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Footy and I didn’t get along last week. First, there was the Viney debacle – what a waste of time, money and resources that was.
The only thing the young man from Melbourne deserved was a heartfelt apology from the out-of-touch bean counters at AFL house.
Luckily the good guys – the footy public – came up trumps and Viney was cleared to play (albeit no apology).
But that wasn’t the worst news I discovered this week. A mate of mine, who played over 100 games in the AFL, revealed that his son plays his footy games with no scores kept.
He plays sport without a scoreboard.
Is Auskick trying to save money by eliminating goalposts? I heard murmurs of this kind of rubbish weeks ago but assumed it was just media sensationalism gone mad.
But alas, our kids aren’t allowed to learn how to lose anymore – god forbid we challenge their self esteem.
How are we expected, as parents, to raise level-headed, sensible individuals the AFL won’t let them learn how to lose and cope with defeat?
Or more importantly, as I discussed with my daughter Friday night after her netball team won 9-0, to win graciously? Isn’t it obvious that in attempting to preserve their precious self worth we are promoting a generation of self-righteous tossers?
It’s silly enough that our under-age footballers are taught to bump in their developmental years and then told bumping is evil when they reach the elite level, but now they are teaching our youth that losing doesn’t exist and everything is peachy?
You’re kidding, right?
The AFL is always the first to show its sensitivity to difficult circumstances and troubled individuals with immense talent. It’s called damage control and brand protection. But how are they going to cope when they’ve got more than a handful of cry-babies going off the rails, realising that winning actually matters?
Let kids be kids. Let them win one week, and lose the next. Let them lose for eight-straight weeks and then enjoy the delirium that is winning the unexpected.
Let them learn life skills like coping with defeat and winning graciously. Don’t attempt to enforce that losing and heartache only happens outside of football – it will only lead to a generation of ugly winners and sore losers.
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