Friday, January 29, 2010

Culture Blues (3)

No comments:
“What the hell were your blokes doing on a booze cruise in the middle of pre-season?” One hopes the start of Adrian Anderson’s conversation with Greg Swann and Stephen Kernahan carried some of this tone.

It is reported that the AFL will not impose further sanction on the Blues over the events of and surrounding the booze cruise.

Indeed, it’s difficult to see what more the AFL could have done. Despite the stupidity of the cruise in the first place, despite the club captain’s participation raising questions about his leadership, despite a young rookie being cajoled into a drinking “game” and despite Carlton’s somewhat equivocal response, this has mostly been a PR issue for the League. Notwithstanding the negative aspects of the publicity, League HQ will be secretly quite pleased that the whole issue of alcohol abuse at the elite level has had such an extensive public hearing.

It’s all but inconceivable that anyone even remotely interested in elite Aussie rules will not have heard the furore and formed the opinion that the Carlton guys shouldn’t have been on the cruise, shouldn’t have drunk so much and shouldn’t have abused the trust Levi Casboult’s parents placed in the club. That’s a pretty powerful message that has now had a good couple of months’ airing, importantly, through the generally ‘boozy’ summer and festive seasons.

Only time will tell if the Blues are able to generate some significant change to their inner culture. About the only person who might be pleased would be one B. Fevola — grateful, for once, to be out of the spotlight!
Read More

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Culture classes (2)

No comments:
Is it only here at Aussierulesblog-Central or is this off-season dragging interminably?

Each day we turn to the sports pages, hoping they’ll be filled with all of the panoply of footy, but we’re forced to wade through page after page of horse racing (yawn), yachting (falling asleep) and tennis (fast asleep), not to mention ‘fudball’ (comatose). Only occasionally is there a contribution to the footy landscape, and even more occasionally, it is meaningful. Such, however, is the case today.

Emma Quayle’s piece on the AFLPA draftee induction program provides a longer than usual glimpse into the week-long effort to appropriately equip the stars of tomorrow to meet expectations.

One can imagine there are many, many massively unmemorable moments through this induction program, and it’s asking a lot of young men chosen for athletic qualities rather than academic to have them all take it all in. Nevertheless, Quayle picks out some seminal moments to highlight.

Bachar Houli relates how teenaged teammates were unexpectedly considerate and interested when he asked for quiet for his prayers. Harry O’Brien counsels these young men to find out why they’re doing a clinic and who and how they’ll be helping. All good stuff.

We’re also told that AFL players drink far more alcohol than their general public equivalents — a surprise to the innocence of these brand new draftees. “When an AFL player gets into trouble, [Steve] Alessio [AFLPA general manager of player development] reminds them, alcohol is usually a factor.” It’s not mentioned whether Carlton rookie Levi Casboult was called upon to provide first-hand corroboration of Alessio’s claim.

Quayle ends her report with quotes from a couple of draftees:
''It shows that you can't be ignorant, that you have to think about every little thing that you do,'' said Adelaide ruckman James Craig, and Andrew Hooper, a Western Bulldogs rookie, agreed.
''It's not good enough to say, 'I didn't know', because now we do,'' he said. ''We've been told how it is and we're the ones who have to put it in place and make the most of the chance we have.''
We can only hope that these weren’t the only two Quayle could find who could respond in such a hopeful fashion.
Read More

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Culture classes a positive step

No comments:
It’s not news that the AFL Players’ Association (AFLPA) provide a primer for all recruits to AFL clubs each year.

In this report, AFLPA general manager of player development, former Bombers big man Steve Alessio, says,
“ ‘We want to make sure they're fully aware of their off-field responsibilities and obligations [and] don't jeopardise their career by making bad judgments when they're newcomers to the game.’ ''
More encouragingly, the report says:
“Up to 90 per cent of the players will join a year-long program over 22 sessions that deal with budgeting, finance, nutrition, public speaking, defensive driving and more.”
Hopefully, these kids will be able to steer a path that keeps them away from the sort of capers that have caused the Blues so much grief over this off-season.

That’s not to say these sessions are proof against poor decision making: they’re not. The incident that Essendon’s Michael Hurley found himself in late last year suggests that even those who’ve recently participated in these sessions can find themselves in difficult situations.

And, at the risk of boring our readers senseless, we should re-emphasise that these kids are where they are for physical rather than mental or moral skills.
Read More

Saturday, January 02, 2010

Culture blues (2)

No comments:
The Brad Scott Mantra
“You can't take time off from being an elite athlete.”

