noosa hawk mad
Norm Smith Medallist
http://www.insidefootballonline.com/
“Future captain” is about the biggest label that can be affixed to any young player. RUSSELL HOLMESBY looks at the band of footballers earmarked for leadership positions from their football infancy.
IF EVER the phrase “his fame preceded him” applied to a footballer, it would be Carlton’s Bryce Gibbs.
Long before the Blues drafted him, the young South Australian was being talked about as not just a future star, but as a future AFL captain.
It is a poor man’s version of cricket’s “next Bradman” syndrome, but some players simply cannot avoid the advance accolade.
Look at names like Nathan Buckley, John Worsfold, Michael Voss, Garry Lyon, Wayne Carey and Mark Ricciuto. All stamped as likely captains as soon as they ventured a toe onto the AFL stage.
For Gibbs the whole “future leader” syndrome was raised a cog when a somewhat desperate coach Denis Pagan added him to a 12-man leadership group before he had played an AFL game.
That is not to say the man himself feels the burden of leadership expectations.
“All that sort of stuff was talked outside of the club and the club hasn’t put any pressure whatsoever on me,” Gibbs said last week.
“I just look forward to week in, week out doing my role for the team and that’s all that matters to me. I don’t really pay too much attention to it.”
In fairness, it needs to be said that Gibbs and his then second-year teammate Marc Murphy were part of the leadership group in an apprentice capacity to observe and learn from others.
Now he has no title, and is not a part of the Carlton leadership group (which comprises Chris Judd, Nick Stevens, Kade Simpson, Andrew Carazzo, Heath Scotland, Brad Fisher and Brendan Fevola).
Of course Gibbs carries the unenviable mantle of being a No.1 draft choice, but as with most things he also takes that in his stride.
“My philosophy was that whether you got picked up first or 70th everyone has the same opportunity to make the most of it,” he said.
“I took it each week as it came and it obviously helped with Murph there. We are such a young group and we are all good mates and it’s great to have the support around you.”
Carlton’s acting president Stephen Kernahan has more in common with Gibbs than just their South Australian heritage.
He, too, was earmarked as captaincy material from the word go, but it was still something of a shock when he was handed the role after just one season at Carlton – at the age of 23.
“It’s a long time ago, I can’t really remember (how I felt),” said Kernahan. “I left that (decision) up to the club.
“We are lucky we’ve got blokes like Gibbs and Murphy in the side and they can learn under a born leader like Chris Judd.
“He’s obviously got a long time ahead of him. Gibbs is barely 20 and Murph’s 21 so they should be ready one day down the track.”
Kernahan had captaincy experience at junior level, but discounts that as having great relevance to his eventual AFL captaincy.
“I was captain of school teams, but I was just a young kid playing.”
Not long after Kernahan began with Carlton, a teenage Nathan Burke was taking the first steps in his career with St Kilda.
From the earliest stages Burke was hailed as a future club leader and could not avoid the high expectations.
“I was aware of it,” he said. “I think it started at the first or second jumper presentation after I joined the club. Doc (coach Darrel Baldock) would get up and give a speech about each player and I think he dropped the line then.
“After that it got perpetuated in a story here or there in the newspapers and became a bit of a tag on the way through.”
Burke says that he found it to be a positive thing rather than a burden.
“In some ways you can’t help thinking that it’s people saying something positive about you – that you may one day be captain of a football club,” he said.
“I always saw it as something to live up to. It was almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy – where someone says it about you then you almost give that extra bit to make it come true.
“So it was something like the carrot at the end of the stick.”
Burke said that he preferred to have a motivational spur.
“If nobody had mentioned the possibility of being captain, you might try and do all the right things, but if you haven’t got that carrot there, your motivation may fail at times. It sort of spurs you on to fulfil it.”
In Burke’s case the captaincy wasn’t likely to be on the agenda for a considerable time. In his first season as a player the Saints had appointed the 23-year-old Danny Frawley as captain. He would lead the Saints for the remaining nine seasons of his career and become the longest serving skipper in their history.
“We always knew that Spud would have to leave the club for someone else to take over,” said Burke. “It was Spud’s job forever and a day and wasn’t something that was discussed each year or anything like that.”
Although Frawley took to the leadership with natural ease, it meant that others saw no need to step up to the plate.
“In hindsight that was detrimental to Spud,” said Burke, “because we all knew he was going to stay the captain and in a lot of ways we left it all to him. Nowadays you have leadership groups and you are sharing the load and responsibilities. In those days Spud was the captain and we left it to him.”
When St Kilda appointed Burke and Loewe as co-captains for 1996 some quarters in the football world thought it was the easy way out in a split decision.
“When Loewey and I took over, that was our preferred option – we were hoping the club would go down that path because he had strengths and weaknesses where I had opposite strengths and weaknesses. Between us we probably made a half-decent captain!”
