Opinion Travis Boak

[LFC2010]

anyone would think today that the season is over Boak with his little hand injury.

never change SA media, never change.

 

[Andre]

anyone would think today that the season is over Boak with his little hand injury.

never change SA media, never change.

Less pressure on us, will result in more expectations on Adelaide via the local media. I’ll take that. Just let Port go about it’s business under the radar.

 

[Kingfish73]

Less pressure on us, will result in more expectations on Adelaide via the local media. I’ll take that. Just let Port go about it’s business under the radar.

Although we need to learn to handle pressure and not rely on distractions.

 

[dirty2]

I'm guessing he tried the fend off on SPP and came off worse for wear... just imagining SPP standing over boak with a smile on his face not this time old man.. b4 realising boak is actually hurt

 

[OneGreatClub]

 

[jakey]

TBH whenever I read these stories about life around footy, I get the impression the demands of the top level of the game have become unhealthy / unsustainable. You don't hear too many guys saying they are enjoying themselves in footy. You hear about plenty more with mental health and or substance abuse issues. Whole show is a bit ****ed up really.

 

[crazy_big_al]

TBH whenever I read these stories about life around footy, I get the impression the demands of the top level of the game have become unhealthy / unsustainable. You don't hear too many guys saying they are enjoying themselves in footy. You hear about plenty more with mental health and or substance abuse issues. Whole show is a bit ****** up really.

absolutely, I think that is why these player have limited life skills when they leave the system, they get pushed to the brink all the time and do not have balance in their lives.

Players are not playing for the fun of it like they did when they were kids ITS A JOB. I don't know about you but many people go to work because they need to pay the bills just like these AFL players.

 

[Janus]

TBH whenever I read these stories about life around footy, I get the impression the demands of the top level of the game have become unhealthy / unsustainable. You don't hear too many guys saying they are enjoying themselves in footy. You hear about plenty more with mental health and or substance abuse issues. Whole show is a bit ****** up really.

The problem is that for fans, football is an outlet from which they can escape their life.

For the players, the reverse has to be true - their life has to be an outlet from which they can escape football.

That’s why I cut guys like Wines slack. Shit happens. Don’t stop doing what you love for footy - or any form of work - because then you’ll just end up resenting it.

 

[Powerage]

Thinking a little outside the box here - could it largely be that AFL players are drafted into the system as teenagers? Additionally they get paid more than most other sportsmen at an earlier age (barring perhaps Rugby - I don't know) so therefore have less motivation to become well rounded vocationally speaking?

Compared to other major sports, certainly cricket, few players have such expectations placed on them at such a young age. Certainly cricketers have time to develop into well rounded men rather than being full time athletes when they are teenagers. I would say the same goes for basketball and rugby. In these games players have more time to move into vocations or tertiary study than AFL players do.

Additionally cricketers generally play into their thirties thus having more time to mature and prepare themselves for life after the game.

I'd go out on a limb and say that footballers are paid more on average than most others sportsmen, so there is less motivation to think of life outside the game in terms of vocational skills. Perhaps there should be more emphasis on encouraging players to be smart with what they earn while in the AFL system, in addition to encouraging them to think about life outside of football, or after football.

Compare even to sportmen in the USA. Most of them have been through college and at least have the opportunity to take advantage of a tertiary education (how much they do on sports scholarships is debatable).

Perhaps football players should have a compulsory fund set up for them similar to a super scheme for life after football. Certainly they should be better educated about what they should be doing with their disposable income.

 

[Kiss from a Rozee]

Footballers exist in an insanely competitive environment where their compensation is defined entirely by their value as an individual, team success is meaningless in terms of financial rewards, so in those terms it would be the most toxic environment possible - and I believe you would see that toxicity with the management side.

What counters this is the team’s thirst for premiership success, and winning as a collective in general. This runs highly opposed to the ideas of individual success and rewards, and provides a real tangible goal for successful teams.

