Is it positive that AFL players are seeking counselling?
Columnist By Melanie Dinjaski, 14 Apr 2011 Melanie Dinjaski is a Roar Expert
- Tagged:
- AFL, Ben Cousins, Brendan Fevola, counselling
One hundred and one (or one in seven) AFL players received a form of psychological help last year. When I first read Mark Stevens’ Herald Sun article, entitled ‘101 AFL players seek psychological help,’ I thought, “Good.” But on reflection, is this a good thing or a bad thing
Finally players are taking it upon themselves to realise that sometimes their lifestyle in professional AFL can bring on stress, depression and bad behaviour; it is neither healthy, nor acceptable and help is there, should they require it.
But then after re-reading the article, I thought, “Hang on, what does this actually mean?”
The counselling service, provided under the wellbeing program of the AFL Players’ Association, was introduced as a way for players experiencing such issues to overcome them privately, before they became public scandals splashed across back page dailies.
And to also extend a hand to those players who were struggling with the stresses that accompany professional AFL.
The problems that players sought counselling for included stress, relationship issues, anxiety, depression, gambling, low self-esteem and football performance.
There is certainly plenty to be worried about as an AFL player:
- The high expectations from the club, coach, fans, and sponsors.
- The intense schedule between playing, training and club duties.
- The code of behaviour. It’s no longer acceptable to be caught drunk, disorderly, inappropriate in public (or even in private). Life as an AFL player is to embrace life as a role model, whether warranted or not.
- The media, who will build you up, but pull you down just as easily, given the chance.
- The job security,when every 2-4 years your future is unknown.
The AFLPA is of course impressed by these numbers seeking help, but exactly what are they indicative of?
Is this a sad story, or a positive one?
The number of players that sought help did not include those who were advised (forced) by their club to undergo counselling as a form of penalty. But how many of them had a ‘moment’ which prompted them to seek help? It may not have made the news, and the club may not have known either, but without this catalyst, help may never have been sought at all.
That could be (and I do stress these are the worst case scenario examples) excessive partying or gambling which leads to a ‘near miss’, or maybe they over-extended themself in off-field commitments, to the point where it started affecting their on-field performance.
It is good to know that players are seeking counselling, because it means they are gaining a better understanding of what is expected of them in modern professional sport, and where they might need help.
However, I question whether this ‘moment’, equally troubling than the problem itself, will ever be avoided? Or maybe it is just a necessity of life – to make mistakes and learn from them?
The number of 101 players is quite astounding. How must we feel knowing that many players are struggling with the rigours of an AFL playing career?
Stevens points out in his article that almost half of those players who sought counselling were between the ages of 19-23.
Indeed depression and its associated psychological problems are better received today than in years gone by, accepted by society as legitimate health issues, and Generation Y in particular are more informed than ever before.
But earlier this year when Brendan Fevola announced on the AFL Footy Show that he had attempted suicide while suffering severe depression, AFL watchers everywhere, paused.
Some felt sorry for him, and hailed his bravery in speaking up.
Meanwhile others laughed; yet another pathetic excuse from a desperate man ousted by his AFL club and on his last legs as a professional footballer.
I wonder how many will laugh, and how many will sympathise with these 101 players.
Is this number an adequate, yet disturbing reflection of the immense pressure we put on AFL players today? Is this the AFL trying to prove that action is being taken in response to the numerous scandals that have rocked the sport?
Or is it just a case of better self diagnosis by the players, realising that they have a problem worth talking about?
I, myself, am still unsure how to interpret this story. Is it hype, or real life? PR or progress?
Recommend this story.
You can follow Melanie Dinjaski on Twitter @MelanieDinjaski.
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The Crowd Says (26) | Page 1 of Comments
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- AFL, Ben Cousins, Brendan Fevola, counselling
April 14th 2011 @ 9:14am
PaddyBoy said | April 14th 2011 @ 9:14am | Report comment
Did people really laugh when Fevola said that? Whatever the man did that’s pretty mean spirited.
