Adams’ cold call on exit

Swan ‘hurt’ by McRae not phoning

Former Collingwood vicecaptain Taylor Adams says he was “hurt” by the lack of an exit phone call from Craig McRae as he revealed he felt “cheated” by the hamstring injury that cost him a premiership.

And Adams revealed that the ‘Buddy blindside’, which had the Giants believing Lance Franklin would head to Greater Western Sydney in 2013 eventually forced him out of a club where he would have happily stayed.

Adams will play in the crosstown clash against the Giants this weekend after a successful move to Sydney that saw him approaching the Swans to shore-up his financial and football future. But while he lauded McRae’s impact in his two seasons at Collingwood, Adams said the club could have handled his own exit much better. He revealed McRae never spoke to him again after a trade-week discussion where he believed the club was “blowing wind up my arse” over his potential on-field role in 2024.

“I was pretty disappointed by the feedback and the transparency that I got from Collingwood throughout the year,” he told the Unlaced podcast.

“In a nice way, they phased me out and it felt a lot like that. I ended up meeting with John (Longmire) and the Swans on the Wednesday and was transparent with John and said, ‘Look, my preferred route is to not move but I’ve got to make a decision in my head because footy doesn’t last forever and I feel like I’ve got more to offer’.

“I then met with ‘Wrighty’ (football boss Graeme Wright) and ‘Fly’ (McRae) on the Thursday and ‘Fly’ basically said, ‘Nothing is going to really change next year, we think you do a great job in the role that you’re playing’, and I thought to be honest, he was blowing wind up my arse

“I had to make a decision and I actually didn’t hear from ‘Fly’ at all again which hurt me. He should have called me and had the hard conversation but I can understand why he didn’t as he just won a flag and had a baby and there was a lot going on. I don’t have any hard feelings about it.”

Adams (pictured) suffered a low-grade hamstring strain in midSeptember and fell only days short of playing in the grand final but would never again take the field for the Pies.

“You have got to be able to put everything into perspective but in terms of my football career and my whole life, that month was from when I got injured to missing out and having to deal with the emotions of that, that was the most difficult period of my life,” he said. “I felt like I had been cheated a little bit, I tried to look for the reasons why and I couldn’t think why it had happened this time. To play every game bar a suspension and then fall short two weeks before and miss out on the ultimate prize ...

“I needed five more days. I wasn’t going to run out there and test my hammy in a GF.”