Pamam
Premiership Player
Slap on the wrist
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/blue-humour/2008/04/09/1207420493896.html
EARLIER this year Chris Judd's car was broken into outside his inner-Melbourne home. The Carlton captain discovered the smashed front windscreen when he went to leave for training so, naturally, he went inside and organised alternate transport to the club.
A teammate didn't come for him, nor a taxi. He called a chauffeur driver service.
That week he was presented with a thin wristband with the words, "Harden The F#@&; Up" printed on it.
The glamour signing of the season was the latest recipient of the club's rotating award for the person who needed a reality check and to toughen up. He wore the wristband for the week.
No one is safe. Not Judd. Not even Brett Ratten the coach. In South Africa on the pre-season trip, Ratten was struck by a gastro bug.
Deathly pale, the coach got through training and team commitments that day but excused himself from a reception at the Australian High Commission that night.
Not good enough. The players told the coach, in the words of comedian Ronnie Johns — Harden The F@#$ Up. Ratten wore the wristband for a week.
"Justin Cordy, our high-performance coach, came up with the idea," Ratten said. "We had been thinking of things to make sure the players were pushing each other to always do the utmost and Justin thought of the band. It has grown from there.
"We weren't saying they were soft, but it is saying 'no short-cuts' everyone is accountable for their actions. It is more about saying 'don't whinge, do the work, get it done'. No short-cuts. It is just meant to kick everyone in and cow prod them and it creates a bit of banter and fun."
While the sentiment is serious, the awards meetings rarely are. Every tier of the team's leadership attends the meetings to allocate votes.
The coaching staff make sure no one has been missed. No one is.
Weights coach Stuart Livingstone has been gonged, his offence being too proud to wear tops that are too small in the gym. Football manager Steven Icke played golf one week and the next day at work was seen by players icing sore muscles. Gone. Band.
The secretary of the football department was hit in the head by a footy and had the temerity to cry "ouch". Sook. She got the band. The property steward took 20 cones to South Africa for training when double or triple that number were needed. Band.
Ryan Jackson shaved his armpit hair for some reason — presumably a prank — but it did not sit well with his teammates. Soft. Band.
"If someone blows up out of tune or says something that is very selfish they cop it," Ratten said. "Cain Ackland had a shoulder op but the boys said, 'he is the only bloke who has been out for 16 weeks with an AC sprain' and he got it. Aisake (O'hAilpin) had an MRI and about four tests one week but the boys said they had never seen a bloke need four tests and MRIs early in the week because something was so crook then say he should be right for the weekend, so he copped it."
Ratten said when he took over at Carlton he wanted to bring the Carlton back to Carlton. He is also bringing something of himself to the team in attitude and approach. This was the way Ratten and his generation of Carlton premiership players approached football.
Sport was a game, but the game was serious fun. The time for work meant just that. Corners were not cut, the game was played hard but when work stopped so did the seriousness.
In its foundation year it is an approach the coach wants to embrace, particularly with a young list seeking to make its way in the game together.
"People talk about having young lists, but the facts are we have the youngest list in the AFL by 270 games. We have no players over 30, 28 is our highest," he said.
"Anyone can quote whatever they want but in games played we are 270 games off the next list, which is Hawthorn. Each club has 38 players, so if you put 22 games into 13 players that is a third of the average list playing a whole year of AFL that we have less than the next team. That is a lot of football to make up."
That inexperience explains fluctuations in form — perhaps why the side was inexplicably flat against Richmond. Maybe it also explains why it let in soft late goals against Essendon, a club the Blues traditionally approach not believing they can defeat, but expecting to.
It makes defeat so much more difficult to take, even at a time when losing has become a habit that could perhaps stretch to the longest losing sequence in the club's history this weekend. "I think our expectations for some people might have been a bit higher than where we are at, but with a young group and confidence you don't know how far and how quickly they can go," Ratten said.
"Because you are zero and three, what were the Kangaroos after three rounds last year? Zero and three. What were Melbourne the year before? Zero and three.
"There has been a team every year that has been zero and three and made it, so who are the teams that are left, Carlton, Melbourne and Port Adelaide.