This was a really interesting piece, you would think the half of players who are 19-23 would be having the counseling to manage the transitional phase between unknown and mega-famous. Would there be probably be significantly more in Melbourne than in Brisbane, because you would have cross-town rivals heckling you etc?
Does anyone know if this number is blown out as well by “counsellors” who are more psychological sports scientists, or is this number only boys who need help?
April 14th 2011 @ 9:56am
Jersey said | April 14th 2011 @ 9:56am | Report comment
Yeah a tough issue, and totally see your point Melanie. It’s great that players are able to receive and request counselling. However, surely just kicking a ball around should be the least stressful endeavour of most workplaces.
You make some good points, finals, constant demand to win, intense fitness regimes, and a total blackhole of time away from the game for most, with few having hobbies or places they can go publicly without being harassed (slight exaggeration for most AFL players, but certainly for the elite)
April 14th 2011 @ 9:58am
PaddyBoy said | April 14th 2011 @ 9:58am | Report comment
Yeah, but it isn’t kicking the ball around that’s stressful, it’s getting heckled in the street I would hate. Imagine if you were a plumber, but had an entire city that you lived in scrutinizing you at work eery day, and fans of rival plumbers giving you grief in the street, wouldn’t be too fun.
April 14th 2011 @ 11:35am
Sherrin-Burley-Faulkner said | April 14th 2011 @ 11:35am | Report comment
Yep, that could make a lot of plumbers crack.
April 14th 2011 @ 4:30pm
Handles O'Love said | April 14th 2011 @ 4:30pm | Report comment
gold
April 15th 2011 @ 9:50am
Bayman said | April 15th 2011 @ 9:50am | Report comment
And that’s a “Yes” from me!
April 14th 2011 @ 10:15am
Bayman said | April 14th 2011 @ 10:15am | Report comment
While the numbers are interesting, and in some ways worrying, the expression “harden up” comes to mind. The problem with those in the 19-23 age bracket is probably more to do with the modern syndrome of having everyone tell them how wonderful they are, and how entitled they are and them believing it. Proud mums and dads can be a bit of a worry.
Then, suddenly, along comes some hard-nosed defender who thinks junior entitled to jack all and is only too happy to tell him “You’re not that good after all”. Imagine the shock and trauma emanating from that nasty experience. Either that or the player is suddenly exposed to a coach under the pump who is less than caring about the terminology he uses to describe their efforts. Another shock after all those kind words from mum and dad.
This story is really about the damage society is perpetuating on the young by suppressing all forms of criticism as “negative” and lacking “positive reinforcement”. The upshot is these guys who can do no wrong – no matter how many times they do – as kids are now in a professional environment where only the result matters and any short comings will be exposed to the coaching staff, the teammates and the general public and they will not forgive as easily as mum.
These guys have clearly never been kicked up the backside before and every tiny disappointment, which previous generations sailed through, took on the chin and kept going, now assumes monumental proportions. Previous generations, of course, had their failures pointed out to them and learnt to cope accordingly. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!
Every generation, mind you, had its failures and by that I mean people who simply could not cope. They retired, became drug or alcohol dependant, committed suicide, had mental breakdowns, disappeared. It’s called life.
Blame the environment, the parents, the teachers, the government, the DNA or the guy next door. Today, however, we cannot possibly blame the individual. It’s never his fault.
Unfortunately, when he fails to go hard at the ball when it’s his turn then, well, it is his fault. And everybody in the vicinity, including his coaches will remind him of exactly that. Mum might have told him that if the kick had been better he would not have been in that situation. The coach will just give it to him with both barrels.
Only those in the “shrink” profession, or the AFLPA, could possibly see this as a good news story. The numbers are simply too great to be impressed by this as anything but a massive negative. The time for stroking is long gone, time to kick some bum and toughen these guys up.
April 14th 2011 @ 11:30am
Fussball ist unser leben said | April 14th 2011 @ 11:30am | Report comment
Excellent commentary, Bayman – 100% agree with everything you’ve written.
