Mitch McGovern and Charlie Cameron’s manager Colin Young has fired back at Mark Ricciuto’s comments over the pair’s Adelaide exit.
The Crows football director spoke at length on Triple M Adelaide about why they’ve both departed the club in recent years.
"He's got what we want, we love people that contest in the forward line and (have) got plenty of speed – we need speed in the forward line – but, once again, (at) 800-and-something thousand (dollars)," Ricciuto said about McGovern.
"Has he delivered for Carlton yet? No. (We're) comfortable that he went."
Ricciuto admitted Charlie Cameron was one player they didn’t want to leave the club.
"He got a very, very good contract from Brisbane, who were down the bottom of the ladder and had money in their salary cap and (We) couldn't match that," he said.
"When you're at the top of the ladder and your salary cap is chock-a-block, you haven't got much room to move, do you? If you pay someone overs or a massive amount of money, then it means you need to lose someone else."
Young strongly denied Ricciuto’s reasoning for McGovern’s departure in particular, saying the infamous pre-season camp in 2018 was the main reason he decided to move to Carlton despite signing a three-year deal at Adelaide at the end of 2017.
"Firstly, I have the greatest respect for Mark and his passion for the Crows, however I'm not sure if he has been provided the full facts on why Charlie and Mitch left the Crows," Young told The Age.
"Those comments that Mark has made make no sense and I am very surprised that he made them. Why would Mitch stay loyal to the Crows and sign a three-year contract extension back in 2017, when he could have gone back home to Perth on an extremely lucrative contract?
"Instead Mitch chose to stay with the Crows for half the contract dollars and half the length of the contract time instead of going home to Perth.
"The reasons Mitch left the Crows was because of the camp and the Adelaide football department and that's it. Again with Charlie, it was not the money. Let's just leave it at that!"