the book when i return home on Tuesday) I want to hear from people in the 2nd and 3rd groups. This "Harness ritual" and using the testimonies given to 'counselors' against the players seems to be the big issue. But that was all in the Group 1.

I really want to hear from Group 2 and 3 now. I'd like to hear from a Greenwood, or an Ellis-Yoleman or a Hampton, or a Kelly etc. Were there slight differences in their programs?

Either way - This is ****ed up.
 
Oct 19, 2020
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Having now read (snippets) from Eddie and the Statements from Josh and Bryce (I'll buy the book when i return home on Tuesday) I want to hear from people in the 2nd and 3rd groups. This "Harness ritual" and using the testimonies given to 'counselors' against the players seems to be the big issue. But that was all in the Group 1.

I really want to hear from Group 2 and 3 now. I'd like to hear from a Greenwood, or an Ellis-Yoleman or a Hampton, or a Kelly etc. Were there slight differences in their programs?

Either way - This is ****ed up.
The 3rd group just did regular training and I don't know about the 2nd group.
 
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