Burke said that from 1995 the whole way captaincy was looked at in the AFL changed significantly.
St Kilda had enlisted the help of consultant Ray McLean to assist in developing leaders, and at the same time Carlton’s premiership was widely attributed to David Parkin’s willingness to give players a greater say in the running of the team.
“Because Carlton won the flag everyone looked at what they were doing, and tried to copy it – a la Hawthorn this year,” said Burke.
“The point of difference compared to all the other sides was that David Parkin was giving the players ownership. We probably stumbled into leadership at the right time.”
Burke believes that leadership qualities are so important across the board that clubs place a huge emphasis on it when they make their late draft selections.
“That’s why these days in the first-round draft picks they go for the best talent. From the second round onwards the gap between the talent is not huge.
“What pushes players up the ladder is their character and leadership potential. If you get two similar players skill wise, and one of them has better leadership potential, you will always pick that guy.”
Melbourne’s Brock McLean is a young man whose captaincy credentials stood out from the start. A couple of off-field mishaps didn’t help his cause but in time all that will disappear into the background.
Remember, even Ricky Ponting had some moments in his youth.
McLean’s uncle – Ricky McLean – spoke to David Rhys-Jones in this WEEK’S INSIDE FOOTBALL and provided some insights on his nephew.
“He’s a great lad and the fact that he is a McLean is a bonus, he’s a very good talent,” he said.
“His father – my brother Michael – was a superb footballer and probably the most gifted in our family. He had the McLean curse – reconstructions of shoulders and knees – so he was very much like his son.
“It’s a great thing that his boy is fulfilling his dreams. I reckon it is born into you. I’ve seen manufactured leaders, but with the strongest leaders it actually comes natural to them. You see people walk into a room and you can pick them straight away.
“Brock is one of those blokes who has got a good head on his shoulders and he wants to get the job done. He’s got a long career in front of him. The chances of him being a 10-year player are pretty positive, and I’m very proud of him.”
Nathan Burke has definite views on the competition’s latest “captain in waiting”.
“I had a chat with Bryce Gibbs when he got drafted – I was working with another company at the time, not St Kilda,” said Burke.
“I was very impressed with him as a young man and you could see even then where they (the recruiters) were coming from and why those statements were being made.
“Some players have their heads screwed on right.
“As long as they have got the football ability to back it up, a lot of those guys are a no-brainers to walk into leadership positions.”
“Future captain” is about the biggest label that can be affixed to any young player. RUSSELL HOLMESBY looks at the band of footballers earmarked for leadership positions from their football infancy.
IF EVER the phrase “his fame preceded him” applied to a footballer, it would be Carlton’s Bryce Gibbs.
Long before the Blues drafted him, the young South Australian was being talked about as not just a future star, but as a future AFL captain.
It is a poor man’s version of cricket’s “next Bradman” syndrome, but some players simply cannot avoid the advance accolade.
Look at names like Nathan Buckley, John Worsfold, Michael Voss, Garry Lyon, Wayne Carey and Mark Ricciuto. All stamped as likely captains as soon as they ventured a toe onto the AFL stage.
For Gibbs the whole “future leader” syndrome was raised a cog when a somewhat desperate coach Denis Pagan added him to a 12-man leadership group before he had played an AFL game.
That is not to say the man himself feels the burden of leadership expectations.
“All that sort of stuff was talked outside of the club and the club hasn’t put any pressure whatsoever on me,” Gibbs said last week.
“I just look forward to week in, week out doing my role for the team and that’s all that matters to me. I don’t really pay too much attention to it.”
In fairness, it needs to be said that Gibbs and his then second-year teammate Marc Murphy were part of the leadership group in an apprentice capacity to observe and learn from others.
Now he has no title, and is not a part of the Carlton leadership group (which comprises Chris Judd, Nick Stevens, Kade Simpson, Andrew Carazzo, Heath Scotland, Brad Fisher and Brendan Fevola).
Of course Gibbs carries the unenviable mantle of being a No.1 draft choice, but as with most things he also takes that in his stride.
“My philosophy was that whether you got picked up first or 70th everyone has the same opportunity to make the most of it,” he said.
“I took it each week as it came and it obviously helped with Murph there. We are such a young group and we are all good mates and it’s great to have the support around you.”
Carlton’s acting president Stephen Kernahan has more in common with Gibbs than just their South Australian heritage.
He, too, was earmarked as captaincy material from the word go, but it was still something of a shock when he was handed the role after just one season at Carlton – at the age of 23.
“It’s a long time ago, I can’t really remember (how I felt),” said Kernahan. “I left that (decision) up to the club.
“We are lucky we’ve got blokes like Gibbs and Murphy in the side and they can learn under a born leader like Chris Judd.
“He’s obviously got a long time ahead of him. Gibbs is barely 20 and Murph’s 21 so they should be ready one day down the track.”
