Well, it’s official. Footballers are processed meat. Anyone who dares add a touch of spice must be eliminated and buried deeper than toxic waste.

Here's lookin' at you, doll.

If you haven’t yet caught the news, Brownlow medallist and triple premiership player Jason Akermanis has been sacked from his second club, the Western Bulldogs. This, remember, is the club that opened its arms to Big Bad Barry Hall, so you’d assume they’re prepared to give guys something approaching a long leash.

But no. Today, they’ve decided enough is enough. Seeya Aker. Don’t forget to take your ego on the way out.

The club wouldn’t specify the specific incident which caused this afternoon’s shock sacking, offering only broad generalisations like “we just can’t have someone that doesn’t want to toe the party line” and “we can’t tolerate unique individuals who don’t play by team rules”.

Oh, and don’t forget all those “breaches” and “non compliance” with the “trademarks our club stands for”. Shucks, isn’t modern footy romantic?

There are two clear sides here. One is that two points make a line. That Aker left the Brisbane Lions with barely a friend and has now alienated virtually everyone at the Bulldogs. So clearly, this peroxided lunatic with the uncontrollable ego is an intolerable distraction.

The flipside is that modern footy has become so sanitised, it can’t cope with Akermanis. People call it vanilla, but that’s an overstatement. Vanilla is a flavour! If only the AFL culture actively cultivated by Andrew Demetriou had that much taste.

Obviously, Aker has said some ridiculous rubbish in his newspaper columns and elsewhere, not least his recent rant that homosexuals wouldn’t fit into the culture of a modern football club. But his main “crime” has been nothing more than to stand out. To dare to be different. To be what most of us are: a human being with his own personality, opinions and foibles.

How ironic that he himself is now the outcast that football’s culture has no place for.

Before I go, here are a couple of choice quotes from an interview I did with Aker hen he left the Lions back in 2006.

“The good people in the world get suppressed by people who have agendas and narrow minds.”

This, from his autobiography, on his early years:

“I spent the first couple of years of my life living in a caravan. There were plenty of tough times and, while I grew up with a chip on my shoulder… I survived by doing things my way - for right or for wrong. That has won me more enemies than friends at times, but that’s OK. I’ve been fighting battles since the day I was born.”

And this, channelling Tom Cruise:

“I’ve come to the realisation that some people just can’t handle the truth.”

And this, on the worst thing he’s done.

“I think I ran a red light that was really yellow. Yeah, that’s it. That’s the worst thing I’ve done.”

The football world won’t be the same without your sense of humour, Aker. Good luck with life after footy.

Most commented

47 comments

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    • Nigel Catchlove says:

      06:43pm | 21/07/10

      He was just ‘moved aside’ so there is room in the salary-cap for Julia Gillard to play full-forward.

    • MarK says:

      06:58pm | 21/07/10

      So very very sad this is.

      Unless there is actually something internally we are unaware of. If it is just for his columns and opinions it is a disgrace.

    • Yankee Hotel Foxtrot says:

      07:22pm | 21/07/10

      Poor article and a very weak argument.
      Being different is one thing, the Dogs knew he was different and they had no problem with his media commitments.
      It did have a problem with his indiscrections. The club publically backed him when he said his words had been altered in his offending article this year.
      He then retracted his statement that he was not aware his words had been altered.
      He was then counselled amongst the club about this and other indiscretions (ie divulding in-house conversations to the media).
      He was given an opportunity and clear roadmap as to what they wanted him to do. He then continued to flout this.
      How else was the club to proceed. In the end he made the decision himself by refusing to curtail his poor behaviour.
      Aker is a classic perpetual victim in his own eyes, a narcissist, unable to even consider that he has ever committed a wrong, as evinced by his inability to even admit he had lied ot the club about not knowing his words had been changed with his knowledge.
      It’s easy to write an article about the demise of another ‘free spirit’ and how this is a victory for those who want a society of automatons, it’s a lot harder yet nonetheless still correct to look at all the facts, and present a balanced picture.
      Article fail.

    • Dan says:

      03:12am | 22/07/10

      Great post. The claim that Akermanis was sacked because he’s ‘different’ is absurd. Not only are there plenty of footballers who are different, but being different isn’t in of itself a good thing. It depends on how you are different, and the problem with Aker was that his teammates couldn’t trust him. They didn’t merely dislike him (Tyson Edwards and Andrew Mcleod hated each other and the Crows did fine); they did not believe that he was on the same page as them and they simply couldn’t trust him. He could have altered his behaviour but choose not to. Thus, they had no choice.

