It seems the days of footballers behaving badly may finally be coming to an end. The success of the Sydney Swans and their ‘no dickheads’ policy has shown that a strong and positive culture is worth as much as a high tech training centre, or a killer right boot.
Sport is reacting. Dayle Garlett, the talented young West Australian footballer, was overlooked by all clubs in the AFL Draft due to some previous off field issues, even though he had been rated as a potential top ten pick.
Established footballers such as Jason Gram and Kyle Reimers, both of whom had their discipline off the park questioned, have been left homeless.
Dustin Martin, Dane Swan and Sam Fisher, all key players for their clubs, have had their characters called in to question in the media.
On the other hand, as I pointed out earlier, the Sydney Swans won a flag based on a strong culture that they have worked hard to maintain.
The “no dickheads” policy meant that the Swans became the feel good team of the league.
They won a flag with a lot of good players, an ageing superstar, and a strong work ethic and belief across the team.
Then there is the story of Andrew Krakour, who went to jail, served his time, and still came back as a good player, and perhaps, a better person.
Compare these examples to that of Quade Cooper. He came out, sledged his coach and team, and (shock horror!) the ARU offered him a contract that means he can’t just turn up and get paid. He actually has to earn it.
Cooper has to be selected, and to be selected, he needs to fit into the team.
As Peter FitzSimons wrote last week, Cooper needed someone to sit him down and pull his head in. Instead, he is going off to become the next Mohammed Ali.
It probably doesn’t help Quade Cooper’s situation that he is being compared to the likes of David Pocock and Nathan Sharpe, who are notable for their extremely strong morals and work ethic respectively.
Pocock’s story of his turbulent years in Zimbabwe and subsequent move to Australia is inspiring stuff, as are his views and way of living.
Sharpe’s determination and pride in the Gold top will be sorely missed. It is the sort of moral strength you can build a strong team culture around.
Cricket has not escaped the disciplinary zeitgeist either. The Marsh brothers, Shaun and Mitchell, are the most recent controversy, when they were disciplined and dropped from the T20 Champions League for drinking before the game.
The swiftness of the discipline was impressive. Shaun had been previously suspended for drinking in 2007. How would a young Shane Warne, beer, smokes and all, fare today?
There are of course positive characters in the NRL – Will Hopoate, who is following his religious beliefs, and retiring great Nathan Hindmarsh, who has always been a great influence on the game, immediately come to mind.
However, they are greatly outweighed by the playground of problem children the NRL is forced to babysit.
The point is that athletes are no longer worth just their athletic ability, and organisations are starting to realise this.
The 24 hour media cycle means that bad eggs are now a real liability, and it is a lot harder to sweep things under the carpet.
Readers will feast on a scandal, and give the organisation a bad reputation. In terms of tangible evidence, they can cost memberships, sponsorship dollars, and fines.
The handling of Brendon Fevola should have been a lesson for everyone. Carline Wilson pointed out two important factors in her recent article “AFL needs to help men in trouble”.
One is that the problems that footballers have are problems which blight the lives of young men right across society.
Secondly, these troubled men should not be ignored, but helped, without using the sport as a personal rehab centre.
Strong cultures are created by inventing, writing and standardising factors like club identity, beliefs, morals, proper behaviours, rituals, heroes and icons.
They are sustained by the people you bring in and what you teach them.
Strong sporting culture can and should be used as a tool to bring sustained success, on and off the field. This success can be measured in morals, dollars and trophies.
The_Wookie
Roar Guru
no idea dbswannie, to paraphrase the bible though, some people are more likely to go for the stick in someones eye than the log in their own. cant see the forest for the trees etc etc.
db swannie
Guest
Fair point wookie.No matter what sport ,when young men(& some are not too bright)are put on pedestals & have far more money than most their age ,then you will find the idiocy surfaces. But why then do AFL fans have to continually bring up past incidents in NRL,yet wont accept what players in their sport get up to? Maybe a few of the AFL fans on here should do some checking before posting. . The antics of sports people will always make news.
