In an expansive conversation on the eve of his 2018 debut against Richmond on Thursday night the Crows captain also admitted he was disappointed that a message he sent on Monday night to his teammates had been leaked to the media. Walker’s disenchantment was twofold. Offering to hand over the message, he emphatically denied he had communicated any anger over the ‘‘blindfold camp’’ story becoming public and insisted he had simply instructed his teammates via their Crows’ WhatsApp to answer no questions about the contentious camp until the group had met the following day. ‘‘It’s disappointing the fact I sent a message to my teammates and it got out,’’ he conceded. ‘‘But I’m starting to think there’s a lot of accredited player managers around and they pass on something or someone inadvertently says something to a family member and I can understand how it happens. ‘‘But there are no divisions. How can there be divisions? It was all based around, ‘This has happened, don’t talk to anyone about it, come in and we’ll sort it out’. Things happened on the camp I didn’t even tell Ellie (Brown, Walker’s girlfriend) and I won’t break the bond we built up and tell you now but some of the descriptions have been so way off the mark it's ridiculous.’’ Loading What has become clear is that a small handful of senior Crows did describe to their partners some of the mind games they endured on the late January Gold Coast camp and those partners were outraged.

‘‘The thing that I’ve learned with Collective Minds is that it’s not for everyone. You’ve got to open yourself up and be vulnerable and men don’t like doing that. And culturally we’re all different.’’ Commented Walker on the timing of the story: ‘‘I do think it’s interesting it’s come out the week we play Richmond in a grand final rematch.’’ Walker said he had no knowledge of a suggestion the Crows had trained recently serenaded by the Tigerland theme song as another odd motivational exercise. ‘‘I’ve been off the track so I couldn’t tell you,’’ he said. The grand final and it’s fall-out resonated so harshly for the Crows captain whose team’s pre-game robotic stance punctuated the finals and then came back to haunt him. Of the so-called Power Rangers line-up, he said the idea was devised with input from Collective Minds but came from him and several senior teammates. He says he would do it again. ‘‘Just because we lost the grand final doesn’t mean we’re going to throw everything out,’’ said Walker. ‘‘We played some really good footy last year, particularly in the second half of last year. We were challenged on our contested game and we came through that.’’ Richmond football boss Neil Balme commented after the Tigers’ win that the Richmond players were told the pre-game Crows line-up said more about Adelaide trying to convince themselves they were tough than about their opponents.

Walker said he had no knowledge of those comments. ‘‘I didn’t read or listen to any of the stuff about Richmond or the result,’’ he admitted. ‘‘Ellie and I went overseas three weeks after the game and for those three weeks I just pretty much stayed home like a little crab.’’ The captain is aware that his image took a battering from the time he publicly addressed the loss after the game and through October. ‘‘I was aware I had to address three key issues,’’ said Walker. ‘‘Our major sponsors, Richmond and our players and supporters. ‘‘I probably didn’t say enough. Then when Jake Lever left, I supposedly said too much. What do I do? If I don’t say anything and don’t object are we just going to continue to let people leave our club ... sometimes I maybe need a filter before I speak but I’m getting better.’’

And then there was the game itself. ‘‘Obviously I didn’t have a great game personally ... I grew up as a little kid only wanting to play AFL and on the day of that parade I was just so excited. I had my brother and 10 of my best mates there and my mum and they followed the entire parade and I just felt so happy and at the end of it I was spent. ‘‘There was so much nervousness energy that night. We’ll try to go one better this year.’’ Taylor Walker (left) and Rory Sloane in the immediate aftermath of a losing grand final. Credit:AAP Walker points to the grassy position in his garden where he recalls he was lying in the sun on the Monday after the grand final when Lever called him to say he was quitting the club. ‘‘I expressed my disappointment, of course I did, but Jake’s a big enough person to have that conversation and to deal with the kind of jokes previously that go on in locker rooms. ‘‘I just want so badly for us all to stay together and achieve the ultimate success. I’d just so much rather have PP for Premiership Player by my name than more money.’’

Walker said he remained more comfortable regarding the speculation surrounding his close friend, senior teammate and business partner Rory Sloane. ‘‘Sloaney knows very well where I sit on that and he’s been in the position with other before. I know how committed he is to us. ‘‘Mind you I thought ‘Danger’ would stay and Jake. I just get too caught up in it. I’ve tried to put myself in their position and say if Broken Hill had an AFL team would I want to go back and play with them? I’m not sure I would but who can say?’’ Something of an outsider for the captaincy and memorably emotional when Phillip Walsh appointed him three seasons ago Walker said he still felt out of place at the competition’s pre-season annual captains’ day and left the talking to others. ‘‘I look around the room and I still don’t quite feel I belong,’’ he admitted. And yet the ball-tampering affair and the roles played by the main players have led to some introspection. The Adelaide captain and his coach, Don Pyke, met Steve Smith and Darren Lehmann for a ‘‘catch-up’’ not so long ago and Walker insists he would still be ‘‘shocked’’ if it emerged that the Australian coach sanctioned the illegal tactic. And Smith? ‘‘I’ve been sitting here for the last two days wondering what I would do if I was put in the same situation,’’ said Walker. ‘‘If one of my teammates came up to me before a game and said they were going to try something ... to cheat in some way. ‘‘It’s easy for me to say because I’m not in the moment but it’s just the way I’ve been brought up and I just know I wouldn’t do it. But it takes balls to stand up in the situation they were in.’’