[Imagine this post being an article reviewing the practices of the media (relating to reporting to the Preseason Camp). I will try and give my take on what went on, and to explain why I think the media has ran a mess, with an obvious agenda to sensationalise the news and/or derail our campaign, and meanwhile belittling the topic of mental illness during their reporting.]
What are the actual facts that we know about the Camp?
One or two players seem unhappy with what took place during the Camp, and that was actually all the evidence when piling up what the players/coaches/CM statements.
One of the concerns was the involvement of the use of an Aboriginal talking stick, which may have been a cultural clash of sorts, and a player had to go seek counsel from an Aboriginal elder, and within several days, the questions have been sorted.
Apart from the issue above, there were no real serious notable facts mentioned.
Can we expect a 3-day Camp to go perfectly smoothly?
This is where I find bemusing, simply for the fact that in camps, just like in any other events, things can go wrong. I've been to camps/shows and have witnessed skin cuts, sprain ankles, verbal arguments, and plenty of drinking! Do we really expect everything to go smoothly in life? Absolutely not!
What were the media's initial reporting of the Camp?
Knowing a fact a player(s) were unhappy about certain aspects of the Camp, the media portrayed the situation to be a "disaster" of gigantic proportions. The implication being that the playing group as a whole were psychologically traumatised from said Camp, using terms "players were mentally distressed" "Some players are still “not in a good headspace” after the training camp"
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/a-...d/news-story/c49921a32fab6d7e6c672ab4f09ce805
They used other "info" as though they were facts:
A lot of the people have the assumption "where there's smoke there must be a fire". Often, there must be a fire, yes. But what kind of fire are we talking about, that should be the main question everyone needs to ask. Is it a small bonfire? Or a firestorm, rampaging across the forest?
Why the media think they can get away with misreporting or falsifying facts is that, they can use the lines:
John, why do you say the media was belittling the issue of mental health?
Quite simply, the news reporting about the camp were way out of proportion to what went wrong. One or two players feeling doubtful of the Camp's benefits was nowhere near the situation of a club suffering from psychological turmoil. Adding further to this, the wordings of "mind camp disaster/debacle" has an indirect implication that there were psychological traumas inflicted on the players (as opposed to player(s) simply being unhappy). These are serious implications and should really be ascertained by actual psychologists whether or not the Camp (dealing with mental strengthening) was indeed a "disaster". The fact the media had used significant wordings to get more publicity and page views, whilst ignoring to detail any psychological reports of the camp, is ignorance to the serious nature of mental illness. It is a disregard both to the people who actually suffer mental illnesses as well as a disregard to the Crows players and AFC, for them to bandy around words that can only serve to frustrate if there were no actual whole truths to their story.
How can we know if it wasn't as serious as what's been reported the whole year?
1. Objective signs of psychological disturbances in the immediate aftermath of the Preseason Camp, were there any that's different from any other years? The signs actually point towards a pretty committed team, more than a psychologically disturbed one:
~ For the first 2 months, we were mostly in the top 4 of the the AFL ladder. After round 7 we were 5W,2L (3rd spot). After round 9 we were 6W,3L (4th spot). And this occurred whilst the morbity rates were climbing week by week!
~ we beat the Tigers in round 2 despite the reports of us being traumatised by...."blindfolds, Tiger's song on a loop, in a bus"
~ we beat the Swans away with a significantly depleted team, and very few of the fans on BF would be brave to bet on us for a win back then.
~ we got to see how jubilant the team was when hearing Bett's wife gave birth to twins before the Saints game round 3:
http://www.afc.com.au/video/2018-04-08/eddie-tells-the-boys
~ despite all the injuries and all the bad press and fan outrage this year, the club has managed to keep most of the AFL regulars who were happy to re-sign including the signings of Sloane, Seeds and Lynch. One is likely to depart with us (Mc....), but this appears to be more due to cash reasons rather than anything else.
2. Media's obvious bias in when to hound and when to ignore questioning. Here are some good examples:
~ 5 minute review Of Crow's 2018 season by Wilson and Hutchy- 98% focusing on the Preseason Camp, and literally 10 seconds of mentioning "oh yeah and there was also the injuries problem"
https://www.9now.com.au/footy-classified/2018/clip-cjlc8i74d002v0hozxkm0vwqj
~ Trade Talk with McClure's interview on Lynch on Trade Radio:
McClure you had 15 minutes to rectify any myths regarding the Camp you've been dwelling on for the entire 2018 season, why didn't you even mention it during the Lynch interview??
Lastly, do you really need a psychology degree to facilitate a mind strengthening, team bonding camp?
No.
Brian Taylor backs us in against McClure (titled "Sam McClure being a flog")
Remember the camp with Nigel Smart doing the fire walking?
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/the-day-smart-earned-the-nickname-notso-20020914-gdul9j.html
In 1992, Smart did something "Notso" Smart - firewalking. No psychologists were involved. Despite the ordeal and first degree burns to the feet, he ended up being one of our biggest legends in Crows colors - involved in a Preliminary Final in 1993, and Premiership player in 97 and 98. Smart didn't seem to have any psychological traumas despite a camp without a psychologist.
Were there any scars inflicted by blindfolds, sticks or trees in the recent Crows Camp?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
In summary, fans have every right to feel angered by the collapse of this year, after showing such promise all throughout last year. When you add it all up, there was a 3-day Camp and 100 days-worth of injuries. What do you think was the likely culprit of our failure in 2018? Camp debacle? Or media asses being just media asses?