The_Wookie
Roar Guru
It is worth noting that AFL players have proven incredibly adept at getting themselves into trouble over the years. I dont think NRL players are worse, in fact I dont think players of any code are worse than the other. On a purely percentage basis, we're likely to find similar numbers of incidents per code. Its young men with too much money, and an attitude of invincibility. Remember, that NRL player incidents arent reported much outside of NSW and QLD, limiting exposure to The Telegraph, Sydney Morning Herald and The Courier Mail chiefly. In contrast, The AFL has a much wider MEDIA reach, media in "AFL states" will report on it to sell papers with one slant, and media in NSW and QLD will report it with glee. Its the downside of achieving blanket media coverage. The same can go for Soccer and its incidents where the media delights in reporting on crowd incidents, while ignoring that similar things go unreported in the larger codes all the time.
db swannie
Guest
So you are throwing up names from yrs ago & comparing what they did(bad as it was no one was harmed) with a machete attack on a person.wow That is mind boggingly bizzare..If you want past names how about model citizen Dane Swan who with help from 2 mates bashed a cleaner & then refusedto pay court ordered compo...He is lauded as a heor in AFL ...Hoppa was never treated like a hero. Seriously what alternate reality do you live in & as for examples ,just look at the off season,Fireman Holland with his assualt,a player stalking a woman ,A king hitter in WA(newman). Apart from the bulldogs ,the NRL players have been low profile.(Seems the only thing AFL fans can bring up is the past.the present is not a rosy picture in AFL land) My main gripe is with the utter rot Anthony said, Read it & see if you can see the contradiction. "All things considered, AFL players are generally good examples. Remembering the appalling behavior of some NRL players a few years back, the AFL’s initiatives in social responsibility have made it the leader in Australian sport" Why mention NRL ?.& then try to praise the AFL ,when AFL player behaviour is worse. & feel free michael to list NRL player bad behavour from 2012..I can guarantee that the list of AFL behaviour wil be longer. & i know it is in code war territory ,but when straight out BS is posted by the cheersquad then RL fans should be allowed a reply.
Brendan
Guest
Geelong have led the way in recent years in dealing with player problems.Steve Johnson in 07 suspended for 6 weeks by the club reforms his behaviour and wins the Norm Smith medal in the same year.Matty Stokes cocaine arrest a few years back and after a club imposed suspension hasn't put a foot wrong.Jesse Stringer this season was banned from the senior team for an off field matter knuckled down in the Vfl and has been elevated to the senior list.It is important for all team sports to have a culture that espouses what is the correct behaviour and as importantly sets in place policies enabling players who trangress to learn how to do the right thing. Stkilda have had there share of off-field issues in recent times but IMO tend to alienate the player who has done wrong in a blame game scenario that doesn't help anyone.
Michael
Guest
If he did some research? Please mate throw me some examples of this 4 to 1? None of them are angels, but blokes like Hopoate, Nate Myles and of course Joel Monaghan do make the Ben cousins and Liam jurra's of the world look angelic. The fact is, most rugby league players (and fans) come from the one demographic, and that particular demographic has a real knack for making stupid decisions.
TC
Guest
She's a smart woman. She made the very early call that Posh would drag the whole family to New York, and that's looking like a good bet. You can't beat beauty and brains - I hit the jackpot. TC
JVGO
Guest
I agree with your wife.
