Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks and Josh Rachele have both addressed the 21-year-old’s axing for Saturday night’s AFL clash with Sydney, following a week of controversy around the Crows young gun. Rachele faced backlash after joking that fans from their fierce rivals Port Adelaide were missing teeth, before sticking the boot in further when he pointed at his mouth during a goal celebration in the ill-tempered Showdown won by the Power.

There had been reports during the week that Rachele was facing the axe for Saturday night’s away game to ladder-leaders Sydney. And AFL great Garry Lyon was among those to warn the Crows that dropping Rachele could have a detrimental effect on the youngster. But after confirming that Rachele had been omitted from the Crows side to take on the Swans, Nicks said it was down to a failure to live up to ‘team-first’ standards and not the 21-year-old’s antics against the Power.

“It’s not isolated, it’s not a moment, it has got nothing to do with this week,” Nicks told reporters on Friday. “There’s a lot more to this than a period of time. It’s about values, about the standards that we are looking to uphold consistently. Central to that is being team first. Josh and I have had a number of conversations, that’s not isolated to recent events. This is something we’ve been working on for a long period of time, not just Josh and I, but the team and what is it we stand for.”

Rachele spoke to the media before training with his state league teammates on Friday morning and said he accepted the reasons for his axing. The 21-year-old also admitted he was “disappointed” and “very remorseful” about landing himself in the middle of controversy. “One of our main values as a club is prioritising others and it was something I didn’t do last week and over a couple of other things too.”