Sydney’s depressing first season beneath Dean Cox hit a brand new low with a disastrous 90-point loss to Adelaide on Saturday evening – and the event had a sour postscript.
Speaking after the Crows’ thumping win which raised them to 3rd at the AFL ladder, defender Wayne Milera, who was once some of the Crows’ best possible with 17 disposals and a purpose, described the 2024 grand finalists as a ‘rabble’.
“You could sort of feel it as a group … they were sort of a bit of a rabble, just hearing them on the ground,” Milera informed ABC Radio.
It’s uncommon for an opposition participant to be so brutally truthful a couple of rival group, even after such an emphatic victory, and the 27-year outdated’s feedback briefly brought about a stir.
According to Fox Footy reporter Jay Clark, the dig will ship ‘shockwaves’ in the course of the Swans, as but some other brutal reminder in their unpleasant 4-8 win-loss report, in addition to how some distance they’ve fallen since a humbling grand ultimate loss to Brisbane simply 8 months in the past.
The depressing defeat was once made even worse by way of happening at the evening of the Swans’ birthday party of the 20th anniversary in their drought-breaking 2005 premiership, with a bunch of former greats together with Michael O’Loughlin, Barry Hall, Nick Davis and Leo Barry available to witness their former group humiliated.
“It’s the most damning post-match assessment of the season,” Clark mentioned on Fox Footy after the event.
“This is one of the proudest clubs in the competition. We know the history of the Sydney Football Club over the past two decades, and the champions who have played. They’ve been so consistent.
“They’ve just been branded a ‘rabble’ by an opposition player, from what he could hear them talk about on the field.
“I think that’ll send shockwaves through the Swans, and I’d be interested in how the Adelaide Crows handle a comment [like that].”
Former nice Jack Riewoldt was once scathing of Milera’s jibe, announcing it was once ‘100 per cent disrespectful’ and opining that Crows trainer Matthew Nicks wouldn’t be inspired.
“Calling an opposition team a ‘bit of a rabble’ in a media sense … they dropped Josh Rachele [last year] for values,” he mentioned.
“I would love to know where a comment like that sits in the values of the Adelaide Football Club.”
Fellow panellist David King mentioned Milera will have ‘got his words wrong’ as a participant no longer conversant in coping with the media.
“He’s a guy that doesn’t have a history in this space – I can’t remember hearing him speak,” King mentioned of Milera.
“I’d love to know what he was trying to say, whether he got his words wrong.
“I’d be surprised if Matty Nicks didn’t get on the phone and say ‘look, we’re out of line here, we’ve made a mistake, can we step through this and move on?’
“It’s just a simple error. I think he’s got his words wrong, and I hope this doesn’t become the story that maybe you [Clark] think it will.”
Cox, who took over from John Longmire within the 2024 low season after an extended apprenticeship as assistant trainer, was once best marginally much less scathing than Milera of the Swans in his post-match media convention.
“It was unacceptable and embarrassing,” Cox mentioned.
“We are going to fight our way through this, everyone that’s involved at the footy club, and there’s going to be no easy way through it.
“I said to them ‘expect some tough sessions’. That’ll happen.”
The Swans take a seat 14th at the ladder after 12 rounds, and feature a all at once unhealthy task towards Richmond on the MCG subsequent Saturday sooner than their mid-season bye.