Only this week, the Insight program on SBS TV had a very good discussion on “narcissistic personality disorder”.
Prof Keith Campbell, who is the head of Behavioural and Brain Sciences at the University of Georgia and co-author of a book:The Narcissism Epidemic stated, amongst other things:
“Well I think one thing we’ve done in parenting over the years is spend a lot of time trying to give our kids self esteem directly, rather than let self esteem grow on its own.
So rather than have self esteem grow from relationships and from sort of achievement and success over time, what we’ve done is told our kids they’re special, they’re unique, they’re wonderful and that’s been problematic I think.
So it’s not the self esteem that’s the problem, it’s just trying to give it through specialness, through really doing whatever the child wants, basically spoiling kids. And the schools are doing this as well – I don’t think it’s parents, I think the schools are really where this has taken off.”
I get the feeling the modern AFL Draft system, too, reinforces this. Kids at the age of 16-17 are being told they are “elite” when they haven’t done anything apart from being good junior players. In football, even guys like Ronaldo, Beckham, Messi would have started at the bottom when they joined the club. They would have cleaned the boots of the senior team members and had to earn the respect of the older lads.
If you have an interest in this subject, I highly recommend reading the whole transcript from the program, or you can also watch the video here: http://news.sbs.com.au/insight/episode/index/id/366/Narcissism#transcript
April 14th 2011 @ 10:23pm
Fake ex-AFL fan said | April 14th 2011 @ 10:23pm | Report comment
Unsurprisingly nasty & unsympathetic response from you Fossy. Of course it’s the AFL that’s the problem, whilst soccer players could never be accused of being narcissistic.
Is there anything you can’t try to turn into a code war?
April 15th 2011 @ 2:49am
amazonfan said | April 15th 2011 @ 2:49am | Report comment
What can you expect? This is an Australian Football thread, and Fussball only ever posts to either denigrate the sport or regarding his obsession with the annual report and ratings.
April 15th 2011 @ 9:48am
Bayman said | April 15th 2011 @ 9:48am | Report comment
amazon and Fake AFL,
To be fair to Fussball I don’t really think he tried to turn this into a code war. The fact you think he did goes to show how sensitive we’ve all become in recent years. Time to see a shrink!
All he was saying is that even the greatest soccer players, when they join their clubs at 15, 16 whatever, are made to be the apprentices to all the masters.
This means they have to clean the boots, sweep the changerooms, do all the hack work and be treated like the juniors they really are. They start at the bottom and earn the right to get someone else to clean their boots.
It teaches character, it toughens them up, they learn to deal with disappointment long before they step on the pitch with the first team – by which time they are usually ready.
They are not, unlike the AFL draftees, treated as if they are all the next Chris Judd or Wayne Carey. Consequently, they usually have a more balanced view of reality.
There are, of course, guys who fall into the “complete idiot” category like Wayne Rooney. These are the Fevola types who get way too much money, way too soon in life and suddenly think their sh*t doesn’t stink. They are also, usually, complete thick heads are are too dumb to realise how lucky they are and, eventually, they often manage to f**k it up. They become “victims”!
If only I could care!
April 14th 2011 @ 9:07pm
Wayne maumasi said | April 14th 2011 @ 9:07pm | Report comment
I hear what you are saying.
What has been overlook is the % of players needed counseling to overcome issues for sexual abuse or homosexuality and other social deficiency that fall out of mainstream society.
Those issues maybe taboo in a team environment but nonetheless they require sensitive treatment. Performing on the big stage is an outlet for these players, its after the siren when loneliness along with the feeling of being an outcast starts to set in.
It was mention that a former Origin Great suffer from abuse only to take his life shortly after his football career. What is available now may have been avoided all those years ago with proper treatment.
Please excuse me if I have offended anyone who might find the above confronting but its also called life. Inside the athletic arena is their escape to display masculinely and fearless behavior only to be prop by the adoring fans follow by the drive home and self doubting thoughts.