Kernahan had captaincy experience at junior level, but discounts that as having great relevance to his eventual AFL captaincy.
“I was captain of school teams, but I was just a young kid playing.”
Not long after Kernahan began with Carlton, a teenage Nathan Burke was taking the first steps in his career with St Kilda.
From the earliest stages Burke was hailed as a future club leader and could not avoid the high expectations.
“I was aware of it,” he said. “I think it started at the first or second jumper presentation after I joined the club. Doc (coach Darrel Baldock) would get up and give a speech about each player and I think he dropped the line then.
“After that it got perpetuated in a story here or there in the newspapers and became a bit of a tag on the way through.”
Burke says that he found it to be a positive thing rather than a burden.
“In some ways you can’t help thinking that it’s people saying something positive about you – that you may one day be captain of a football club,” he said.
“I always saw it as something to live up to. It was almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy – where someone says it about you then you almost give that extra bit to make it come true.
“So it was something like the carrot at the end of the stick.”
Burke said that he preferred to have a motivational spur.
“If nobody had mentioned the possibility of being captain, you might try and do all the right things, but if you haven’t got that carrot there, your motivation may fail at times. It sort of spurs you on to fulfil it.”
In Burke’s case the captaincy wasn’t likely to be on the agenda for a considerable time. In his first season as a player the Saints had appointed the 23-year-old Danny Frawley as captain. He would lead the Saints for the remaining nine seasons of his career and become the longest serving skipper in their history.
“We always knew that Spud would have to leave the club for someone else to take over,” said Burke. “It was Spud’s job forever and a day and wasn’t something that was discussed each year or anything like that.”
Although Frawley took to the leadership with natural ease, it meant that others saw no need to step up to the plate.
“In hindsight that was detrimental to Spud,” said Burke, “because we all knew he was going to stay the captain and in a lot of ways we left it all to him. Nowadays you have leadership groups and you are sharing the load and responsibilities. In those days Spud was the captain and we left it to him.”
When St Kilda appointed Burke and Loewe as co-captains for 1996 some quarters in the football world thought it was the easy way out in a split decision.
“When Loewey and I took over, that was our preferred option – we were hoping the club would go down that path because he had strengths and weaknesses where I had opposite strengths and weaknesses. Between us we probably made a half-decent captain!”
Burke said that from 1995 the whole way captaincy was looked at in the AFL changed significantly.
St Kilda had enlisted the help of consultant Ray McLean to assist in developing leaders, and at the same time Carlton’s premiership was widely attributed to David Parkin’s willingness to give players a greater say in the running of the team.
“Because Carlton won the flag everyone looked at what they were doing, and tried to copy it – a la Hawthorn this year,” said Burke.
“The point of difference compared to all the other sides was that David Parkin was giving the players ownership. We probably stumbled into leadership at the right time.”
Burke believes that leadership qualities are so important across the board that clubs place a huge emphasis on it when they make their late draft selections.
“That’s why these days in the first-round draft picks they go for the best talent. From the second round onwards the gap between the talent is not huge.
“What pushes players up the ladder is their character and leadership potential. If you get two similar players skill wise, and one of them has better leadership potential, you will always pick that guy.”
Melbourne’s Brock McLean is a young man whose captaincy credentials stood out from the start. A couple of off-field mishaps didn’t help his cause but in time all that will disappear into the background.
Remember, even Ricky Ponting had some moments in his youth.
McLean’s uncle – Ricky McLean – spoke to David Rhys-Jones in this WEEK’S INSIDE FOOTBALL and provided some insights on his nephew.
“He’s a great lad and the fact that he is a McLean is a bonus, he’s a very good talent,” he said.
“His father – my brother Michael – was a superb footballer and probably the most gifted in our family. He had the McLean curse – reconstructions of shoulders and knees – so he was very much like his son.
“It’s a great thing that his boy is fulfilling his dreams. I reckon it is born into you. I’ve seen manufactured leaders, but with the strongest leaders it actually comes natural to them. You see people walk into a room and you can pick them straight away.
“Brock is one of those blokes who has got a good head on his shoulders and he wants to get the job done. He’s got a long career in front of him. The chances of him being a 10-year player are pretty positive, and I’m very proud of him.”
Nathan Burke has definite views on the competition’s latest “captain in waiting”.
“I had a chat with Bryce Gibbs when he got drafted – I was working with another company at the time, not St Kilda,” said Burke.
“I was very impressed with him as a young man and you could see even then where they (the recruiters) were coming from and why those statements were being made.
“Some players have their heads screwed on right.
“As long as they have got the football ability to back it up, a lot of those guys are a no-brainers to walk into leadership positions.”
RUSSELL HOLMESBY
Stumbled across this good read on Bryce Gibbs from inside footy...
Stumbled across this good read on Bryce Gibbs from inside footy...
