Garry Lyon says it’s vital football clubs respect their players – regardless if they’ve departed the club or not.
His comments come after Mark Ricciuto spoke publicly on Triple M about a number of Adelaide players who have recently left the club, including the likes of Eddie Betts, Charlie Cameron and Mitch McGovern.
Lyon said well-run clubs don’t conduct their private dealings around player transfers in a public forum.
“The first reaction is to put the blame on someone else,” Lyon said on SEN Breakfast.
“You respect people coming into your club and you respect people going out. You don’t do your business through the media – good clubs don’t do their business through the media.
“When you say things like that, now you’ve got (Mitch McGovern and Charlie Cameron’s manager) Colin Young and he comes out and says because the reason Mitch left the Crows was because of the camp and the Adelaide footy department and that’s it.
“All of a sudden, you’ve just thrown your footy club back in the spotlight again. All these things swirl around because you play your business out in the media.”
Tim Watson said speaking publicly about recently departed players was an “own goal” and another controversy the club didn’t need at the moment.
“This is like an own goal,” he said.
“This is putting out there and then having to respond to it because you created a mess in the first place and you thrust the spotlight back on your own football club.
“I think they’d be some strong conversations and you’d hope if they are a strong football club than they’d be some strong conversations from the chairman down to Mark Riciciuto about the commentary he’s made about it.
“It’s put the Adelaide Crows back in the focus and created a whole new story about something I’m sure they’d like to have put away and not talk again.”
After suffering their worst-ever Showdown defeat last week, the winless Crows face Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium in the first of three games in a Queensland hub.