April 15th 2011 @ 10:27am
Bayman said | April 15th 2011 @ 10:27am | Report comment
Wayne,
I have no doubt there are those, in the circumstances you describe for instance, who do genuinely need some help through no fault of their own. Full sympathy for those people.
However, this article mentions one in seven AFL players who have sought help. One in seven! Compared to those to whom you refer most of the one in seven have the equivalent of a stubbed toe!
It is these guys to whom I am referring when I say, “Harden up”. What seems life threatening to my “softies” is bugger all of a problem for the guys of whom you write – guys with real issues.
April 14th 2011 @ 10:21pm
Fake ex-AFL fan said | April 14th 2011 @ 10:21pm | Report comment
I think this is taking things a little too far Bayman. We simply don’t know enough about why these individuals have sought assistance to start inferring that it’s because they can’t cope with criticism.
Ironically given your calls for these young men to ‘harden up’, a campaign has just been launched calling on Aussie men to “soften the f— up” and be more open about mental health issues they may be facing.
http://www.news.com.au/national/online-campaigner-ehon-chan-urges-men-to-soften-the-f-up-to-raise-awareness-about-mens-mental-health-issues/story
April 15th 2011 @ 9:37am
Bayman said | April 15th 2011 @ 9:37am | Report comment
Fake ex-AFL fan,
Can’t cope with criticism, never had anybody say “No” to them, being told all their life they are great only to find out they’re not, being told touchy-feely is a good thing and a step up the evolutionary chain – who knows why they seek approval…..because that’s what it really is.
As for the new(?) “soften the f-up” campaign, I’m not surprised. It just tells me my opinion was right in the first place. When there are so many people making a living out of the fact that others seem to struggle, and forever telling folk they ARE struggling, why wouldn’t there be those forever telling us we need help – their help! I’ll bet you can’t “soften” up without consulting a “professional”.
We are pandering to these people and making them feel their concerns are legitimate and something should be done. And we are allowing all the shrinks with an agenda to dominate the discusion. Self preservation is their driving force – the last thing they want are stable, secure people.
As for me taking things too far, I don’t think so. I thought I pulled back a bit. Perhaps because I don’t really care if we can’t save everybody. We live in a pampered, protected society where it is an offence to even cut down a tree. F***king spare me! Do you think people in Africa, South America, Central America or Asia gives a rats about the mental wellbeing of someone whose wife left him, is an alcoholic or has a gambling addiction brought on by having too much money and too much time on his hands? Or got a rocket from his footy coach?
No, they don’t because they’re too busy just trying to survive. They may be poor but they’re a f**k site tougher than most of us and they don’t need a psychologist to get through the day.
If some poor AFL player falls over because he cannot cope then he should have thought about that before he signed on. They have a draft every year which allows those guys to disappear and get replaced by someone stronger and better. Survival of the fittest. Still practised, to a point, in the AFL but not in society in general.
Of course, our footy “shrinks” are trying to change that as well.
April 15th 2011 @ 1:33pm
Mick Gold Coast QLD said | April 15th 2011 @ 1:33pm | Report comment
Give it plenty Bayman ‘cos, as it happens, you are quite right.
“Do you think people in … Asia … gives a rats … No … they’re too busy just trying to survive”
That’s where Mrs Mick is from and that is how they live, simply getting on with the job. I see it when we visit her little village (an island paradise) in which families live 3 generations in tiny homes and smile grandly at their good fortune. Chooks peck at the ground near children not in AS rated full cover protective suits, waiting for the 13 year old niece to lop their head off, drain and pluck them for dinner (after being told just once to do so). Infants learn by watching her, then back to play in the dust.
Barely teenage boys and girls shin up a tree to gather coconuts 25 feet up with thongs on their feet and without signing a Work Method Statement or donning their orange hi-vis with night stripes. No ropes either.
Even after 20 plus years here she is astonished at reactions to the QLD floods, with grown women in purpose built community centres BEFORE the event sobbing their eyes out at what MIGHT happen! Rich football sooks don’t even get rated.