Matt Simpson
Roar Guru
oh no deebhoy I didnt think you were having a go, I just wasn't sure if you were unhappy with the message or the messenger.If people think that the press is a bit AFL friendly now though, wait until the league has a media centre controlling ALL the stories coming out...
deebhoy
Guest
good call tc about the afl related press.plenty of people on here believe the popularity of the afl is a myth conjured up by the afl centric melbourne press.they need to take time and read it
deebhoy
Guest
matt i wasnt having a go at ur article even tho i dont totally agree with you but quoting caroline wilson is what got me fired up.youre right,a good culture at any football club is very important getting back to wilson tho she's just been at it again in regards to dane swan.how the age let here get away with it is beyond me.she hasnt got a single insightful thing to say.all her stories are designed to start s#*t and she hasnt got anything to back her up.nathan buckleys tweet said it all. with regards to recreational drugs in sport i reckon most fans couldnt care less if theyre players toked ona spliff or did a few lines on the weekend as long as theyre playong well on gameday.that being said west coast showed how it can go to far
db swannie
Guest
Anthony wrote All things considered, AFL players are generally good examples. Remembering the appalling behavior of some NRL players a few years back, the AFL’s initiatives in social responsibility have made it the leader in Australian sport Wow Biggest load of tripe written on here in the last yr. How mods can let the AFL cheersquad post utter tripe is astonishing. The constant chest beating about AFL "angels "& how wonderful they are compared to NRL players is sickening. If you did some research Anthony ,you would find that AFL player behaviour incidents in the last few yrs are well ahead of NRL ,sometimes by about four to One.. But that doesnt matter ,as long as the perception of AFL good ,NRL bad is bandied around.. Maybe NRL players should use the "I wanna Be a Fireman "defence.. Works well in Victoria.
Matt Simpson
Roar Guru
deebhoy, do you think that there is no problem, and the story is false, or that wilson is just making unfounded allegations, regardless of how close she is to the mark?
TC
Guest
Interestingly, I can't remember who it was, but when Campo was caught out questioning the capacity of a female to ask the hard questions in rugby, someone put up Caroline Wilson's name as an example of a female journo (and sports editor no less) who is not afraid to upset people in chasing a story. The bit I find more interesting is that many on these pages honestly believe that the AFL related press is far too obliging to the AFL. TC
deebhoy
Guest
caroline wilson is a joke,a complete s*$t stirrer with nothing to back up the crap she spins. she's a blight on football journalisim and an embarrassment to the AFL and football in general
TC
Guest
Yes, and I can vouch for the veracity of that. I feel that my brain only became fully developed well into my 40s. My wife, however, feels that it still has some way to go. TC
Strummer Jones
Guest
It is not astonishing. The frontal lobe of the brain has not fully developed until you are 30, and it is slower to develop in males than females (thus drunken behaviour, drink driving, and other stupid decisions). I lifted the following from Wiki: "The executive functions of the frontal lobes involve the ability to recognize future consequences resulting from current actions, to choose between good and bad actions (or better and best), override and suppress socially unacceptable responses, and determine similarities and differences between things or events." and... "In humans, the frontal lobe reaches full maturity around only after the 20s, marking the cognitive maturity associated with adulthood." Thanks once again for joining us for another episode of "Biology Revisited"
andyincanberra
Guest
G'day Anthony, regarding the Garlett situation, I think what the recruiters were looking at was the fact that he couldn't control himself over the period of a few days at the draft camp. Days when he must have known that the eyes of all AFL recruiters would have been on him. He needed to prove he could hit the ground running at an AFL club. Hopefully this has been a wakeup call for him. It looks as though he'll be going to Essendon as a rookie.
Matt Simpson
Roar Guru
Christo and TC, I believe your both correct, but I think a young man is more likely to be deeply influenced by a whole group of teamates who act in the right manner rather then a set class when they misbehave like schoolboys.Hence why culture is so important. It is basically positive peer pressure.
Timmuh
Roar Guru
Anthony, I'm not sure when you were a teenager but it was "this bad" in most repects, slightly worse in some and slightly better in others. The difference was that the media didn't develop an unhealthy appetite for personal lives generally, and for the personal lives of sportspeople in particular reference to this forum. People probably carried weapons less, but depending where and when you were a teenager/early20s fights in pubs, racism, inappropriate sexual behaviour, etc, were probably more common but either were not the focus of the media ot were not seen as a problem (some of the things in terms of behavour that can land a person in hot water now were considered poor form but part of life even in the 1980s and 1990s).