Igloo
Not a mod
Alright, here we go with my review for Jason Akermanis' book, Open Season. This is my first long-ish review sorta post, so bear with me.
First off, the one thing I find amazing, is that in his book, he refers to Ryan Hargrave, as Hargraves. I know how we all are sick of people calling him this, along with many other variations, but I just couldnt believe his own team mate didnt know his god damn name.
Ok, now that is out of the way, I will get on with the review. I was going to do a chapter-by-chapter review, but being 25 chapters (all short, but nonetheless) I have decided to just really break it down into short-ish sections, mainly the most important parts.
The Sacking
The first chapter, entitled Shattered, details the process in which his sacking came about. Upon being called into Rockets office (he presumes he is being promoted to the senior team), he finds Rocker, Fantasia, Garlick, and Smorgon all sitting at a table waiting for him. All it really says is how pissed off he is, and he starts getting a bit angry in the meeting.
The only reason that Aker gives for them sacking him is that there is no trust within the playing group, and no one wants to play with him. He then jumps to the conclusion of it being about the book. Smorgon gave reasons like holding his tongue in publi and the emdia, etc.
The Gay article
According to Aker, the way in which the article got published without the clearance by James Fantasia is this:
After writing the article, he, as he always does, sends it to Jon Anderson from the HS, as well as to a psychologist who approached him to do the article. After he got back the edited draft, he sends it to Fantasia who approves it. Aker then makes some more changes, and sends it off to get edited by Anderson again. Now this is where things go wrong. Once he gets it back, apparently being too busy to read it/send it to Fantasia, he does nothing. Anderson then assumes its all good, so he publishes the story.
After this, as we all know, the s**t hit the fan with people calling him a homophobe, etc.
He remains adamant that this was the case though.
Leading Teams meeting
Firstly, later on in the book he mentions he was happy the leading teams program was brought into place. And that he was looking forward to getting critiqued.
Once this happened though, he became very defensive on every topic brought up. Saying things were bullshit, and that everyone was wrong. This contributes to the severe sense of him having paranoia you get from reading this book.
Brisbane era
Jason devotes 12 chapters to his time at Brisbane. But all that really accomplishes, is talk about his deteriorating, troubled and broken relationships with Leigh Matthews, Michael Voss, and Justin Leppitsch.
I found these chapters boring, mainly because I dont care about Brisbane.
He describes Leigh as a bully, and while he respects him, he hated his old fashioned approach to coaching, and the way Leigh tried to act like a celebrity, doing meetings etc, while he should have been coaching.
Family
The chapter entitled, Mum, was actually alright. It detailed his experience as a teenager, leading into his early 20's, with his mums illness, and what he and his brother Rory went through. It was filled with emotional memories, and was probably the most well written chapter. A far cry from the rest of the book.
The drama of his extended family is also highlighted. After discovering (at age 13) who his father was, and that he had other siblings, Jason does nothing about it. It is only until about 10 years later that he called his dad, and half brother, and started to, develop a relationship with them.
Mount Fuji (most wtf chapter in the book)
I have no idea what this chapter added to the book. It was just crap. He talked about a holiday to Japan, and how he climbed mount fuji. I guess he was trying to convey some spiritual epiphony or something, but I dunno. I was just confused.
Getting Traded
Apparently Essendon, Richmond, Collingwood, Fremantle, Melbourne and us were interested. He didnt want to go to collingwood because of how the supporters had yelled at him once or something, and he didnt want to go to richmond because they were unsuccessful, and not near a premiership, and he didnt want to go to Melbourne because when he talked to them he thought it was like he wanted to go to them, not they wanted to get him.
When he told Sheedy he chose us, Sheedy asked why he would want to go to a s**t club like the bulldogs. Aker used that to motivate the players whenever we played Essendon. That is pretty much all that had any sort of importance in this section
Time at the bulldogs
In the later part of the book, he describes things that happened in his time at the bulldogs. Such as Michael Braun and insinuating he was a drug cheat, the farewell of the handstand, and training.
He says he clashed with many people, and got in heated arguments with people such as Boydy, Johnno and Gia.
The rest of this is pretty much outlining important games. Eg finals, and his 300th.
In conclusion
Not a good read. Poorly written, went off on many, many tangents, and really just had an "everyone is against me" mentality throughout the whole book. There was no amazing outings of drug users, gays, or anything of any important. It was pretty much what everyone knew already from the media.
I advise you not to waste your time reading this book, let alone buy it like I did.
My rating: 2/10.