Her region gets 4 times our annual rainfall, several serious typhoons happen each year and they simply pile their chattels on the top floor and live there ’til the flood subsides. Our nieces & nephews walk to their tiny school up to their chest in water because if they don’t attend their aunt who pays mysteriously knows, from thousands of miles away!
They never see a “government” coming to help let alone an “SES.” The wife spent 3 months last Christmas rebuilding the damage to two homes – a dozen of ‘em giggling and singing as they mixed and laid concrete old style – but most families there cannot afford to do more than patch it up with the sort of materials we throw away at the tip because they’re no longer shiny new. If the roof goes they go to find it in the paddock, bring it back and nail it on again. When they can afford the nails.
With that experience I laugh so at the dependency, expectation and outrage we trot out despite being surrounded by truly fabulous conditions. A failed should be multi millionaire with a fantastic tale of attempted suicide? The elders there (who understood risking something tangible as they came down from their jungle hideouts as boys, to slit the throats of invaders) would point to the little jetty and say “You catch boat to your home now please.”
I recall my first visit eons ago an elder coming from his house as I passed – in broken English “I have been told you are a good man. I have come to find out for myself. You will come in for coffee now.” My own modern culture says I ought to have burst into tears for his confrontational judgementalism, sued him for hurtful invasion of privacy and demanded he ring my lawyer to arrange neutral ground for the coffee.
April 17th 2011 @ 5:08pm
Bayman said | April 17th 2011 @ 5:08pm | Report comment
Mick,
I think your story should be a wakeup call to all of us here in Australia who have developed an increased expectation. Somebody once famously said, “A privilege granted soon becomes a right”
In this country we have been given so much that it now turns out that someone is at fault if it does not keep happening. As more things are given and supplied, so the expectation rises. The other side of that coin is that outrage increases when the expectation is not met.
Why won’t people just let me do what I damn well please? I am, after all, entitled. Now, I don’t mind if someone here, a Fevola for example, wants to make a complete idiot of himself after being given more opportunity than any normal person has a right to expect.
Just don’t ask me to feel sorry for him. Or to give a damn if he steps off a cliff. We all die sooner or later and I just don’t really care if he dies earlier than most. He’ll be forgotten by next footy season. Now that’s life!
April 18th 2011 @ 12:58am
amazonfan said | April 18th 2011 @ 12:58am | Report comment
“Just don’t ask me to feel sorry for him. Or to give a damn if he steps off a cliff. We all die sooner or later and I just don’t really care if he dies earlier than most. He’ll be forgotten by next footy season. Now that’s life!”
I think that is a really nasty attitude to take. You may not ‘give a damn’ if Fevola steps off a cliff or care if he dies earlier than most, however he has friends and family who absolutely do care. Fevola isn’t a murderer; he’s just a footballer, and I think that attitude is disgusting.
You don’t have to feel sorry for everyone- make no mistake about it, there are plenty of people who would be willing to adopt this attitude towards you- however to write it on a site like this is IMO disgusting. Oh, and he will never be forgotten.
BTW, has it occurred to you that Fevola isn’t seeking your sympathy? You say ‘don’t ask me to feel sorry for him’, but who has asked you to do so? He certainly hasn’t; he hasn’t asked anyone to feel sorry for him. But, hey, if it makes you feel so tough to be as cold as this, go ahead, although don’t pretend that it is life.
April 15th 2011 @ 12:03am
Mick Gold Coast QLD said | April 15th 2011 @ 12:03am | Report comment
You’re making way too much sense Bayman. You’ll be done for “uncompassionate” if you’re not careful.
On the “professional” help: I had a couple as neighbours for several years – he a psychiatrist and her a psychologist – and they were as loopy as you can imagine. They were burgled a couple of times and they ran in circles with absolutely no idea what to do. Simple matters were so alien to them. Their children became quite mad too.