"History suggests one of these three might make the eight, people might think it might be Port Adelaide because of the grand final last year but history shows you are not out of it. We are not out of it."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Different kind of article for once, and was very refreshing to read
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/blue-humour/2008/04/09/1207420493896.html
EARLIER this year Chris Judd's car was broken into outside his inner-Melbourne home. The Carlton captain discovered the smashed front windscreen when he went to leave for training so, naturally, he went inside and organised alternate transport to the club.
A teammate didn't come for him, nor a taxi. He called a chauffeur driver service.
That week he was presented with a thin wristband with the words, "Harden The F#@&; Up" printed on it.
The glamour signing of the season was the latest recipient of the club's rotating award for the person who needed a reality check and to toughen up. He wore the wristband for the week.
No one is safe. Not Judd. Not even Brett Ratten the coach. In South Africa on the pre-season trip, Ratten was struck by a gastro bug.
Deathly pale, the coach got through training and team commitments that day but excused himself from a reception at the Australian High Commission that night.
Not good enough. The players told the coach, in the words of comedian Ronnie Johns — Harden The F@#$ Up. Ratten wore the wristband for a week.
"Justin Cordy, our high-performance coach, came up with the idea," Ratten said. "We had been thinking of things to make sure the players were pushing each other to always do the utmost and Justin thought of the band. It has grown from there.
"We weren't saying they were soft, but it is saying 'no short-cuts' everyone is accountable for their actions. It is more about saying 'don't whinge, do the work, get it done'. No short-cuts. It is just meant to kick everyone in and cow prod them and it creates a bit of banter and fun."
While the sentiment is serious, the awards meetings rarely are. Every tier of the team's leadership attends the meetings to allocate votes.
The coaching staff make sure no one has been missed. No one is.
Weights coach Stuart Livingstone has been gonged, his offence being too proud to wear tops that are too small in the gym. Football manager Steven Icke played golf one week and the next day at work was seen by players icing sore muscles. Gone. Band.
The secretary of the football department was hit in the head by a footy and had the temerity to cry "ouch". Sook. She got the band. The property steward took 20 cones to South Africa for training when double or triple that number were needed. Band.
Ryan Jackson shaved his armpit hair for some reason — presumably a prank — but it did not sit well with his teammates. Soft. Band.
"If someone blows up out of tune or says something that is very selfish they cop it," Ratten said. "Cain Ackland had a shoulder op but the boys said, 'he is the only bloke who has been out for 16 weeks with an AC sprain' and he got it. Aisake (O'hAilpin) had an MRI and about four tests one week but the boys said they had never seen a bloke need four tests and MRIs early in the week because something was so crook then say he should be right for the weekend, so he copped it."
Ratten said when he took over at Carlton he wanted to bring the Carlton back to Carlton. He is also bringing something of himself to the team in attitude and approach. This was the way Ratten and his generation of Carlton premiership players approached football.
Sport was a game, but the game was serious fun. The time for work meant just that. Corners were not cut, the game was played hard but when work stopped so did the seriousness.
In its foundation year it is an approach the coach wants to embrace, particularly with a young list seeking to make its way in the game together.
"People talk about having young lists, but the facts are we have the youngest list in the AFL by 270 games. We have no players over 30, 28 is our highest," he said.
"Anyone can quote whatever they want but in games played we are 270 games off the next list, which is Hawthorn. Each club has 38 players, so if you put 22 games into 13 players that is a third of the average list playing a whole year of AFL that we have less than the next team. That is a lot of football to make up."
That inexperience explains fluctuations in form — perhaps why the side was inexplicably flat against Richmond. Maybe it also explains why it let in soft late goals against Essendon, a club the Blues traditionally approach not believing they can defeat, but expecting to.
It makes defeat so much more difficult to take, even at a time when losing has become a habit that could perhaps stretch to the longest losing sequence in the club's history this weekend. "I think our expectations for some people might have been a bit higher than where we are at, but with a young group and confidence you don't know how far and how quickly they can go," Ratten said.
"Because you are zero and three, what were the Kangaroos after three rounds last year? Zero and three. What were Melbourne the year before? Zero and three.
"There has been a team every year that has been zero and three and made it, so who are the teams that are left, Carlton, Melbourne and Port Adelaide.
"History suggests one of these three might make the eight, people might think it might be Port Adelaide because of the grand final last year but history shows you are not out of it. We are not out of it."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Different kind of article for once, and was very refreshing to read
!
