Can athletes please just shut up and play

Right now all of Australia – and by ‘all of Australia’ I mean ‘a few guys somewhere probably’ – is asking just who the hell does David Pocock think he is?

Here is a man blessed with all the abilities that the gods of loose forwards can bestow on their children, and he seeks to throw that all away simply for the giddy thrill of chaining himself to a super-digger.

What of duty? What of responsibility? Sure, we’d all love to be chaining ourselves to mining equipment every day, living it up in the modern way. But most of us recognise that we’ve got jobs to do, and so we refuse to devote ourselves to pleasure in such a way.

The ARU put it so eloquently…

“While we appreciate David has personal views on a range of matters, we’ve made it clear that we expect his priority to be ensuring he can fulfil his role as a high-performance athlete.”

Exactly! That is the real point here. A representative of Australia allowing his personal views to interfere with the fulfilment of his role as a high-performance athlete. It’s deeply disappointing.

The thing is, it wouldn’t be so bad if Pocock were an isolated case. But this sort of attitude is becoming more and more common in top-level sport, to the point where if it is not soon stopped, it will grow into a cancer on the Australian sporting body. An example must be made of Pocock, or we run the risk of seeing more dereliction of duty exemplified by the following.

Paul Gallen
Gallen has for some time been allowing his personal views to detract from his sporting responsibilities. His latest personal view, the view that boxing is a thing that he should be doing, is a real roadblock in his career.

It’s all very well to say that in giving someone the opportunity to punch him in the face, he is providing a community service, but the fact is he’s a rugby league player, according to several respected sources. Eyes on the prize, Paul. Just like…

Jarryd Hayne
Hayne definitely has a bright future in rugby league, with many astute judges considering him among the top 200 players in the NRL this year. Yet can there be any doubt that going overseas to play American football and not play rugby league will interfere with his performances for Parramatta?

Sure, he might say he’s a great multi-tasker, but his complete absence will surely mean a less focused Hayne on the rugby league field next year, and the Eels will be the losers. Similar issues surround…

Ryan Crowley
Just how long can the Fremantle Dockers star stay on top of his game when he freely admits on the club’s website that he is “starting to do some restaurant reviews for OzEating”.

Can his teammates even trust him to give 100 percent when they know that even while flying for a mark, he is probably thinking about how many stars to give last night’s cannelloni? Honestly, this is Koutoufides and the Souvlaki Hut all over again. It reminds me of…

Tim Cahill
Cahill has been quoted as saying he likes to “play Playstation”. For God’s sake, Timmy! There’s an Asian Cup coming up! The Socceroos will be the laughing stock of world football if we get belted by the Blue Samurai because our best player can’t stop running off to play Bioshock Infinite. That’s exactly how Brazil lost the World Cup in 1950. And speaking of World Cups…

Stephen Moore
If the Wallabies hope to win next year’s World Cup, I guess they can’t rely on Stephen Moore to pull his weight, after the veteran hooker this week said, “I want to prove to myself and my teammates that I can play at that level for Australia”.

No wonder our scrum is ailing if this is an example of the way our tight forwards let their minds wander! Stephen Moore, maybe a bit less time thinking about proving that you can play at that level for Australia, and a bit more time thinking about playing at that level for Australia.

At this stage of a World Cup build-up, all this talk about playing rugby is a terrible distraction from rugby-playing. It’s a bit like…

Trent Cotchin
The Richmond midfielder this week reportedly “signed a five-year contract”. Hey guess what, Trent Cotchin? We didn’t ask for your opinion on whether you’ve signed a five-year contract or not. Shut up and play.

It’s an epidemic. Everywhere professional sportsmen are labouring under the misapprehension that personal views are something they should have. Hopefully administrators will follow the ARU’s lead in making it clear they are sorely mistaken. God forbid we end up with a bunch of David Pococks on our hands.