Recently I accompanied a niece to an interview with an “industrial psychologist.” In the objective professions – engineering, limb lopper-offers, mathematicians – there is a bridge span, a busted arm or an equation that can be dealt with right or wrong. Black or white stuff.
These other “professions” have no such rigour and, in the absence of real measures of effectiveness, they churn out graduates with the commonsense educated out of them clutching a multiple choice sheet to find the closest sized round hole in which to jam the square peg.
And that is exactly what this visit to the “industrial psychologist” demonstrated. She could not hear what her “victim’s” words were saying because she was distracted so by the little box ticks on her sheet of paper. There was no considered advice because she had no special or unique skill to offer as a solution to the problem. Her job income was in direct proportion to the number of client visits completed.
So, as in so many shifts in emphasis over time in things commercial, when I look at the focus placed by these sports on counselling I say follow the money. Problem solvers have no need to be there, and no income, unless they can identify problems to be solved. I think rugby league payed something like a million dollars for someone to stand at the front of the room and say “Do not rape women.”
A son in law, a sports physio, smiles as he tells me that he never solves the problem in one visit, even when he can. Good money trumps altruism every time.
April 15th 2011 @ 10:03am
Bayman said | April 15th 2011 @ 10:03am | Report comment
Mick,
Uncompassionate doesn’t even begin to cover it – and I have been called that already by a Roarer or two. On the other hand I quite like children and small animals. Go figure!
April 14th 2011 @ 2:28pm
TomC said | April 14th 2011 @ 2:28pm | Report comment
Melanie, I suggest you try and write opinion pieces with fewer questions in them. It makes it very difficult to understand what point you are trying to make.
April 15th 2011 @ 9:55am
Melanie Dinjaski said | April 15th 2011 @ 9:55am | Report comment
That’s just it though TomC. For me, this news raises more questions than it answers…
April 15th 2011 @ 11:09am
TomC said | April 15th 2011 @ 11:09am | Report comment
Many of them are completely unnecessary though!
Instead of ‘Is this number an adequate, yet disturbing reflection of the immense pressure we put on AFL players today?’, you could write ‘This could be a reflection of the immense pressure we put on AFL players today.’
After all, in that line you’re suggesting an answer, not posing a question.
April 14th 2011 @ 10:11pm
andy g said | April 14th 2011 @ 10:11pm | Report comment
one in five of us will suffer some form of mental illness. the rate is higher for young men. higher again if u consider that young men are the least likely to report mental illness. so either clubs are looking after player welfare effectively and the rate is lower than the population – or the complete opposite is true. player welfare is not looked after and the reason the rate is lower than the population is because players are not reporting.
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April 14th 2011 @ 10:17pm
Trust Me said | April 14th 2011 @ 10:17pm | Report comment
It would be a very positive thing, if the counseling was actually getting results.
Melanie,
do you think the behaviour of AFL players on and off the field is improving or getting worse?
April 15th 2011 @ 10:02am
Melanie Dinjaski said | April 15th 2011 @ 10:02am | Report comment
That’s a very difficult thing to answer Trust Me. If I went by the news in recent years, I’d say it’s getting worse. But that would be naive. Who’s to say such things didn’t happen back in the day – the convergent media was there to capture it ALL, but surely it would have happened. I don’t know if its getting better either, for the same reason. What is the control example? We don’t know.
Right about now though, there is a knee-jerk reaction to all the AFL scandals. The AFL implementing this, that, and the other program to teach players about proper behaviour, inappropriate behaviour, and assisting them with support services should they need it. In my opinion, these programs are mostly just about common sense, and I’d like to think most players know how to act in public, and not cause a stir, but unfortunately, growing up around a football culture can make that difficult, and I do understand that. I’m more about the school of life, than life counselling, but for some people that works for them, and if they’ve no other avenue, well then, great.
Whether this is just the AFL trying to say they’re doing something about it, I don’t know. Or whether it shows how messed up AFL culture is making players, I don’t know. Maybe its a bit of both?