Adelaide's controversial pre-season camp has been a "massive distraction" in a failed AFL year, the club's chief executive Andrew Fagan says.
But Fagan says the camp run by mind performance company Collective Mind is only part of the reason why the Crows slipped from a grand final loss last year to missing this season's finals.
"There's plenty of reasons why we had a season that wasn't at the level that we wanted," Fagan told Triple M radio on Thursday.
"The distraction that was the camp and the work of Collective Mind was a component piece but there were a bunch of other matters as well that probably started from how we recovered from the grand final loss.
"We suffered from a significant lack of continuity in playing personnel due to some of the injuries we had, and throughout the course of the season some of our on-field performances weren't good enough.
"Collective Mind played it's part; it was a massive distraction but we moved on from mid-season."
The Crows announced in June they had parted with Collective Mind after reports of player unrest concerning the company's methods.
Collective Mind held a media conference on Monday, maintaining the camp had been a success from its viewpoint.
Fagan said the Crows weren't told directly by the company of its media conference plans.
"We're certainly disappointed that was the case because I don't think we needed to continue to talk about something that we hadn't for some time," he said.
"All it does is encourage further discussion, mostly external, around the football club."
Fagan also shielded the club's head of football Brett Burton from blame about the camp, and a fitness program which resulted in a number of hamstring injuries.
"It's natural that people want to see a head on a stick and go 'well, here's the reason, I'll go and burn this person and therefore everything is fixed'," he said.
"That probably shows a lack of understanding how footy clubs operate. It's never just one thing or one person.
"Brett would acknowledge there's some learnings he has got this year, as we all do ... he is the first bloke who will put his hand up and admit it.
"But it's inappropriate to label every single thing that may not have worked or gone our way this year as a football club on to one individual."
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