BRENTON Sanderson's inability to properly communicate with Adelaide's playing group played a significant role in his undoing.

Speaking as he entered a board meeting, Crows chairman Rob Chapman said on Thursday communication was a key area missing from Sanderson's arsenal as a senior coach.

Chapman said he would endorse Sanderson's move to another club, insisting that he had many assets as a coach.

But he said the outgoing coach's failure to communicate to those within the football club meant he wasn't the right fit at West Lakes.

"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 but 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."

Brenton Sanderson and Adelaide players walk from the field after a loss this year. Picture: AFL Media




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.

But he said the amount the club would pay out was less than the reported figures of $1 million and above.  

Peter Ryan reports: Adelaide will be forced to include Sanderson's contract in its 2015 and 2016 football department expenditure unless it can convince the AFL that exceptional circumstances exist. 

That could hamper the Crows' plan to beef up their football department as the AFL introduces new competitive balance measures to curb the inflationary growth in spending and eliminate waste. 

Under new competitive balance measures due to take effect in 2015, AFL clubs will be subject to a luxury tax if they spend above a soft cap imposed on the football department. 

The AFL has been determined to rein in the inflationary spend occurring in football departments with at least $3 million being spent paying out sacked coaches since 2010.