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Crows captain addresses Milera’s “rabble” comment as Crows apologise
Andrew Slevison • June 2nd, 2025 12:20 pm
Adelaide CEO Tim Silvers reportedly called his Sydney counterpart Tom Harley to apologise for comments made by Wayne Milera on Saturday night.
The Crows defender described the Swans as a “rabble” after his side handed out a 90-point drubbing at the SCG.
“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 had said on ABC radio.
Channel 9 journalist and SEN regular Tom Morris reported that Silvers made the phone call to Harley to apologise, which was accepted.
Crows captain Jordan Dawson addressed the situation and the comments on Monday morning.
He insists that Milera meant no harm and the wider Adelaide list certainly doesn’t consider the Swans to be a rabble.
“I think it got taken out of context a little bit,” Dawson said on SEN’s Fireball.
“I know Wayne really well and he is the most polite, genuine, caring guy probably in the team.
“He didn’t have any malice behind it. It was more a reflection of how we were playing and as a team you want to disrupt the opposition.
“That’s kind of where he was coming from, was our ability to put enough pressure on to make them feel like they’re second-guessing what they’re doing.
“Quotes can be taken and you can spin them however you want. I haven’t spoken to ‘Junior’ but I don’t feel like I need to because I know his intentions were all pure. He’s a great human being.
“I hoped Sydney wouldn’t take it as if we would think that they are a rabble of a club because that’s definitely not how we feel as a group.”
Asked why the club apologised, Dawson said he’ll have to touch base with his chief executive to find out more.
“I’ll chat to Tim about it today, I can’t really comment on that at the moment,” the skipper said.
Discussing the situation further, Sam Edmund and David King didn’t quite see eye to eye on the Adelaide apology.
“This is just my two cents - I was just blown away by this,” Edmund said.
“OK, a step too far, shouldn’t have said it, but not really in a tone that was malicious or nasty.
“This is a player on what he’s seeing out on the field, not a hot take. The truth was his defence in the end because everything he was said spot on.
“James Rowbottom and Dean Cox used the word ‘embarrassing’. They were not bothered by that comment on the night at all.
“So for the Crows, for mine, to apologise was absolutely ridiculous. That two CEOs have call each other for a harmless comment.”
King felt it was simply a courtesy call to make sure everything was fine between the two camps.
King said: “Isn’t that a harmless phone call? Why is it ridiculous?
“It was a comment made by an opposition player. Chinese whispers can take control here and you get the wrong version of events.
“I just think it’s handled by one simple phone call that people up the chain are just saying are we ok with this. ‘No malice intended, are we good?’, ‘Yep, we’re good’, move on.”
It prompted a back and forth between the pair with Edmund indicating the situation was “unreal” while King played down the contact between the clubs.
Edmund: “So they needed to go to the highest level of both clubs for that comment?”
King: “Just make one phone call and it is done.”
Edmund: “This is a guy (Milera) who doesn’t do a lot of media with a throwaway line and he’s been hung, drawn and quartered and his CEO has had to apologise. Unreal.
“It was widely reported that they apologised and Sydney had accepted the apology.”
King: “It’s not a massive deal, it’s just a simple phone call, handled. I don’t see any drama either way.”
The Crows will be feeling pretty good about themselves after the massive win as they now own a record of 8-4 which has them sitting third.
They are next in action at home against the Brisbane Lions on Friday night in what is a major test for Matthew Nicks’ team.
