FORMER Adelaide recruiter Matt Rendell says he never had a recruiting policy in place to only draft indigenous footballers if they had one white parent.

A story last week emerged that one AFL recruiter said he would be reluctant to draft an indigenous player who did not have a white parent. The recruiter was revealed to be Rendell who then promptly resigned from the Crows at the club's urge.

Speaking publicly for the first time since his resignation, Rendell said he made the comments in a discussion with AFL community engagement manager Jason Mifsud about some indigenous players not being prepared for life in the AFL system.

"I said, 'Jason, it's a serious issue that needs to be addressed right now'. I said as a throwaway line, a ridiculous line, you might find we only recruit players with one white parent if it is not addressed now," Rendell told Channel 9's Footy Classified on Monday night.

"Don't go back and have a discussion in six months. The AFL needs to be involved in this, they need to find sponsors and they need to find 10 colleges and put three each into these colleges so we can get more players in this system who are better prepared for AFL life because the attrition rate is getting out of hand."

Rendell and Mifsud had previously worked together as assistant coaches under Grant Thomas at St Kilda. Rendell said that friendship remained despite Mifsud passing on his comments to League chief Andrew Demetriou.

When the comments became publicly attached to Rendell, he spoke to Adelaide chief executive Steven Trigg and offered to present himself at a press conference to clarify his stance.

Rendell said Trigg then urged him to resign.

"He (Trigg) rightly said the mud would stick, bad luck. I went home for an hour-and-a-half and he was absolutely correct," he said.

Two hours earlier Demetriou had told Fox Footy's On The Couch program that he did not pressure Rendell to stand down or the Crows to sack him.

"Steven Trigg advised him he should go away for a couple of hours and think about what he said," Demetriou said.

"When he came back he said, 'I don't resile from what I said,' so he said 'I should resign,' so he resigned.

"So it was dealt with by the club. It wasn't orchestrated."

But Rendell rejected Demetriou's comments, denying he would ever suggest or implement a racist recruiting policy.

"I've never had a policy like that in my life. It's ridiculous, silly. Everyone's the same. The comment I made originally was stupidly trying to emphasise the problem we've got at the moment and we need to do something about it quick and the AFL need to get involved in it," Rendell said.

In a long and emotional interview, Rendell also revealed he had grave doubts about staying with the Crows when he was offered a three-year deal towards the end of last year, also weighing up an offer to work alongside Port Adelaide coach Matthew Primus.

But he said what upset him the most was the possibility that any indigenous people he had met in his 35 years involved in football would think he was a racist.

"I don't care about the job, I'll survive, our family will survive. My greatest fear was that one of the hundreds of aboriginal people I've met along the way in the last 35 years … would think I was a racist," he said.

"Every time I tried to not think about it, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I've got a five-pound ball in my guts. I've made some wonderful friends and I could picture all their faces.

"I would be mortified if there was one out of 500 who thought I was a racist. I hope not."

Luke Holmesby is a reporter for afl.com.au. Follow him on twitter - @AFL_Luke