Of course only one team can ever win, so teams that are not winning are prone far more to overvalueing the individual and the search for fat contracts. This is why you have stars able to shine brightly in teams that appear to be disfunctional, they don’t sacrifice their game and KPIs for the collective and their value can skyrocket - despite their value as a premiership piece actually lowering.

So here you have some very largely contradictory forces working on players, coaches and clubs in general. You’re compensated individually while trying to reach a collective goal. You’re driven to increase your value as a player individually, while on the other side needing to sacrifice your value for the team so that other players will play better and your group can win a premiership or at the very least win games.

This contradictory existence has an incredible toll on your mind and conscience. There is an enormous pressure to get the balance right or else end up without a contract, or perhaps without a premiership.

I think the balancing force is that the team’s success is usually more important as players generally want to win a premiership much more than they want a huge contract, which means that teams can be supportive of each other but honestly I suspect this can vary hugely from group to group. I definitely know of high performing teams outside of footy that are chock full of huge egos and toxic as all hell, while others are much more supportive.

Basically professional sports create and compensate the ego in a team environment, whilst team success is far more difficult to achieve than individual success. For players this is a contradictory existence in a high pressure environment - a disaster for the human spirit, for which wealth is less than a solution.

 

[Papa G]

Thinking a little outside the box here - could it largely be that AFL players are drafted into the system as teenagers? Additionally they get paid more than most other sportsmen at an earlier age (barring perhaps Rugby - I don't know) so therefore have less motivation to become well rounded vocationally speaking?

Compared to other major sports, certainly cricket, few players have such expectations placed on them at such a young age. Certainly cricketers have time to develop into well rounded men rather than being full time athletes when they are teenagers. I would say the same goes for basketball and rugby. In these games players have more time to move into vocations or tertiary study than AFL players do.

Additionally cricketers generally play into their thirties thus having more time to mature and prepare themselves for life after the game.

I'd go out on a limb and say that footballers are paid more on average than most others sportsmen, so there is less motivation to think of life outside the game in terms of vocational skills. Perhaps there should be more emphasis on encouraging players to be smart with what they earn while in the AFL system, in addition to encouraging them to think about life outside of football, or after football.

Compare even to sportmen in the USA. Most of them have been through college and at least have the opportunity to take advantage of a tertiary education (how much they do on sports scholarships is debatable).

Perhaps football players should have a compulsory fund set up for them similar to a super scheme for life after football. Certainly they should be better educated about what they should be doing with their disposable income.

If you think cricketers are well rounded, you haven't met too many cricketers. Some of the most putrid people you'd every want to meet.

 

[Grave Danger]

If you think cricketers are well rounded, you haven't met too many cricketers. Some of the most putrid people you'd every want to meet.

Especially batsmen and spin bowlers. And wicketkeepers. And captains.

 

[Zakk Wylde]

If you think cricketers are well rounded, you haven't met too many cricketers. Some of the most putrid people you'd every want to meet.

 

[Zakk Wylde]

You guys are so mean.

 

[Papa G]

You guys are so mean.

There are of course exceptions Zakkaria. Had a mate that played Sheild cricket in the 90s. Some of the stories make the Rugby League boneheads look like choir boys. The bullying is also off the charts.

 

[Scholz Supremacy]

Yeah cricketers are farked! Terrible culture and not the sort of people you'd really want to be mates with.

 

[Zakk Wylde]

There are of course exceptions Zakkaria. Had a mate that played Shield cricket in the 90s. Some of the stories make the Rugby League boneheads look like choir boys. The bullying is also off the charts.

Yeah look, I played a few years of A Grade district cricket and came from the non traditional path to make it. I was an outsider without a doubt.

The culture was one of entitlement like I'd never seen. Average cricketers carrying on like big man on campus and looking down on lesser players and grades.

Unfortunately this behavior is ingrained into these guys from under age teams. They never have a chance. They are campaigners from the beginning.

 

[Powerage]

Perhaps I should have said they have more opportunity to be well rounded. Perhaps more educated, or more prepared to work in areas other than their chosen sport.