Says it all really. A pity it’s not Brett Ratten and Stephen Kernahan doing the talking!
Read More

Culture Blues (3)

“What the hell were your blokes doing on a booze cruise in the middle of pre-season?” One hopes the start of Adrian Anderson’s conversation with Greg Swann and Stephen Kernahan carried some of this tone.

It is reported that the AFL will not impose further sanction on the Blues over the events of and surrounding the booze cruise.

Indeed, it’s difficult to see what more the AFL could have done. Despite the stupidity of the cruise in the first place, despite the club captain’s participation raising questions about his leadership, despite a young rookie being cajoled into a drinking “game” and despite Carlton’s somewhat equivocal response, this has mostly been a PR issue for the League. Notwithstanding the negative aspects of the publicity, League HQ will be secretly quite pleased that the whole issue of alcohol abuse at the elite level has had such an extensive public hearing.

It’s all but inconceivable that anyone even remotely interested in elite Aussie rules will not have heard the furore and formed the opinion that the Carlton guys shouldn’t have been on the cruise, shouldn’t have drunk so much and shouldn’t have abused the trust Levi Casboult’s parents placed in the club. That’s a pretty powerful message that has now had a good couple of months’ airing, importantly, through the generally ‘boozy’ summer and festive seasons.

Only time will tell if the Blues are able to generate some significant change to their inner culture. About the only person who might be pleased would be one B. Fevola — grateful, for once, to be out of the spotlight!

Culture classes (2)

Is it only here at Aussierulesblog-Central or is this off-season dragging interminably?

Each day we turn to the sports pages, hoping they’ll be filled with all of the panoply of footy, but we’re forced to wade through page after page of horse racing (yawn), yachting (falling asleep) and tennis (fast asleep), not to mention ‘fudball’ (comatose). Only occasionally is there a contribution to the footy landscape, and even more occasionally, it is meaningful. Such, however, is the case today.

Emma Quayle’s piece on the AFLPA draftee induction program provides a longer than usual glimpse into the week-long effort to appropriately equip the stars of tomorrow to meet expectations.

One can imagine there are many, many massively unmemorable moments through this induction program, and it’s asking a lot of young men chosen for athletic qualities rather than academic to have them all take it all in. Nevertheless, Quayle picks out some seminal moments to highlight.

Bachar Houli relates how teenaged teammates were unexpectedly considerate and interested when he asked for quiet for his prayers. Harry O’Brien counsels these young men to find out why they’re doing a clinic and who and how they’ll be helping. All good stuff.

We’re also told that AFL players drink far more alcohol than their general public equivalents — a surprise to the innocence of these brand new draftees. “When an AFL player gets into trouble, [Steve] Alessio [AFLPA general manager of player development] reminds them, alcohol is usually a factor.” It’s not mentioned whether Carlton rookie Levi Casboult was called upon to provide first-hand corroboration of Alessio’s claim.

Quayle ends her report with quotes from a couple of draftees:

''It shows that you can't be ignorant, that you have to think about every little thing that you do,'' said Adelaide ruckman James Craig, and Andrew Hooper, a Western Bulldogs rookie, agreed.
''It's not good enough to say, 'I didn't know', because now we do,'' he said. ''We've been told how it is and we're the ones who have to put it in place and make the most of the chance we have.''
We can only hope that these weren’t the only two Quayle could find who could respond in such a hopeful fashion.

Culture classes a positive step

It’s not news that the AFL Players’ Association (AFLPA) provide a primer for all recruits to AFL clubs each year.

In this report, AFLPA general manager of player development, former Bombers big man Steve Alessio, says,

“ ‘We want to make sure they're fully aware of their off-field responsibilities and obligations [and] don't jeopardise their career by making bad judgments when they're newcomers to the game.’ ''
More encouragingly, the report says:
“Up to 90 per cent of the players will join a year-long program over 22 sessions that deal with budgeting, finance, nutrition, public speaking, defensive driving and more.”
Hopefully, these kids will be able to steer a path that keeps them away from the sort of capers that have caused the Blues so much grief over this off-season.

That’s not to say these sessions are proof against poor decision making: they’re not. The incident that Essendon’s Michael Hurley found himself in late last year suggests that even those who’ve recently participated in these sessions can find themselves in difficult situations.

And, at the risk of boring our readers senseless, we should re-emphasise that these kids are where they are for physical rather than mental or moral skills.

Culture blues (2)

The Brad Scott Mantra
“You can't take time off from being an elite athlete.”

Says it all really. A pity it’s not Brett Ratten and Stephen Kernahan doing the talking!