Report: AFL hands down penalty for Crows training rule breach

The AFL have fined Adelaide $100,000 and stripped the club of two draft picks for breaching strict training rules last week, according to Channel 7's Tom Browne.

The league handed down the penalty on Sunday night following a wide-ranging investigation over the weekend.

After returning from interstate, 16 Crows players were self-isolating at the Novotel Barossa Valley resort in South Australia but but were caught by witnesses training in large groups last Thursday.

Following a thorough investigation in the days since, the AFL have opted to come down hard on Adelaide with the sport currently in tense negotiations with various state governments before attempting to restart the 2020 season next month.

Adelaide CEO Andrew Fagan accepted full responsibility for the “honest mistake” in an interview on SEN Breakfast last Friday.

“We’ve made a mistake and we accept that,” he told Garry Lyon and Tim Watson.

“You guys know and I know it’s been hammered home to us as an industry and to our club and other clubs about the adherence.

“We know it’s a community issue and we are all expected to play our role in flattening the curve. That’s clear and we are not shying away from that.

“In short what happened was, I spent most of yesterday evening trying to work it out, we had 16 players return from interstate. We had approval from SA Police to train down at that facility which is a 20-acre facility, so it’s got some ability for the players to not just be in their rooms but to move around and do some running and training.

“The expectation which was clearly articulated was to be in pairs and to maintain social distancing. This was their first session there and it appears as though that the communication about how the first session was to be conducted wasn’t anywhere near as clear as it needed to be.

“It refers to social distancing, it refers to training in pairs and they did that for a number of elements in the session but for others they came together beyond their pairs and they breached some of those social distancing rules.

“That’s what has occurred. It’s an honest mistake but it’s a serious one and we understand where the industry is at in these discussions and everyone is pretty frustrated.”