What are the actual facts that we know about the Camp?
One or two players seem unhappy with what took place during the Camp, and that was actually all the evidence when piling up what the players/coaches/CM statements.
One of the concerns was the involvement of the use of an Aboriginal talking stick, which may have been a cultural clash of sorts, and a player had to go seek counsel from an Aboriginal elder, and within several days, the questions have been sorted.
Apart from the issue above, there were no real serious notable facts mentioned.
Can we expect a 3-day Camp to go perfectly smoothly?
This is where I find bemusing, simply for the fact that in camps, just like in any other events, things can go wrong. I've been to camps/shows and have witnessed skin cuts, sprain ankles, verbal arguments, and plenty of drinking! Do we really expect everything to go smoothly in life? Absolutely not!
What were the media's initial reporting of the Camp?
Knowing a fact a player(s) were unhappy about certain aspects of the Camp, the media portrayed the situation to be a "disaster" of gigantic proportions. The implication being that the playing group as a whole were psychologically traumatised from said Camp, using terms "players were mentally distressed" "Some players are still “not in a good headspace” after the training camp"
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/a-...d/news-story/c49921a32fab6d7e6c672ab4f09ce805
They used other "info" as though they were facts:
- players were being tied up with blindfolds while listening to the RIchmond song
- players allegedly tried to trees naked (later reporting during the year)
- allegedly reported the AFL Players’ Association was alerted (but no formal complaint was made.)
A lot of the people have the assumption "where there's smoke there must be a fire". Often, there must be a fire, yes. But what kind of fire are we talking about, that should be the main question everyone needs to ask. Is it a small bonfire? Or a firestorm, rampaging across the forest?
Why the media think they can get away with misreporting or falsifying facts is that, they can use the lines:
- "we only heard it from a source"
- "why hasn't the Crows come out and proved to us that we were wrong?"
John, why do you say the media was belittling the issue of mental health?
Quite simply, the news reporting about the camp were way out of proportion to what went wrong. One or two players feeling doubtful of the Camp's benefits was nowhere near the situation of a club suffering from psychological turmoil. Adding further to this, the wordings of "mind camp disaster/debacle" has an indirect implication that there were psychological traumas inflicted on the players (as opposed to player(s) simply being unhappy). These are serious implications and should really be ascertained by actual psychologists whether or not the Camp (dealing with mental strengthening) was indeed a "disaster". The fact the media had used significant wordings to get more publicity and page views, whilst ignoring to detail any psychological reports of the camp, is ignorance to the serious nature of mental illness. It is a disregard both to the people who actually suffer mental illnesses as well as a disregard to the Crows players and AFC, for them to bandy around words that can only serve to frustrate if there were no actual whole truths to their story.
How can we know if it wasn't as serious as what's been reported the whole year?
1. Objective signs of psychological disturbances in the immediate aftermath of the Preseason Camp, were there any that's different from any other years? The signs actually point towards a pretty committed team, more than a psychologically disturbed one:
~ For the first 2 months, we were mostly in the top 4 of the the AFL ladder. After round 7 we were 5W,2L (3rd spot). After round 9 we were 6W,3L (4th spot). And this occurred whilst the morbity rates were climbing week by week!
~ we beat the Tigers in round 2 despite the reports of us being traumatised by...."blindfolds, Tiger's song on a loop, in a bus"
~ we beat the Swans away with a significantly depleted team, and very few of the fans on BF would be brave to bet on us for a win back then.
~ we got to see how jubilant the team was when hearing Bett's wife gave birth to twins before the Saints game round 3:
http://www.afc.com.au/video/2018-04-08/eddie-tells-the-boys
~ despite all the injuries and all the bad press and fan outrage this year, the club has managed to keep most of the AFL regulars who were happy to re-sign including the signings of Sloane, Seeds and Lynch. One is likely to depart with us (Mc....), but this appears to be more due to cash reasons rather than anything else.
2. Media's obvious bias in when to hound and when to ignore questioning. Here are some good examples:
~ 5 minute review Of Crow's 2018 season by Wilson and Hutchy- 98% focusing on the Preseason Camp, and literally 10 seconds of mentioning "oh yeah and there was also the injuries problem"
https://www.9now.com.au/footy-classified/2018/clip-cjlc8i74d002v0hozxkm0vwqj
~ Trade Talk with McClure's interview on Lynch on Trade Radio:
McClure you had 15 minutes to rectify any myths regarding the Camp you've been dwelling on for the entire 2018 season, why didn't you even mention it during the Lynch interview??
Lastly, do you really need a psychology degree to facilitate a mind strengthening, team bonding camp?
No.
Brian Taylor backs us in against McClure (titled "Sam McClure being a flog")
Remember the camp with Nigel Smart doing the fire walking?
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/the-day-smart-earned-the-nickname-notso-20020914-gdul9j.html
In 1992, Smart did something "Notso" Smart - firewalking. No psychologists were involved. Despite the ordeal and first degree burns to the feet, he ended up being one of our biggest legends in Crows colors - involved in a Preliminary Final in 1993, and Premiership player in 97 and 98. Smart didn't seem to have any psychological traumas despite a camp without a psychologist.
Were there any scars inflicted by blindfolds, sticks or trees in the recent Crows Camp?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
In summary, fans have every right to feel angered by the collapse of this year, after showing such promise all throughout last year. When you add it all up, there was a 3-day Camp and 100 days-worth of injuries. What do you think was the likely culprit of our failure in 2018? Camp debacle? Or media asses being just media asses?
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