The Beauty of Banter.
Banter has long been a huge part of footy. Half of the fun has often been the humour that has existed between the four walls of a footy club. Although some may question the need for such unique conversations, the benefits of it are numerous. It just has to be done well.
Max Gawn is a premiership player and premiership captain at the highest level. He has come back from two knee reconstructions and made it to the pinnacle of his chosen career. In that journey, he has moved from the bottom to the top at one of the oldest footy clubs in the world. A journey that saw his club do the same.
He was being interviewed on a podcast recently and he made the point that a shift in banter was a big reason why the Demons came good.
Max Gawn shares the premiership trophy with Dees fans. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
It’s important to note that he didn’t bemoan banter, he loved it. He loved the humour that it can provide. He also said there was the need for a shift.
He used the example of a game where the Demons star defender Jake Lever had taken ten intercept marks and been a star. The Demons had won and won well off the back of Levers’ efforts but the first thing team mates did was bring him down.
Gawn’s point was that he and his teammates had completely devalued Lever’s efforts by the time they got off the ground. How that made Lever feel was his question. He wondered in the interview how that effected Lever’s next endeavours.
In an era where self-confidence is such an issue in society, Gawn suggested that he and his teammates needed to back Lever more when he succeeded. He felt they would get more efforts like that if they did. He felt that the banter should be left for less influential parts of someone’s life than the one they had focussed on that night.
Someone’s fashion sense, someone’s PlayStation skills or their haircut may be better topics of banter than what that person does to make money, according to Gawn. It was a shift that he said played a huge part in recent Melbourne success. Could it have the same effect on a country club on the cusp of a win.
Although times are changing, so much of country footy is still steeped in a determination to contain anyone who may be succeeding. So many of the clubs in which this happens desperately need those players to always be at their best.
Wouldn’t a culture shift towards embracing and celebrating individual success mean you get more out of the player. After all, everyone could do with a tire pump every now and again.
Hubris has never been something that footy has really been able to handle. It’s always been fearful of promoting the player that is full of self-confidence. That fear has been based around the idea that someone so confident will never toe the party line, nor put the team first, hence, they need to be taken down.
Legendary basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski said to the US basketball team, perhaps the greatest group of athletes ever formed, “Bring your egos, just put them all under the same umbrella”. A uniquely American way of looking at things, but it worked, they won a gold medal.
Football clubs depend on relationships and banter can sometimes play a key role in building them. (Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)
Now let’s be clear on a couple of things. This is not an article calling for the end of banter, the positive effects in a sporting club are significant. It’s not an article suggesting that players can’t be given some tough love, there are always going to be times where players need to be reminded that team sport is not about them.
In a time where a lack of resilience is having a negative effect on so much, we need both. There just needs to be a culture shift.
Imagine if a footy club could send all their players down the race with their mind believing in what they can bring to the table rather than being worried about mistakes they might make. That is a responsibility that could be taken up not just by the leaders but by everyone.
In the interview, Gawn was talking about the power of backing someone in and the power of being able to laugh at yourself. It is when a group of men that can do both is brought together that great days are created. Maybe this is something all of footy could learn from.
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