Adelaide chief executive Tim Silvers has offered a formal apology to Sydney counterpart Tom Harley after the Swans were branded “a bit of a rabble” by Crows defender Wayne Milera.

Sydney were hammered by 90 points on their home ground on Saturday night, with coach Dean Cox himself describing the loss as “unacceptable and embarrassing”.

But Adelaide felt their player crossed a line in his post-match interview.

“You could sort of feel it as a group ... they were sort of a bit of a rabble, just hearing them on the ground,” Milera told the ABC.

Clearly alluding to the on-field struggles of an injury-hit and undermanned Swans side, Milera was praised by fans for his honesty.

But he was also accused of being disrespectful by Richmond great Jack Riewoldt, with Crows officials evidently falling on that side of the debate.

“Tim Silvers felt so compelled about those comments that he called up Tom Harley and made a formal apology on behalf of Wayne Milera and the club,” 7NEWS Melbourne’s Xander McGuire said on Sunday Footy Feast.

“He reiterated that it wasn’t the Adelaide Crows’ view that Sydney Swans were, in fact, a rabble. Tom Harley accepted that apology.”

Sunday Footy Feast co-host Campbell Brown scoffed at the news.

“God forbid you are too honest in an interview,” the Hawthorn premiership player said.

“That’s such weak leadership as far as I’m concerned. Do you know who the rabble is now? Adelaide for having to come out and apologise.”

AFLW All Australian Kate McCarthy agreed.

“The fact they’ve basically undermined their own player there to come out — yes, they’ve obviously had a conversation — but that did not need to be apologised for,” she said.

“We want that from players. He didn’t at any point make that personal. They were unorganised, they were a rabble — I think Sydney would have almost admitted that.

“That is absolutely ridiculous.”

McGuire then revealed that while Harley accepted the apology, the Swans in truth felt there was “no harm done and play on”.

Kept to one goal in the opening half, Sydney conceded 12 straight majors on the way to a 21.5 (131) to 5.11 (41) loss.

Sydney’s finals chances are slim, sitting in 14th (4-8) at the halfway mark of the season, and Cox cut a frustrated figure in his post-match assessment.

A reminder of the team-first ethos that netted the club’s first premiership in 72 years, given at half-time with a lap of honour by the 2005 side, only compounded their woes.

“I didn’t expect that on such a massive night for the footy club, when you have a 20-year reunion for a team that played desperate, uncompromising, ruthless football,” Cox said.

“That was far from it.”

West Coast great Cox is no stranger to Sydney’s Bloods ethos, with the six-time All-Australian ruck’s last-gasp kick famously marked by Leo Barry in the final seconds of the low-scoring 2005 grand final.

But the first-year coach conceded he was left questioning if he had done enough.

“Yeah, maybe not,” Cox said.

“That’s where you’ve got to reflect on everything within the program, and it starts with me.

“We are going to fight our way through this.

“And there’s going to be no easy way through it. I said to them (the players), expect some tough sessions. That’ll happen.”

- with AAP