Eddie Betts’ biography promises to be among the must-reads of 2022.
But like Betts’ dancing feet on the field, there’s already been a few twists and turns when it comes to the book charting his amazing journey.
Ali Clarke – wife of former ruckman Matthew Clarke had been entrusted to do the book, but it’s understood there has been a change of author that has pushed the release date back to Father’s Day.
One of the contentious elements of the book is the chapter devoted to the Crows’ infamous pre-season camp.
Betts, like a number of Adelaide players, was irritated by the recent retraction and apology from The Age to Collective Mind, who were previously employed by Adelaide and who ran the controversial pre-season program ahead of the 2018 season.
It is said that Betts was ready to release a statement in the immediate aftermath of the newspaper’s apology, but was advised against doing so.
The Age acknowledged that the camp was run in good faith and with the players’ interests front of mind and acknowledged that WorkSafe SA made no findings of wrongdoing against Collective Mind.
But some of Collective Mind’s methods were highly unusual and in some cases, troubling for some players.
There are still some exercises that Adelaide players were either made to do – or asked to do - that haven’t seen the light of day given no Crows player has been willing to go public.
At this stage, that looks set to change with Betts’ book, which promises to finally pull back the curtain on one of the more discussed footy topics of recent times.