Former Adelaide Crows footballer Bryce Gibbs has revealed his side of events at the club’s famous 2018 pre-season camp.
Gibbs, who was traded from Carlton to the Crows at the end of 2017, has spoken publicly for the first time.
Speaking to SEN SA on Saturday morning, Gibbs explained the horrific experiences he and his teammates endured during the camp, and the impact it had on the playing group following.
Read Gibbs’ full statement:
“Obviously we’ve heard a couple of the guys’ experiences in pretty raw detail and it’s been hard to revisit that and hear some of your teammates express how they felt,” Gibbs said.
“Everyone experienced this camp differently. My experience, which I’m going to talk about, was definitely different than the guys who have already talked about it.
“It started when I arrived at the club in the trade period in October or November and they proposed that they were going to this camp in the new year.
“I just arrived at the club and the most important thing for me was to earn the respect of your teammates and build relationships as quickly as you can.
“I remember sitting in that meeting with more senior players when the club said the field was going to go ahead and there were a couple of different groups. Group 1, 2 and 3.
“Then we had to decide who was going to group 1, and for me they explained that that would be the most intensive group and for me I saw it as an opportunity to speed up the relationships with these guys and new teammates. of my with which he was going to play forward, that’s how he saw it.
“I took the opportunity to participate in the more intense group, as I said, to try to accelerate my relationship with these guys.
“From there a couple of things were a little strange. We were told that there would be no information about what we were going to do, that was part of the program and the camp and that’s how they wanted to do it, basically we just had to trust them that I was going. to be well, it will be difficult and challenging, but you will be well, which I found a little unusual: I will not stay there.
“However, I kept an open mind and decided to continue still in group 1, as I said for reasons to try to speed up relations with my new teammates.
“As others have said, I also got a call from a counselor to talk about my childhood and past experiences and I actually thought that was a red flag from my point of view as well.
“During that interview process, I didn’t really reveal too much, I was lucky enough to have a pretty good upbringing, a really great childhood that I’m very grateful for, so I didn’t have a lot of trauma, so to speak.
“Despite knowing that, I was quite calculated in what I said to this person, I didn’t trust them, I didn’t know them and I thought it was unusual to do that to a camp.
“Going onto the pitch, I remember talking to a lot of the other players about what we could potentially be in and it started to cause a bit of anxiety at times as to what’s going to happen, what’s going to happen to us, how difficult it’s going to be and just try to answer these questions.
“That built up to camp for some of us, but I was still determined to put my hand up and give it a shot and see what would come of it anyway.
“From then on, we headed to the Gold Coast and that’s when things kicked off and a lot of unusual things started happening.
“It’s already been talked about a lot, hurrying down the stairs to a bus where the windows were blacked out, we were blindfolded, heavy metal music was playing, there was a guy with a microphone putting the players on, talking about the Great Final. , talking about me and leaving my old club – which didn’t affect me much as I didn’t have the emotional baggage of the previous year in terms of playing in the Grand Final and losing it – so that’s not it had an effect on me and I actually found it quite funny at times, knowing that they were trying to shake us up and get under our skin.
“We weren’t allowed to talk on the bus, I remember them stopping and making a big scene about someone talking and pretending to get someone off the bus, which was a bit weird.
“All these little things that kept happening that were weird and you didn’t think too much about, but reflecting on it, there were a lot of red flags that were happening as camp went on.
“When we were there, activities started happening and a couple of strange rules were put in place, like when we walked from one place to another we had to walk in a straight line, we weren’t allowed to talk to each other. they wouldn’t let us shower, they’d taken our cell phones off us, we weren’t allowed to talk to anyone at home and the guys had kids, which was a bit of a sticking point as they thought why can’t I call. home and checking on my kids at night, so there was so much going on that it was hard to justify why we had to do some of these things.
“We then witnessed what we were about to experience in Group 1, and I think it’s been described as a ‘harness ritual’, it was demonstrated to us by someone we didn’t know and it’s actually hard to explain what we were witnessing. .
“It was like ‘what’s going on here, this is weird’, I remember looking at a couple of guys and shaking my head and saying, ‘what are we up to, what are we going to get out of this’, but again I said to myself : “It’s okay, things are going to be okay, I’m here and I’m going to keep an open mind,” and I kept coming back to that relationship thing because that’s going to help me build stronger relationships with these guys going forward.
“Once the first player did this ritual, that’s when you thought it was right, wrong or indifferent – I felt I had to do it, I couldn’t back out now that one person was gone, I had to -ho. go through it.
“I spent my time in the harness and I experienced what I experienced and it was completely different to what some of the other guys experienced in the harness and it probably had to do with being quite reserved in the meeting of ‘that adviser, since I didn’t give too far.
“They probably didn’t attack me with some of the things they attacked other guys with, so that made the experience a little bit easier on reflection.
“There were definitely people in my face, telling me I left my old club, telling me I was an ordinary player and whatever, but I could deal with it, I could get over it.
“Watching other players go through what they went through was quite hard, I didn’t really know what to do, I didn’t know how to justify it, what to do.
“I felt like we were in a bit of a mood, this whole experience was happening around us and a couple of guys talked about their concerns, it was kind of negotiated that we’re going to continue what we were doing.
“I think Eddie used ‘brainwashing’ as he described it, but in the mood and in the moment, we continued to do what they had set out to do.
“It probably wasn’t until later, when I reflected on it, that it was probably an opportunity to talk a little bit more.
“Talking and educating ourselves about what to say to family, friends and the other guys in the other groups, we were told not to go into detail about what happened and for whatever reason most of us went with it stay at that moment
“Put it all out, obviously the details of what happened have come out during the week so I don’t need to repeat any of that.
“Probably the most disappointing thing for me was post-camp and the wash when we were reflecting on it and the guys started talking about who had issues with what had happened, talking about their experiences and that it wasn’t great.
“When I think back, that’s where I’m really disappointed in myself, that’s when I started to take a back seat, watching guys stand up and say ‘this isn’t on, we’ve got to address this, we’ve got of telling people what happened,” they seemed to shut down pretty quickly.
“For me, to see these guys as brave as to go up there and try to have their piece, and shut them down, these guys who had been at this club for a number of years, had a lot of respect within the group, I felt like ‘get up and say something like I’d have a lot of strength or weight, as I’d only been there five minutes.
“On reflection, I’m disappointed that I didn’t, because there was an opportunity to support some of my colleagues as they went through a much more difficult emotional experience than I did, so maybe it was easier for me to sit .go back and say nothing.
“Reflecting on those ongoing conversations when we were trying to clear it up, I regret not speaking up when I probably should have been a more experienced and senior player in that group.
“It fractured the playing group, it fractured relationships in the football department, the players lost confidence in the members of that football department.
“We’ve tried to move forward where it was obviously wrong and that’s probably why we’re talking about this four years later.
“If it had been handled properly and people had taken responsibility, put their hand up and hit him on the head much earlier when it happened, it would still have been difficult because people still went through what happened, and the people will still do it. carry some emotional scars from it, but at least it would have been dealt with properly at the time.
“It’s more of a relief for the guys who were more mentally challenged than others, the two guys (Eddie Betts and Josh Jenkins)…