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Don’t tar and feather all AFL players

Lainie Anderson

by Lainie Anderson

20 Feb 11:00am

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Filed under: Afl, Football, Obesity, Peter Costello, Schools

19 comments

Something about the Warne/Hurley tryst got right up Peter Costello’s nose last week.

It's about teaching AFL, not the meaning of life. Pic: Sarah Reed

In a rant that first bagged Warne and then slagged the self interest of elite sportsmen, the former Australian Treasurer ultimately suggested that parents should fear AFL-run sports clinics.

“Any right-thinking parent would quake with fear to hear that footballers were coming to their daughter’s school to give a little bit of inspiration,” he wrote.

Now, in the past I’ve been quick to skewer wayward sports stars. But to tar all AFL footballers with a single brush is akin to suggesting all politicians are rednecks because a few on the Right like to parrot the policies of One Nation.

With online news polls across the country showing that many Australians actually agree with Mr Costello, it’s worth speaking out against his ridiculous generalisation.

Perhaps Mr Costello spent his childhood in a quiet room, balancing profit and loss tables. But generations of Aussie kids have grown up idolising their favourite AFL stars, wearing their numbers and emulating their kicking styles on school ovals at lunchtime.

For AFL clubs to harness this passion and engage boys and girls in physical activity is not only a good thing. It’s absolutely essential.

Researching last week’s column on childhood obesity, it became quite clear that in the absence of adequate government funding,  elite sports men and women are propping up efforts to enthuse a sluggish generation of school children.

I also heard new SANFL Commissioner John Olsen say on Friday that footy clinics in the APY Lands have actually boosted retention rates among indigenous kids.

And Mr Costello thinks players should be mocked for this?

Two years ago, my two boys learned basic skills through the terrific Auskick program (administered by the AFL and coordinated by local clubs). Last year they donned their first teeny-weeny football guernseys in the Bridgewater Raiders Under 8s.

It was a hugely positive experience for the entire family. Jack and Harry learnt that teamwork works and that mediocrity isn’t too much fun (a principle we adults are far too reluctant to impart these days). Max and I learnt that our local community is filled with really nice, supportive people, all of us having a good old laugh barracking from the sidelines.

The greatest gift, though, was the work of 20-something Bridgewater brothers Steve and Haydn Smith in coaching the tiny team. At times they must have felt like they were herding highly excitable cats, but these guys remained respectful, focussed and motivated.

They didn’t proffer guidance on life skills (as Mr Costello assumes is the role of visiting ALF players). They just showed themselves to be mature, kind-hearted young men. As a result, my kids have been asking about the return of the footy season and Steve and Haydn all summer.

Those striving to maintain competitive sport at the grassroots level in Australia will tell you that sustaining club membership is an ever greater battle against busy lifestyles, apathy, insurance premiums and red tape (from police checks to health and safety regulations).

That’s a great worry, especially when you consider that 85 per cent of teenagers do not engage in enough physical activity to benefit their health and as a result now have lower life expectancies than their parents.

Comments like those uttered by Mr Costello rouse suspicion on the motives of all AFL players, instead of focussing on the abysmal behaviour of a tiny minority. In turn, they fuel community resentment that could ultimately raise apathy levels among even more parents and their expanding children.

For better or worse, children are big on idol worship. I for one would rather it’s a Crows or Power player – or Steve and Haydn Smith – than an inane TV character like iCarly or SpongeBob SquarePants.

Peter Costello is wrong. And those footballers who have never stepped out of line, who help with school clinics that get kids excited about exertion, should be cheered, not jeered with cheap shots by Australia’s elder statesmen.

Most commented

19 comments

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    • Zac de Spudnut says:

      11:51am | 20/02/11

      Lainie,

      A favourable view from a mum with 2 boys - AFL’s PR can’t get any better than this. May be a mum with 2 girls would have been the ultimate. Have you ever wondered why footy stars behave the way they behave? What or who influences their values? Is it the result of secular/materialistic world view? Seems to me a female has cracked the code:

      “Like for most feminists, it was a no-brainer for me to become a Democrat. Liberal men, not conservatives, were the ones devoted to women’s issues. They marched at my side in support of abortion rights. They were enthusiastic about women succeeding in the workplace.

      As time went on, I had many experiences that should have made me rethink my certainty. But I remained nestled in cognitive dissonance—therapy jargon for not wanting to see what I didn’t want to see.

      One clue: the miscreants who were brutalizing me didn’t exactly look Reagan-esque. In middle and high schools, they were minority kids enraged about forced busing. On the streets of New York City and Berkeley, they were derelicts and hoodlums.

      Another red flag: while liberal men did indeed hold up those picket signs, they didn’t do anything else to protect me. In fact, their social programs enabled bad behavior and bred chaos in urban America. And when I was accosted by thugs, those leftist men were missing in action.

      What else should have tipped me off? Perhaps the fact that so many men in ultra-left Berkeley are sleazebags. Rarely a week goes by that I don’t hear stories from my young female clients about middle-aged men preying on them. With the rationale of moral relativism, these creeps feel they can do anything they please.

      What finally woke me up were the utterances of “bitch,” “witch,” and “monster” toward Hillary Clinton and her supporters early last year. I was shocked into reality: the trash-talk wasn’t coming from conservatives, but from male and female liberals.

      I finally beheld what my eyes had refused to see: that leftists are Mr. and Ms. Misogyny. Neither the males nor the females care a whit about women.

      Women are continually sacrificed on the altar of political correctness. If under radical Islam women are enshrouded and stoned and beheaded, so be it.

      My other epiphanies: those ponytailed guys were marching for abortion rights not because they cherished women’s reproductive freedom, but to keep women available for free and easy sex.”

      Robin is a psychotherapist and a recovering liberal in Berkeley.

      http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/11/the_wilding_of_sarah_palin.html

      Reply

    • JK says:

      10:54am | 21/02/11

      I am sorry but what has this got to do with the price of fish in China? all you have done is talk abotu how Woman are oppressed in a liberal society that has nothing to do with footballers teachign kids. i am very confused by your need to bring such a damper on this story which is in essence abotu defending a group of people who have been defamed by a small minority.

    • TT says:

      12:04pm | 20/02/11

      Yeah, like politicians are in a position to comment - pot, kettle, black!

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      12:22pm | 20/02/11

      I’d like to tar and feather Warnie, but he’d come out lookin like Foghorn leghorn (apologies to Warner Bros), but as far as that dawg goes, don’t think I’d have a problem there.

      Reply

    • mary says:

      02:40pm | 20/02/11

      The really good thing about AFL players and the like is that the most virile, most physically able young men of our society have been placed ‘out of harms way’ by paying them ludicrous amounts of money to ‘not participate in society’ in a meaningful way. But instead they spend most their time running after balls of various sizes, or are they run by their balls? Occasionally a tiny minority of them still muck up and we should ignore this. Is that what you were getting at Lainie?

      Or was your point that they inspire little kids to follow them with these kind of games; be that girls or boys?

      Reply

    • Daniel says:

      12:06am | 21/02/11

      Perhaps her point might have been that the best role models for children are their parents, and perhaps parents who need to rely on men in their 20’s who they have never me, are in fact unfit to raise children.

    • Steve of Cornubia says:

      03:49pm | 20/02/11

      I think it’s hardly surprising that so many young men struggle with understanding right from wrong when they see AFL stars (and other so-called celebrities) commit appalling crimes and social faux pa, yet continue to earn big salaries and bask in their fans’ adoration. Why, some of them are even serial offenders, yet seem to escape punishment completely, or just get a half-hearted slap on the wrist.

      There are many reasons why violence in our streets is so common - it’s a complex issue - but I strongly believe that young minds are being corrupted by what they see on TV every other day, namely drug-taking, violence, sexual predation and disgusting behaviour by sports stars and celebrities effectively going unpunished.

      Reply

    • Zoe says:

      10:35pm | 20/02/11

      Or on the other hand do you think that it could actually be a small percentage of footballers who play up. A similar percentage maybe to that of ordinary young men? (and women) The young have always binged in one way or another and generally played up. I dont think they do it because they see sportstars do it. I think its just something many young people do - no matter where they grew up or what they do for a living. For little kids it really doesnt help that the media show incidents over and over. Perhaps they could concentrate more on players such as Brad Johnson who saves stray dogs. Children probably see adult friends and relatives get drunk at parties/Christmas etc anyway and arent they more of a role model at that age anyway? Still, I wouldnt really want St Kilda players anywhere near my daughter’s high school!!

    • Daniel says:

      12:08am | 21/02/11

      I grew up seeing all that stuff in the media and I’m fine.

    • Steve of Cornubia says:

      09:45am | 21/02/11

      Zoe, you’ve missed the point. That people ‘play up’ as you call it (surely a term that itself trivialises some quite awful behaviour) goes without saying. However, when young people see these ‘celebs’ commit crime and effectively going unpunished, THAT sends the wrong signals. In fact, we have even seen crime rewarded, when actors’ careers are given a boost when they are convicted of crime, i.e. Robert Downey Junior.

    • Tim says:

      10:14am | 21/02/11

      Steve,
      which unpunished crimes are you talking about?
      If anything I think these celebs are far more likely to get caught than your average Joe and are also far more likely to receive a harsher punishment because of their public profile.
      You mention Downey Jr as an example but you do realise he spent many months in jail for his crimes?

    • Steve of Cornubia says:

      10:52am | 21/02/11

      Tim: of course I know. Yet, when he was released, Hollywood producers were apparently falling over themselves to cast him in their movies. Also, Winona Ryder herself admitted that interest in her from producers increased when she was convicted of shoplifting!

      As to sports stars being treated differently, there are many well-documented examples of them behaving badly, without any apparent damage done to their careers. They are given ‘second chances’ again and again. It sometimes seems that they are only tipped out of the game when bad behaviour coincides with poor form on the field.

    • PeteQ says:

      04:03pm | 20/02/11

      I’ve rethought the issue after your article. I think you’re right, kids need idols, and people who encourage sport are ideal. Shame the minority wreck it: by the way, I think Costello was being partly figurative. I would be slightly scared if I had racy daughters and they started hanging out with football players - but the problem’s equally with the ‘daughters’ and their value-less susceptibility.
      ps. @ Zac De Spundt: Jeez Americans can talk alot about themselves and their self-absorbed worlds - the irony misses them completely. I couldn’t follow the mind-dump, and struggled to find the link back to the point of the original article.

      Reply

    • Andrew says:

      06:35am | 21/02/11

      That term, “right-thinking”, if it is not right out of Orwell, certainly belongs there, because those who use it want the reader to think that the writer and the writer alone is entitled to define it. Stick it up your jumper, Costello.

      Reply

    • Carl Palmer says:

      08:37am | 21/02/11

      If this is a reflection of his myopic view on this subject, I can only assume that permeates throughout his being.  I have no problem in Mr Costello making controversial statements but commends like this really makes him look like a first class dope and now explains why he didn’t or couldn’t step up to the plate.

      Reply

    • Amy Sturt says:

      09:24am | 21/02/11

      You’re ignoring the problem, Lainie.  AFL players went to a school as part of the undoubtedly excellent education programme to encourage more kids into sport.  That sounds great.  Fantastic.  I wish we had more programs like that here in Sydney.  The problem is that a player who attended this school visit pursued a sexual relationship with a girl he had met at said school visit.  The AFL investigated and found nothing untoward in that.  Hello, Problem!  That’s how I read Costello’s quote and I agree with him entirely.

      Reply

    • richo says:

      10:17am | 21/02/11

      I agree with your comments Amy. I also like how they point out that AFL players have a great time with kids at Auskick clinics and other events, but rarely do they point out that their contract states they have to attend these programmes. If it wasn’t compulsory, how many would attend? They do because they have to, not because they are such loving gentlemen, which is maybe why some who find it boring and tedious misbehave.

    • GB says:

      10:39am | 21/02/11

      You’re making it sound like they met at the clinic and details were exchanged there. That didn’t happen. They did “meet” at the clinic but nothing happened between them then - the player met the girl in the same way he would have “met” every other kid present, hello how are you goodbye.
      In the whole messy saga the clinic is basically irrelevant.

    • Libby Mitchell says:

      07:23am | 29/04/11

      Perhaps if Peter Costello had supported his brother Tim Costello a little more, to make the scourge of our lives eg pokies safer, fewer sports stars would have lost the plot with gambling addiction, that has also much dented the clean sports image. Can’t have it both ways Pete! Liberals a la Kennett and Howard turned their backs for years on the pokies hell that they created. Spent their time feting their casino mates, with sports clubs living off pokies too. Now when the sh!t hits the fan and our sports high-flyers get stressed, just like other people…you call for personal responsibility etc…but what about government responsibility? YOU and your ilk created the environment in the first place. Now you have gone and society is reaping the fruits of your bad decisions…and you say it is not good enough? Message to Peter Costello? YOU take responsibility TOO and stop your bleating. DO something with your time like your brother Tim does Peter to truly make healthy social changes…and we may listen.

      Reply
 
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