Adelaide legend Graham Cornes said he would have left Jake Lever out of the team for the rest of the year, once he refused to show his commitment to re-sign with the club.
The 21-year-old is set to join the cluster of players who have left the Crows to join another club early in their career, a list which includes Geelong superstar Patrick Dangerfield, Greater Western Sydney captain Phil Davis, three-time Hawthorn premiership player Jack Gunston, Kurt Tippett and Nathan Bock.
The inaugural Crows coach said the time would have been right to make a stand, following what he described as the ‘charade’ of other players suggesting they would wait until the end of year to sign, even though they had little intention of remaining.
“When he wouldn’t commit to the club, I wouldn’t have played him,” Cornes said on SEN Breakfast.
“I think Adelaide has to make a stance on these things, we’ve lost so many good players who go through this charade of saying, look we’re in negotiations and we’ll wait until the end of the year.”
Despite his strong view on whether he should have been playing, Cornes does not begrudge Lever from departing the club, based on his upbringing.
“I understand why (he’s going),” he said.
“His comments privately were he came from a working class family, he had nothing when he grew up. He’s got this enormous opportunity, with this enormous amount of money, so he’s been swayed by that.
“But from an Adelaide supporters perspective, he’s another one of these players that the club hasn’t been able to keep.”
While there’s a perception Adelaide does not pay ‘overs’ for its players, Cornes admits sometimes you have to.
“Bock, Davis and Tippett they went for the money that Adelaide wasn’t prepared to pay overs. Sometimes you have to be prepared to pay overs. It’s as simple as that,” he said.
However, he agreed with Crows head of football Brett Burton’s call that they didn’t want to make him the highest paid player at the club.