**** it. I don't know what I am trying to say anymore. I thought I had a point. Maybe not.

All we can do is address the issue in football I guess and those mean ugly cricketers can go pull the stick out of their collective arses.

 

[Skindy]

Yeah look, I played a few years of A Grade district cricket and came from the non traditional path to make it. I was an outsider without a doubt.

The culture was one of entitlement like I'd never seen. Average cricketers carrying on like big man on campus and looking down on lesser players and grades.

Unfortunately this behavior is ingrained into these guys from under age teams. They never have a chance. They are campaigners from the beginning.

As a current player at a district cricket club and having played in every single grade from juniors to seniors I can say that nothing has changed. There are a disproportionate amount of flogs in A grade cricket, especially the contracted redbacks players or players that have come through state systems. B and C grade cricket have better blokes as they don't have that superiority complex.

 

[Jason K]

Travis Boak should be Portz CRICKET captain. Perfect

 

[GoPorts]

Did you guys know that Boak was a good midfielder??
I always thought he was best as a HFF that doesn't kick goals.
Why didn't someone think of this earlier

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

[Visenfest]

Trevor ain't broke yet.

 

[GremioPower]

Yeah look, I played a few years of A Grade district cricket and came from the non traditional path to make it. I was an outsider without a doubt.

The culture was one of entitlement like I'd never seen. Average cricketers carrying on like big man on campus and looking down on lesser players and grades.

Unfortunately this behavior is ingrained into these guys from under age teams. They never have a chance. They are campaigners from the beginning.

My sis was in London, and she worked as waitress in an event to celebrate England's Ashes win in the early 2000's. Her comment was that the English cricket team was the greatest concentration of jerks she had ever seen...

Footballers exist in an insanely competitive environment where their compensation is defined entirely by their value as an individual, team success is meaningless in terms of financial rewards, so in those terms it would be the most toxic environment possible - and I believe you would see that toxicity with the management side.

What counters this is the team’s thirst for premiership success, and winning as a collective in general. This runs highly opposed to the ideas of individual success and rewards, and provides a real tangible goal for successful teams.

Of course only one team can ever win, so teams that are not winning are prone far more to overvalueing the individual and the search for fat contracts. This is why you have stars able to shine brightly in teams that appear to be disfunctional, they don’t sacrifice their game and KPIs for the collective and their value can skyrocket - despite their value as a premiership piece actually lowering.

So here you have some very largely contradictory forces working on players, coaches and clubs in general. You’re compensated individually while trying to reach a collective goal. You’re driven to increase your value as a player individually, while on the other side needing to sacrifice your value for the team so that other players will play better and your group can win a premiership or at the very least win games.

This contradictory existence has an incredible toll on your mind and conscience. There is an enormous pressure to get the balance right or else end up without a contract, or perhaps without a premiership.

I think the balancing force is that the team’s success is usually more important as players generally want to win a premiership much more than they want a huge contract, which means that teams can be supportive of each other but honestly I suspect this can vary hugely from group to group. I definitely know of high performing teams outside of footy that are chock full of huge egos and toxic as all hell, while others are much more supportive.

Basically professional sports create and compensate the ego in a team environment, whilst team success is far more difficult to achieve than individual success. For players this is a contradictory existence in a high pressure environment - a disaster for the human spirit, for which wealth is less than a solution.

This tension between individuals and community happens everywhere and every time. The challenge is to attune the most all the individual goals with the collective ones.

Personalities and background definitely play a role. In football, specifically, the key difference is the club's environment: personnel, culture, structure, etc. That's the first requisite for sustainable success on and off the field.

 

[Carlos Herrrnandez]

Will he stay in the midfield when Ollie is back?

If so, 500 the win and 126 the place for the Brownlow is a fantastic price for those that way inclined

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Will he stay in the midfield when Ollie is back?

If so, 500 the win and 126 the place for the Brownlow is a fantastic price for those that way inclined

If Schofield gets his way, yes. If Hinkley does, then probably not.