    • Minefield of publishing rights says:

      07:26pm | 21/07/10

      Hah, the “truth” according to Acker I think you meant, no great loss, didn’t really show much in the last VFL match either….

    • short says:

      10:07pm | 21/07/10

      You’re right.  Kicking 5 goals….didn’t show much.  How many did you kick last weekend mate?

    • ABC says:

      09:21am | 22/07/10

      C’mon Short.  The guy is a brownlow medallist.  If he was on form and in touch he would have kicked way more than 5.  For a footballer of his calibre to only kick five demonstrates he is either on the way down (which he has been for a good while - only 77 games in four years is a waste of time and money on the Western Bulldogs behalf), or he was marked well by a talented opponent.

    • KJN says:

      07:36pm | 21/07/10

      The kid can play, but like Warnie he should just keep his mouth SHUT!

    • Dan says:

      12:05am | 22/07/10

      Don’t compare Warne to Akermanis. Warne was never accused of being untrustworthy by teammates, and he was never told that he wasn’t wanted. To compare Akermanis to Warnie is an insult to Warnie.

    • Victoria Cooper says:

      12:12am | 22/07/10

      Yes, just like Warnie did - he preferred to get into trouble by SMS

    • Front Up says:

      08:01pm | 21/07/10

      Well, as Akermanis who regularly contacts the PM - a former IR lawyer - this is a very good indication that Labor’s workplace relations provisions are shyte - and she’s no good at getting anyone out of anything.
      Think about it.
      First, she shivs Latham, then she backdoors Kevin Rudd… now, she abandons Aker.
      This is too much.

    • Lee says:

      08:11pm | 21/07/10

      Good article, It is rather tiresome hearing ‘the club’ ethos/mentality and core values drummed being drummed into everyone from juniors to the elite level. These clubs demand undivided loyalty and support, yet this club loyalty only seems to flow in one direction. The moment a player or board member goes against the grain or is approaching their used by date, these values which are promoted with almost religious fervour, tend to fall by the wayside. These masters of tautology only mould these ‘values’ to suit their ‘brand’ or agenda. Clubs these days seem to be more about appearance and ostricising than a social retreat.

    • Evan Findlay says:

      08:22pm | 21/07/10

      He was dumped for the same reason Brisbane dumped him, he is not willing to toe the line. Watch him unsettle the Bulldogs final’s hopes by telling all. The likes of Smorgan and Eade have just p*ssed away their finals chance, not by the sacking of Akermanis but more because of the timing and the repercussions.

    • True Bulldog says:

      01:58pm | 22/07/10

      Rubbish Evan, in fact the club will be a tighter unit now than they where before and it will galvanize the group.

      A strong win on the weekend and solid finish to the season that grabs fourth spot and Aker will be a distant memory.

    • Lamb says:

      08:41pm | 21/07/10

      If he has no friends in one club, may be there is a compatability issue with the club’s culture. However if the same thing happened in a different club with different culture, the person has a big problem with his own personality. Anthony, a lot of people with big ego can be successful. Unfortunately this guy THINKS that he is smart which in fact is not. He make a lot of noise like empty vessels. It is not a case that he is dare to be different but different in an abrasive way. Anthony you arguement does not hold much water. Remember only a second rater will try to be smart.

    • Rocky Raccoon says:

      09:04pm | 21/07/10

      Clearly the fact that he is unwanted at two seperate clubs including the team that gave him a second chance must say somthing. There are plenty of different characters in football but being a character and being a “d**kead are two different things. One makes a football team exciting, the other makes a football team divided.

    • Radagast says:

      09:56pm | 21/07/10

      He was sacked for mouthing off.

    • Fog Badger says:

      10:21pm | 21/07/10

      For being an opinionated dullard.

    • Tango says:

      10:50pm | 21/07/10

      Footballers should just play the game and leave commentary to journos and former players and coaches. Surely players get enough attention by playing the game well. If they have to mouth off about issues they don’t understand and if they have to shoot their mouths off about things discussed in the club to get attention, it’s time to retire. He might be a good player, but he’s not a team player and that makes him a liability.

    • Peter says:

      11:13pm | 21/07/10

      Akermanis is a loud mouthed, opinionated tool. He appeals to other loud mouthed, opinionated tools - like Anthony Sharwood.

    • Peter says:

      10:40am | 22/07/10

      I counted 4 opinions in your statement..

    • Vincent says:

      11:44pm | 21/07/10

      “I’ve come to the realisation that some people just can’t handle the truth.”

      Your own words Aker describe you to a tee, you cant handle the truth about yourself.  You nearly wrecked the team harmony at Brisbane and now your ego will blame everybody else at the dogs.  Sometime in the future you will realise without your football profile you will be left with just your ego and no media profile.  Mid life crisis here comes Aker.

    • Paul says:

      09:33am | 22/07/10

      I could not agree more with this. That guy is poison.

    • Harrison says:

      11:46pm | 21/07/10

      Weak article, the author is trying hard to prove football can’t handle anyone who is different.  Sharwood’s argument seems to come from a preconceived position, unfortunately for him, Aker is not different and his type is too familiar in modern sport.  Aker tries harder to please his media bosses, through controversial comments and misguided attempts at humour, than his recent efforts on the football feild.  His comments on homosexuals, which he never had the courage to claim as his own, his oppponents and his self indulgent justifications and demands for senior selection showed a man who was putting himself and his “look at me” need for noteriety ahead of the team in the country’s most competetive team sport.  That he seems willing to trade football confidences for noterity is the reason he is no longer a footballer.
      This just leaves one question for Aker, who is the dribbler now?  The answer seems to be Aker and Anthony Sharwood.

    • Razor says:

      11:52pm | 21/07/10

      Anthony - you may not realise it but the AFL and it’s clubs are massive businesses.  If Aker wants to be himself he is most welcome to go and play amatuer footy.  Otherwise he needs to be smart enough to keep his very well paid job.

    • Brendan says:

      12:26am | 22/07/10

      The article seems to point out what he did wrong, then says “but that wasn’t it! It’s cause he’s different.”

      Well homosexual players would certainly be different and Akermanis wasn’t up for accepting them. No sympathy here.

    • BK says:

      07:50am | 22/07/10

      OK know-it-alls, exactly which incident lead to the sacking? The theory that Aker is too individual is plausible, but not backed up with facts.Until we know exactly why he got sacked its a bit much to pass judgement.

    • martin says:

      08:29am | 22/07/10

      My god, that seems like an intelligent comment, the judgemental attitudes on here are a sad reflection of the human condition, bring down that tall poppy. I believe that anyone else sacked from their occupation under such flimsy reasonings would be subject to compensation via unfair dismissal laws. i hope Acker, one of this generations truly great players, gets his day in court and the bulldogs heirachy, a pathetic sad indictement on individuality. are forced to publically apologise and pay a massive compo.  It matters not what he says, words are cheap and he deserves to retain his position on any legal and moral grounds you wish to use

    • Justin says:

      07:51am | 22/07/10

      Ahh, the Catherine Deveny argument. How refreshing…..

    • Ant Sharwood says:

      09:11am | 22/07/10

      Catherine Deveny should have been locked away for that crap she said about Bindi. Aker never did or said anything even remotely as bad, Justin.

      Interesting this morning to see most people are in favoure of Aker’s sacking, and fair enough. As I said in the piece, there was a strong argument for ditching him. I also happen to feel there was an even stronger one for tolerating him.

      Either way, putting up with a loudmouth like him and an-attention-seeking moral vacuum like Deveny are two totally different cases, Justin.

      BK, regarding your enquiry about why we he was sacked, there’s some pretty good stuff here
      http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/when-i-was-told-i-was-sacked-i-broke-down-for-15-minutes/story-e6frf9jf-1225895339960

    • Elphaba says:

      08:58am | 22/07/10

      I’m ok with it.  He’s being paid to play football.  If he’s going to write, he needs to stick to what he knows.

      This ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ mantra is being peddled by people covering their ears and closing their eyes and desperately praying that homosexuality doesn’t exist.  He needs to get a grip.  So long as a player, no matter what colour or sexual preference, plays decent footy and doesn’t do anything illegal, or anything that brings the club or game into serious public disrepute, who cares?

      Acker is a dickhead.  He got what he deserved.

    • Peter says:

      10:25am | 22/07/10

      He has got homosexual friends, he gives his opinion about the distraction it would be for a footballer in coming out (remember most of these footballer are still kids), and to you he is a dickhead and got what he deserved.. I hope you have reserved similar harsh judgements on accused rapists in the AFL as well…

    • Elphaba says:

      12:03pm | 22/07/10

      We aren’t talking about accused rapists in football.  That’s a completely different topic.

    • Peter says:

      02:14pm | 22/07/10

      Well if we started sacking people from the workplace for being dickheads,  then all us who have an opinion and write on the punch should lose our jobs also… Elphaba, i assure you that Acker would never have called you a dickhead, but you’ve still got your job…

    • Greek Snake says:

      03:02pm | 22/07/10

      Elphaba, he was hired with the knowledge that he was accepting employment from both News Limited for his column and from MTR for his radio appearances. Western Bulldogs KNEW this. They did not hire him solely on the basis of playing AFL.

      To add insult to injury, Smorgan goes around saying “it had nothing to do with opinion”. What a joke.

      Players have been kept on for drugs, rape, sexual abuse, criminal behaviour, drunken antics and explicit rants, but not Aker. No he must have done something so sinister, so evil that it was unforgivable.

      Aker shared one of his workplaces with Sam Newman. The man who rubbished the Western Bulldogs director and got done for defamation. Susan Alberti (in all her glorious irrelevance) couldn’t handle that. Aker had to go. Simple as that.

    • Ant Sharwood says:

      09:16am | 22/07/10

      Also, this from Aker

      “I feel emotional writing this because I wanted to be a player who gave something off the field and have fun. After all, this is just a game and we’re in the sport entertainment industry and not North Korea.”

    • Peter says:

      11:03am | 22/07/10

      Acker is a smart man.. He knows we are heading into the direction of the similar types of censorship that our governments used to scare us about in the 80’s when the communist block was still around…

    • Steve_of_Cornubia says:

      09:20am | 22/07/10

      Finally, a footy player crosses the line.

      I was beginning to wonder what a player had to do in order to get sacked, because cearly rape, drunkeness, public nudity, drug taking, drink driving, under-age sex, brawling in nightclubs, glassing girlfreinds, breaking and entering, driving while disqualified, resisting arrest, foul language in public, etc, etc aren’t considered sacking offences.

      No, to draw the ire of a club, they have to do something REALLY bad, like have a non-PC opinion.

      What a corrupt world football is.

    • Zaf says:

      09:56am | 22/07/10

      if Ian Roberts wasn’t fired from RL for being ‘different’, perhaps it really IS that Aker is impossible to get on with.  Teamwork requires a team, right? (Also, Aker should just come out.)

    • Peter says:

      10:12am | 22/07/10

      The way the AFL controls its employees is disgusting. That regime is much much worse than communist China. Jeez, a player can’t even suggest he should have got a free kick for something with the risk of a $5000 fine..

      Take a hard long look at yourself AFL because the way you treat your staff is revolting to say the least….

    • Jon says:

      10:22am | 22/07/10

      Aker, was a colourful character and a great player in his day. Despite his ranting, he deserved better.

    • dw says:

      01:51pm | 22/07/10

      if this guy was sacked for expressing his personal traits, then he was correct about the closet nature of homosexuality in the club rooms of the AFL. It just reinforces the point that if you are ‘different’, if you don’t ‘toe the party line’, you will not be tolerated - or employed.

      Until each club publicly endorses the legitimacy of a gay lifestyle within the club culture, gay players would definitely feel the need to keep their sexual orientation hidden.

      Statistically there would be more than a dozen gay AFL players playing this weekend.

    • Randal says:

      02:27pm | 22/07/10

      Ant, I understand where you are coming from and I think most in the media have mourned the passing of the ‘true characters’ of football, with so many of today’s stars media trained to the point of blandness. This is of course what the clubs and the AFL want, and the Jason Akermanis of this world are an endangered species, and he only survived in the game as long as he did due to that rare gift he possessed to play the game as few others can.

      That said, in many ways the Bulldogs had little or no choice, as from my mail it was the playing group at the instigation of the leadership group that voted unanimously to oust Aker. It was made crystal clear to those in charge of the club that to not act would create a divide between the playing group and the administration - leaving Aker and a club (on the verge of third consecutive finals campaign) in an untenable position.

