On the same night his Adelaide counterpart Brenton Sanderson was shown the door by the Crows, McCartney said the exit interviews he conducted were “normal”.
After eight wins last season, the Dogs had one less this year, with the season finishing with a disastrous upset loss to Greater Western Sydney.
McCartney spoke on Fairfax Radio to talk about the rumours, and denied veteran ruckman Will Minson stormed out of his end-of-season meeting.
"You do hear snippets. I am not one to lean on the back fence and gossip but it still filters back to us," McCartney said.
"Our end-of-year win-loss record was pretty disappointing and it was a messy last game (against Greater Western Sydney) and it wasn't a reflection of us.
"We did normal exit interviews and for some reason the feeling is those exit interviews are a surprise, but they are the culmination of ongoing chats through the year.
"Some of the interviews were pretty direct, but not just with individual players.
"We were pretty direct with how we reviewed, how we performed as a club and how we coached and how I coached and how we trained and prepared."
