Adelaide has been accused of “mismanagement” after the club “butchered” Bryce Gibbs’ final two years, according to Scott Watters.
Gibbs played his 268th and final game against former club Carlton last Sunday after announcing his retirement with a year to run on his Crows contract.
Adelaide gave up two first-round picks to land Gibbs who signed a lucrative four-year deal at the end of 2017.
The 31-year-old played every game in his first season at West Lakes, finishing fourth in the best and fairest, before falling out of favour under Don Pyke and then Matthew Nicks.
Watters believes the former No.1 draft pick “walks” into the best 22 of at least 10 clubs in the competition.
“I can’t help but feel that Adelaide have just butchered the last two years of his career,” the former St Kilda coach told Footy SA.
“I think it’s telling that his best game is a game where he just doesn’t feel the pressure coming from the coaching staff or the club.
“If you look at the AFL sides out there at the moment, I can think of at least 10 sides that he just walks in to straight away.
“I think it’s a waste of another 25 to 50 games that should be going on to his career – absolute mismanagement and it’s sad to see him go off in that way.
“Someone said to me that this was a great send off for him and for the Adelaide Crows, I don’t quite see it that way.
“I think it’s an absolute waste of talent.”
Gibbs finished with 27 disposals, seven score involvements and 549 metres gained in his last AFL match.