How many players and coaches attended the former Reserve Bank governor, Ian Macfarlane’s ‘Mosman Address’ on Friday June 10, 2011?
If you didn’t, it doesn’t matter because The Sydney Morning Herald’s economics writer, Ross Gittens, reported on it for you (SMH 13th June’11:4-5). Gittens’ story is just as relevant to sport as it is in the world of economics.
Essentially, Macfarlane is advocating less reporting of news, views and statistics about the economy for reason that the multitude of ‘expert’ information and commentary is very likely to be exaggerated, reactive to one-off events, feed scepticism, and increase uncertainty.
It is painfully clear that avalanches of ‘expert’ sports commentaries suffer the same malady, especially when finals approach.
We are told that players have new-found beliefs, courage, commitment and so on, some games have, all of a sudden, become wondrous, and we get running tallies of who has and who has not got the ‘x-factor’ (in an attempt to justify some exposition).
At this stage of competitions, this is typical of any sport, as scrums of eager beavers offer their fearless predictions; regularly, based on a single match result, and quite often, a single play!
The old adage ‘one result does not another make’ is very quickly forgotten, and as Gittens and many others have pointed out, “more frequent information about a particular thing may stop us seeing the wood for the trees”.
And so it is with many of those making comment on sport, when they put aside logical thinking and succumb to the moment.
As soon as any sport, organization, team or broadcaster brings in yet another expert, two things will surely happen. The first priority of the expert is to justify their appointment, and to retain their position, they become reluctant to do anything that goes too far beyond the bounds of conventional ways.
Making a mistake is always seen as a greater risk than not making changes. Hence, a lot of play becomes risk-averse and therefore, agonizingly familiar; and that is also why commentators and broadcasters always parrot the same old descriptions using well-worn cliches.
The main effect of too much dogma (other people’s thinking and waffle) is to stifle curiosity, and psychology literature strongly suggests that those with low levels of curiosity are the first to doubt their ability.
Under the pressure of competition, the distraction of doubt can spread like wildfire.
Surely the x-factor in any winning combination is not yielding to the hype and tripe! As finals approach, one sure test is to ask the question – what affects players and coaches more – the prospect of a win or a loss?
(Hint: watch for chop and change in team selections, glib talk-up and talk-down, and, reverting to the safety of risk-averse game-plans).
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.
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