Adelaide Crows head coach Matthew Nicks has said suspended star Izak Rankine is “in a pretty good space” following his return to the club after an overseas break.
Rankine is serving a four-match ban for using a homophobic slur during the Crows round 23 win over Collingwood last month.
Rankine will only be available to play again this season if the Crows lose this weekend’s qualifying final, against Collingwood, and then make it to the grand final three weeks later.
Rankine returned to Adelaide from overseas on Tuesday night, pledging to work to regain society’s trust in the wake of his four-game AFL ban for a homophobic slur.
The 25-year-old addressed his Crows teammates before their match-eve training session for Thursday night’s clash against the Magpies.
“Where he sits right now, he’s just really keen for our guys to go and perform,” Nicks told reporters after training, which Rankine did not participate in.
“Chatting to him this morning, he’s in a pretty good space.
“(He’s) disappointed still, because I know this is the hardest time — probably tomorrow will be the toughest for him.
“But he just wants our guys to go and perform.
“That’s what he was able to relate to them this morning in a really short address, just to talk them through where he’s at and what he wants them to do tomorrow.
“It was good to have him back … we have missed him.”
Izak Rankine is serving a four-match suspension for using a homophobic slur during Adelaide’s round 23 match against Collingwood. (AAP: Joel Carrett)
An emotional Rankine on Tuesday night fought back tears during a public apology at Adelaide Airport.
“I am fully committed to bettering myself,” he told reporters.
“From here, all I can do is put my head down, work hard, support my teammates in the best way I can and show through my actions that I am going to learn from my mistake.
“More than anything, I want this club to succeed so I will be doing everything I can to gain everyone’s trust back and have a positive impact on society and my supporters.”
Rankine, the sixth AFL-listed player in 16 months to be banned for an on-field homophobic slur, has served one game of his four-match suspension.
His only hope of playing again this season is if his Crows lose on Thursday night but then progress to the grand final when he would be available.
Rankine was suspended for a homophobic slur directed at a Collingwood player in an August 16 game.
Rankine, at his club’s behest, spent time in Italy and continued training to avoid the spotlight in Adelaide in the wake of his suspension.
“We have made the right call when it came to preparing him for that small window of opportunity, if he is able to play again this year,” Nicks said.
“We looked into that at length, talked about all the pros and cons, and ultimately it came down to performance on the footy field: what would put him in the best position?”
Nicks declined to divulge if teammates expressed any disappointment in Rankine on Wednesday.
“That’s probably more for us internally,” he said.
“But again, he stood up in front of the group today, got amongst the group today, and just talked through where he’s at and what he wanted to see from our group.
“He’s just really keen for our guys to go and perform.
“He understands that we’re in that mode right now, we’re in the process of preparing for a game.
“And part of that is something we’ve done really well all year, is to be able to narrow in.
“In the finals, the noise around the game is even more than the regular season. Our guys have been locked in.”
Since last April, Rankine, Port Adelaide’s Jeremy Finlayson (three games), Gold Coast’s Wil Powell (five games), West Coast’s Jack Graham (four games) and two AFL-listed players in the VFL — Sydney’s Riak Andrew (five games) and St Kilda’s Lance Collard (six matches) — have been suspended for on-field homophobic comments.
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AAP
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