Will Trigg want to continue at Crows?

Adelaide Crows CEO Steven Trigg faces the media after the AFL Commission. Picture: Michael Dodge. Source: Getty Images

ADELAIDE got smacked last night, and rightly so - there was never any doubt about the Crows having transgressed the AFL Player Rules.

It is not the most pressing issue.

They could have been whacked much harder: Phil Harper escaped with a slap on his wrist, the club will only sit out for part of next year's draft (to go with what they sacrificed this year) and John Reid, well, his penalty of being excluded from football is irrelevant because he's retired from the game.

You can say Reid was the instigator of all of this, because the football department was his domain, but that would excuse others who were complicit.

Trigg was at the wheel of the club, and what will be in play from here is the future of Trigg.

It is fair that the captain's penalty is weighted according to his rank. It will be debated at a board meeting that has been scheduled for today, but thoughts of his future are already swirling inside Trigg's mind.

He is a proven chief executive in the AFL and served his club with distinction before this crisis, so much so AFL House had grand plans for him to one day consider joining league administration.

There was an overseas scholarship afforded to Trigg by the AFL and there was also the thought that considering that he had served his club so well, moving to the chief body was a logical step.

It has stripped Steven Trigg of his squeaky clean reputation

Behind closed doors it was said that he was getting itchy feet as long as 18 months or two years ago to look at something else but he remained and steered the Crows through an important phase with the departure of greats such as Mark Ricciuto, Simon Goodwin and Andrew McLeod, the building of a new training centre and the transition from Neil Craig to Brenton Sanderson.

The question now is how Trigg will feel about continuing. The club will assure him they can carry on for his six-month suspension and want him to return - they'll tell him he is, because he is, ideal to lead the club out of this drama.

There are already rumours swirling that Rob Chapman could fill in, but chairman-chief executive combinations usually lead to a mess.

It comes down to how Trigg feels about the situation. His AFL aspirations - if he didn't have any, others held them for him - now appear shot and he is not the sort of man who could handle being a burden.

Trigg made a few blunders along the way, then his conscience got in the way when others urged him to just plough on and push the envelope because that's what football clubs do. That's not to paint him as a saint, because he pushed on.

It will now cost him not only a six-month suspension (and another six suspended) but also $50,000.

It has stripped Trigg of his squeaky clean reputation.

And it has probably stripped him of any chance of being invited to take a top role at AFL House. But to put this into perspective: football is a competitive game that attracts competitive types, and like Malcolm Blight said last week - except for the two new franchises, all clubs have probably stretched or broken the rules to put a better football team on the field.

This much is certain. Steven Trigg is a decent man who made an error of judgment.

He has fronted up and will, insiders say, be given a chance to remain with the Crows.