Taylor Walker has claimed he had \u201cno idea\u201d about what was going to happen at Adelaide\u2019s controversial pre-season camp in 2018.<\/p>\n
Tex, who retired at the end of last season, had to give the club his blessing to carry out the camp because he was captain.<\/p>\n
But he claims he was not aware some activities would breach players\u2019 confidentiality and leave them upset.<\/p>\n
It is alleged the camp activities included weaponising personal trauma and cultural insensitivity towards Indigenous Australians.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like I was put in a bit of a vulnerable position because I was encouraged a lot to back it in, however I had f***ing no idea what we were doing,\u201d Walker told the Adelaide Advertiser.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, well, if you can guarantee us that it\u2019s going to help us, then I\u2019ll back you in. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I felt f***ing pissed off about that. That\u2019s what I was probably disappointed about the most.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was some stuff that they (the facilitators) said to a few of the boys and you\u2019re thinking, \u2018Not everyone in this group knows that\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that\u2019s when a few boys got a bit disgruntled, which is fair enough. I felt quite p***** off that I had to endorse it, but I had no idea what we were going to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe intention \u2026 I could see what the club wanted to do. Execution \u2026 poor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walker previously stated he took a \u201cpositive experience\u201d from the camp, though some of his teammates did not feel the same way.<\/p>\n
Eddie Betts labelled the camp \u201cweird\u201d and \u201cdisrespectful\u201d while Josh Jenkins said some of the activities were \u201cdumb\u201d and \u201cdisgraceful\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach player was scolded with abuse and physicality so they\u2019d be physically and emotionally worn out,\u201d Jenkins said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy childhood is a source of shame, pain and pride… I am proud of I am where I am today despite any potential hurdles thrown my way as a young person, but I will always have the pain of not having a family to lean on in tough times or to celebrate with on celebratory occasions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201dThis is where I\u2019m happy to try and explain why some rituals were confronting and some were \u2018nothing to see here\u2019 and easily moved on from for others.<\/p>\n
\u201dIn my view, the boys who had had a more \u2018normal\u2019 or traditional upbringing without any real trauma or tragedy in their lives had very little to be poked and prodded about.<\/p>\n
\u201cI specifically asked for assurance that nothing regarding my childhood would be raised or used on the camp to spur me on or to break you down.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is my belief that this promise was broken, and I\u2019m not certain that I\u2019ll ever forgive the individuals involved for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cPost the camp, the club completely fell apart.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the worst idea I\u2019ve ever witnessed or been a part of in my adult life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taylor Walker has claimed he had \u201cno idea\u201d about what was going to happen at Adelaide\u2019s controversial pre-season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":955731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[523030,523020,523036,523028,321479,295116,523022,376963,384688,391002,523044,376730,463583,523033,378194,377249,523019,413414,523043,3443,638,523035,523042,296637,64,63,55,639,8779,523039,523032,7882,454703,382574,493648,17569,258388,396171,377197,379530,6830,523018,9831,80106,36826,487839,523029,179878,403228,523045,376628,378770,523040,523034,7820,38025,110563,523037,391012,523024,389525,85,16702,166919,511374,453415,23275,293041,523041,382205,215379,523023,523025,435360,117951,378379,523026,523031,392111,413294,523038,24080,523027,9829,523021],"class_list":["post-955730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-normal-or-traditional-upbringing","tag-crows-act","tag-s-controversial-pre-season-camp","tag-s-notorious-2018-pre-season-camp","tag-my-childhood","tag-295116","tag-a-positive-experience","tag-a-bit","tag-a-family","tag-a-few","tag-a-few-boys","tag-a-lot","tag-a-momento","tag-a-more","tag-a-part","tag-a-source","tag-a-vulnerable-position","tag-a-young-person","tag-abuse-and-physicality","tag-adelaide","tag-afl","tag-any-potential-hurdles","tag-any-real-trauma-or-tragedy","tag-assurance","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-careers","tag-celebratory-occasions-tex-walker","tag-confidentiality","tag-controversy","tag-cultural-insensitivity","tag-disgraceful","tag-each-player","tag-execution","tag-fing","tag-his-blessing","tag-his-teammates","tag-his-time","tag-indigenous-australians","tag-infamous-2018-camp","tag-jenkins","tag-josh-jenkins","tag-last-season","tag-my-adult-life","tag-my-belief","tag-my-view","tag-my-way","tag-new-revelation","tag-no-idea","tag-not-everyone","tag-pain-and-pride","tag-personal-trauma-and","tag-players","tag-poor","tag-shame","tag-some-activities","tag-some-players","tag-some-rituals","tag-some-stuff","tag-sports","tag-taylor-walker","tag-tex","tag-the-activities","tag-the-adelaide-advertiser","tag-the-boys","tag-the-camp","tag-the-camp-activities","tag-the-club","tag-the-end","tag-the-facilitators","tag-the-individuals","tag-the-intention","tag-the-most","tag-the-pain","tag-the-same-way-eddie-betts","tag-the-worst-idea","tag-their-lives","tag-this-group","tag-this-promise","tag-today","tag-tough-times","tag-walker","tag-weird-and"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=955730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/955731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=955730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=955730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=955730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}