Thanks for reading
(Sorry if it was a poor review. I did struggle with it. Mainly because it was just a crappy book though, and there was nothing really to write about)
First off, the one thing I find amazing, is that in his book, he refers to Ryan Hargrave, as Hargraves. I know how we all are sick of people calling him this, along with many other variations, but I just couldnt believe his own team mate didnt know his god damn name.
Ok, now that is out of the way, I will get on with the review. I was going to do a chapter-by-chapter review, but being 25 chapters (all short, but nonetheless) I have decided to just really break it down into short-ish sections, mainly the most important parts.
The Sacking
The first chapter, entitled Shattered, details the process in which his sacking came about. Upon being called into Rockets office (he presumes he is being promoted to the senior team), he finds Rocker, Fantasia, Garlick, and Smorgon all sitting at a table waiting for him. All it really says is how pissed off he is, and he starts getting a bit angry in the meeting.
The only reason that Aker gives for them sacking him is that there is no trust within the playing group, and no one wants to play with him. He then jumps to the conclusion of it being about the book. Smorgon gave reasons like holding his tongue in publi and the emdia, etc.
The Gay article
According to Aker, the way in which the article got published without the clearance by James Fantasia is this:
After writing the article, he, as he always does, sends it to Jon Anderson from the HS, as well as to a psychologist who approached him to do the article. After he got back the edited draft, he sends it to Fantasia who approves it. Aker then makes some more changes, and sends it off to get edited by Anderson again. Now this is where things go wrong. Once he gets it back, apparently being too busy to read it/send it to Fantasia, he does nothing. Anderson then assumes its all good, so he publishes the story.
After this, as we all know, the s**t hit the fan with people calling him a homophobe, etc.
He remains adamant that this was the case though.
Leading Teams meeting
Firstly, later on in the book he mentions he was happy the leading teams program was brought into place. And that he was looking forward to getting critiqued.
Once this happened though, he became very defensive on every topic brought up. Saying things were bullshit, and that everyone was wrong. This contributes to the severe sense of him having paranoia you get from reading this book.
Brisbane era
Jason devotes 12 chapters to his time at Brisbane. But all that really accomplishes, is talk about his deteriorating, troubled and broken relationships with Leigh Matthews, Michael Voss, and Justin Leppitsch.
I found these chapters boring, mainly because I dont care about Brisbane.
He describes Leigh as a bully, and while he respects him, he hated his old fashioned approach to coaching, and the way Leigh tried to act like a celebrity, doing meetings etc, while he should have been coaching.
Family
The chapter entitled, Mum, was actually alright. It detailed his experience as a teenager, leading into his early 20's, with his mums illness, and what he and his brother Rory went through. It was filled with emotional memories, and was probably the most well written chapter. A far cry from the rest of the book.
The drama of his extended family is also highlighted. After discovering (at age 13) who his father was, and that he had other siblings, Jason does nothing about it. It is only until about 10 years later that he called his dad, and half brother, and started to, develop a relationship with them.
Mount Fuji (most wtf chapter in the book)
I have no idea what this chapter added to the book. It was just crap. He talked about a holiday to Japan, and how he climbed mount fuji. I guess he was trying to convey some spiritual epiphony or something, but I dunno. I was just confused.
Getting Traded
Apparently Essendon, Richmond, Collingwood, Fremantle, Melbourne and us were interested. He didnt want to go to collingwood because of how the supporters had yelled at him once or something, and he didnt want to go to richmond because they were unsuccessful, and not near a premiership, and he didnt want to go to Melbourne because when he talked to them he thought it was like he wanted to go to them, not they wanted to get him.
When he told Sheedy he chose us, Sheedy asked why he would want to go to a s**t club like the bulldogs. Aker used that to motivate the players whenever we played Essendon. That is pretty much all that had any sort of importance in this section
Time at the bulldogs
In the later part of the book, he describes things that happened in his time at the bulldogs. Such as Michael Braun and insinuating he was a drug cheat, the farewell of the handstand, and training.
He says he clashed with many people, and got in heated arguments with people such as Boydy, Johnno and Gia.
The rest of this is pretty much outlining important games. Eg finals, and his 300th.
In conclusion
Not a good read. Poorly written, went off on many, many tangents, and really just had an "everyone is against me" mentality throughout the whole book. There was no amazing outings of drug users, gays, or anything of any important. It was pretty much what everyone knew already from the media.
I advise you not to waste your time reading this book, let alone buy it like I did.
My rating: 2/10.
Thanks for reading
(Sorry if it was a poor review. I did struggle with it. Mainly because it was just a crappy book though, and there was nothing really to write about)
