On Monday, I had the privilege of attending the AFL Players Association’s Player Induction Camp for new draftees, held at Etihad Stadium.
It was a privilege because it’s not often that one gets the opportunity to see the cream of the competition’s young crop together at the beginning of their AFL journey.
It was difficult not to gaze upon this select group of young footballers and wonder what fate has in store for each player.
Some of these kids will never play a senior game. Chronic injury, disillusionment with the relentless nature of life as a full-time professional athlete, poor relationships with individual coaches, being at the wrong club, or simply being not good enough, will ensure a sad end to a dream they thought had been realised when their names were called on draft day. The average AFL career is only 4.8 years long.
Others will be given time to make it due to their exquisite talent or pedigree.
And there will be the few – not necessarily the most talented – who immediately traverse the yawning gap between TAC Cup and the AFL, seemingly with ease.
The Association’s camp, which is in its 12th year, is hosted mainly by former players and gives the draftees – former teammates and friends – an opportunity to reunite after being pulled apart at the National Draft and dressed in the uniform of their opposing teams.
More importantly, they gather not as representatives of their clubs but as a single entity.
The players attended sessions on topics ranging from the dangers of social media to off-field development and financial management.
For the session entitled The Art of Well Being, there was a board attached to the wall revealing the secrets to a healthy balanced life by current prominent players. Not surprisingly, the eclectic Bob Murphy listed playing the piano and dining with “like-minded people” i.e. non-footballers.
Drew Petrie has found a means of scaring away stalkers and other potentially dangerous admirers, presumably, by approaching them first. As he said, he “talks to people in the street”.
The draftees – many of who are only 18-years-old – were told “every tweet is a personal press release”, a reminder of the slightly scary and absurd reality that they are now public figures and role models.
But the most compelling presentations were those from former Bulldogs and Richmond champion Nathan Brown, and ex-Geelong captain and NFL punter Ben Graham.
Talking at the venue where it occurred, Brown told of the setbacks to his career following that sickening leg-break in 2005.
Players suffering long-term injuries disappear from view during their rehabilitation; it’s an experience not often covered by the media or recounted by the players themselves.
These new boys to the AFL caper didn’t move throughout Brown’s account – including during footage of his leg snapping.
Bringing back bad memories of my own, he described training alone for up to five hours, popping anti-inflammatory pills, swimming laps and lifting weights.
A champion of his club, he found himself feeling like a “leper” in the bowels of Punt Road. But that wasn’t the worst of it.
Tired of waiting and feeling like a pariah, and thinking he had to prove his courage, Brown insisted on returning against his old team the Bulldogs in the following season’s opening round, against the advice of medicos.
Despite knowing his body hand’t fully recovered he went ahead anyway. He said the decision ruined his leg and shortened his career.
Ben Graham gave an insight into the well paid but tenuous existence at the bottom of the NFL roster where the punters belong.
He described the NFL as a place “that is all about talent”. Unlike the AFL there are no development coaches or managers. The development is the responsibility of the college system.
The careers of punters, in particular, are subject to the impatient and egotistical whims of the clubs’ private owners.
The NFL stars don’t bother getting to know the names of the new recruits who arrive for the off-season training camps from January to August because most won’t make it to the season’s opening.
In stark contrast to the AFL which, thanks to the AFLPA, is a world leader in player retirement funds, the NFL has a dismal record in looking after and advising former players in financial matters.
Graham ended his talk with the sobering statistic that despite the lucrative income of NFL players a massive 78% will be broke and without medical insurance (devastating considering the US medical system) after three years of retirement.
On a more positive note, next week I will relay the chats I had with two of the draft’s high flyers in Lachie Whitfield and Joe Daniher, and the two “old men” of the camp, Brett Goodes and Kane Mitchell.
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.
The ball hit the boundary umpire's leg and rebounded back into play, leading to debate over whether a throw-in should have been called for.
Poor Jacob Hopper just can't catch a break.
The Dees will be hoping it doesn't prove costly!
Spicy stuff at the MCG!
West Coast defender Tom Barrass will miss the Eagles' clash with Gold Coast, after the AFL Tribunal upheld his one-match suspension for a dangerous…
