An exhaustive post-season review found Brenton Sanderson was not the right fit for the Adelaide Football Club as senior coach moving forward, says Crows Chairman Rob Chapman.
Speaking at Adelaide Oval on Thursday morning, Chapman said the Adelaide board was forced to make some “tough calls” in the best interests of the Club, resulting in the decision to part ways with Sanderson.
“All of the data that was gathered eventually made the decision itself for us,” Chapman said.
“At the end of the review, after talking to all stakeholders, there were just some things that we concluded needed to change.
“This board had to make some tough calls if we are going to deliver on the vision that our fans, our supporters and financial members expect (of us), and that’s to be the most respected and successful football club in Australia.
“We’ve made a decision looking forward.”
Chapman also said he would endorse Sanderson's move to another Club, insisting that he had many assets as a coach.
"I've said it often, Brenton is a good coach, strategically, tactically, game-day he's very, very sound," Chapman said.
"But there are a lot of things that go into making a good coach.
"He's very good in the media, his external communication was good; I think [his lack of internal communication] was feedback he's received.
"That was something he needed to improve upon … I think he would acknowledge that."
Chapman said the Club was yet to finalise a shortlist of replacement candidates.
He said Thursday's board meeting would start a thorough search for the best person and while he ruled out poaching a senior coach already employed by a rival AFL club, Chapman was confident the process wouldn't take too long.
He also flagged a need for the club to improve its culture and said further heads could role if necessary, although he said no board members would follow Sanderson out the door.
"I think we've got a good culture. I think we need to aspire to a higher performing culture.
"That's something for the new CEO and the new coach to really work on.
"We are looking for higher performance out of the whole football department.
"We live and we exist to do the very best thing for our football club, so these decisions - guess what? - there'll probably be more of them at some stage in the future.
"Mediocrity, and that's what we've [had] in the last two seasons, for whatever reason, is unacceptable."
Chapman said CEO Andrew Fagan, who was appointed on Monday, was aware of the situation with Sanderson when he accepted the role, but that he had no say in the decision to sack the coach.
He also confirmed that Sanderson's contract, of which two years still remained when he was sacked on Wednesday, would be honoured.
