Club to meet on Vince
Bernie Vince may be sanctioned after admitting he stripped to his underwear in a pub on the weekend
ADELAIDE'S 2009 club champion Bernie Vince is likely to escape suspension for his latest off-field incident in which he stripped down to his boxer shorts in a pub on Sunday.
Crows CEO Steven Trigg said the club's leadership group and management would meet later on Tuesday to decide what Vince's punishment would be.
"I'd say it's very unlikely," Trigg said of a possible suspension.
"We'll need to have an ongoing process of education with Bernie."
An Adelaide radio station received an email from two people calling themselves Crows members alleging Vince was drunk and abusive on Sunday morning.
However CEO Stephen Trigg said the senders were not members of the club and could not be found.
"I'd love to sit here and be able to tell you this is exactly what we've found and this is exactly what we're doing with him, but I can't," Trigg said.
"We think we've almost all the facts but the really key issue is that we haven't been able to find the complainant."
Vince returned to his hometown of Stansbury on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula last weekend and was celebrating the cricket club's premiership win.
Last week coach Brenton Sanderson forbade Vince from playing in the match so close to the start of the season.
Vince admitted he was dressed in his boxer shorts at a hotel, but denied he was drunk and abusive and that he had been sculling beers.
Trigg said that while the facts of the incident were still to be fully determined, one remained that this was yet another "silly" act from the Crows gun.
"At the moment it looks like a silly action and the only other thing that is in our minds clearly is it's another silly action," he said.
Vince has twice before been sanctioned by the Crows.
In 2010, he was banned by Adelaide's leadership group for one match after a late night in Melbourne with teammate Matthew Jaensch following a Friday night game. Jaensch was also suspended for one match. In 2007, Vince was also banned for a match for breaching a team curfew after being out at an Adelaide hotel.
"Bernie will be dealt with strongly on this one way or another because it's inappropriate to be in a public place ... like that," Trigg said.
"In so many ways, Bernie is such a loved and integral part of our organisation.
"But the silliness that goes with it sometimes is a distraction to us.
Trigg said the club hadn't discounted the possibility that, as the senders of the email could not be found, the allegations were intentionally misleading.
"If you put a string of these silly little items together, you might be subject to someone throwing a red herring in there somewhere," he said.
"I'm not saying this one's a red herring yet because … it's not a great look to be in boxer shorts in a public place, we understand that.
"But (Vince's off-field history) creates an opportunity for those who want to be destructive."
Harry Thring covers Adelaide news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry.