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Under-age football is becoming too precious and the AFL’s new code for junior footballers is an act of political correctness gone mad.
At the start of the year the AFL, in conjunction with Deakin University research, developed new guidelines for junior football, with a philosophy of promoting participation rather than competition.
Children are banned from playing to win, keeping score, and giving best and fairest awards under the nation-wide changes made by the AFL.
This is condescending, perhaps even insulting, to the thousands of junior footballers who live and breathe the game.
Our over-protection of children is not just confined to the sporting world, but also something that is prevalent in the wider society. School reports make failure seem like a success and sports carnivals reward everyone with ribbons for simply participating.
There is nothing wrong with encouraging and celebrating participation, but where do you draw the line? Sporting champions credit overcoming failures as the backbone to their success.But children these days are missing out on valuable life lessons because they are not allowed to fail at anything.
The current cottonwool generation that promotes an ‘everyone’s a winner’ mentality is making children soft and failing to instil any resilience.
The AFL has become obsessed with participation numbers, but let’s face it, football is not for everyone. Modified rules may result in some of the more delicate children persisting with the sport, but it will only be a matter of time before they quit altogether.
We cannot shield children from the realities of life – such as disappointment or failure – and we should not remove the competition aspect from junior football.
AFL national development manager Josh Vanderloo said, “our research shows that kids play the game to have fun and not just to win.”
That may be true, to an extent, but while they may play the game for enjoyment and not “just to win”, it does not mean that scoreboards should be scrapped.
As a junior coach, if I told my kids that they were no longer playing for points they would be shattered.
This sentiment is echoed at the highest level with North Melbourne star Nick Dal Santo believing that children should be given the opportunity to deal with defeat.
“It’s a good lesson in life that things don’t always go your way,” he said.
“Learning to cope with winning and losing is an important part of a young footballer’s development and if I was at that age again I’d like to know if we were winning or losing a game.”
Commonsense needs to prevail when it comes to junior football.
Follow Jackson on Twitter @jclark182
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