      Someone had to go and that someone was always going to be Aker, who had been steadily alienating the playing group for the past six or seven months.

      In the end it was details being released of a book that the players have been led to believe was highly critical of senior members of the playing and group and past champions of the club that was the final straw, and this on top of continued breaches of trust meant that Aker had lost the players whom no longer wished to play with him. Even his closet allies amongst the playing group agreed that he had to go, from there it was a fait accompli and the club then did what it had to do.

      Did the Bulldogs make mistakes with Aker, without doubt, and the biggest of this was to allow him to play on in 2010 with an increased media profile. This with the value of hindsight was always going to create tensions within the club, and perhaps the pitfalls of such an arrangement should have been better thought through, but the dogs were chasing a premiership and this can be blinding in regards to the management of player with the talent of Akermanis.

      Whilst Aker’s sacking provided a sad end to his brilliant on field career, and despite mistakes by the club, it is Aker himself who should carry the lion share of blame for his own demise, and the similarities between what has occurred at the Bulldogs and the Lions all point to the fact that Aker always failed to understand where the line of trust sits amongst teamates and as a result his football career has ended some 2 months early.

    • Steve_of_Cornubia says:

      04:46pm | 22/07/10

      I presume the ‘players group’ would have had no problem with this guy if he’d done something less evil, like glassing his girlfreind or taking illegal drugs?

      Sorry, I don’t watch the BBC (Bat and Ball Club) and so I’m probably missing the point, but to the ‘uneducated’ like myself, this looks very, very strange.

      I also find it strange that so many players are arrested for and/or accused of rape/violence/DUI etc yet so few are actually prosecuted. Even allowing for their fame and public profile, you’ve got to be highly suspicious.

    • Bretto says:

      11:15pm | 22/07/10

      Anthony.  Thank your for your opinion piece; which is not the same as real journalism. How did you win a Walkley again? I guess you happen to be Akermanis fan number one.  Was it that he was really just different?  Good try. Maybe if you had a picture of him standing with the aussie flag wrapped around him it would be more believeable.  No actually it would not.

      It wasn’t that he was just different.:
      1. How was it that Sam Newman knew to grill Adam Cooney about a confidential senior players meeting with Aker about his behaviour? Hmm, who does he work with at a radio station? Oh yes Aker.  So you cannot trust him to keep things confidential.
      Summary: he can’t be trusted to keep things confidential when he should.
      2. Aker let slip that Lappin had broken ribs in the week before the Collingwood final.  If I was Lappin (and the other team mates) I would be incensed as that means he will be targeted and he was a vital cog at the time. This is professional football 101 and he failed.  Have you played any football at a relatively high level?  You do not divulge that stuff.
      Summary: Puts his own ego before his team (he wanted to have his sound bites in the media even though it was to the detriment of the teams tactics.
      3. I’m sorry what was his “brother” supposed to have called is coach at the time (Leigh Matthews), oh yes a f#$kwit.
      Summary: has an inability to show respect to a coach who done more in his lifetime than aker ever will.
      4. Lied about what he knew of the content of the “gay footballer article”.
      Summary: cannot be trusted
      5. Playing quite poorly at the time (had since found some form) and his replacements ahve not been doing too bad - at least they are willing to follow their man back in defence.
      Summary: not needed on the field.
      6. Made a very serious, unsubstantiated allegation against Michael Braun based on the fact that he got well and truly beaten.
      Summary: seeks to deflect his own failings by making up stories to assuage his own ego

      Those are just a few things that have nothing to do with just being different.  Football is a team sport.  The team that invariably wins is a champion team not a team of champions (in soccer look at Real Madrid versus Bayern Munich and where they got to in the Champions League). To be a chmapion team requires the etyhos of putting the team before the individual.  There have been plenty of larrikins in footy but the ones that stick around were the ones that still put in the hard yards for the team not the individual when it was needed.  Aker has never done that.

      Say hello to Aker when you see him at his next BBQ.

    • Gregg says:

      01:14pm | 23/07/10

      Was it BK who stated ” name the thing he was sacked for ” ?
      Well in Ackers own words, Brad Johnston and a meeting of players decided they didn’t as a team want Acker in it.
      That had come about by a number of things, his column, information about how the club was dealing with him aired by Sammy, a book to come out and those events no doubt leading to more friction with players at the Dogs.
      Luke Power has summed it up pretty well with
      ” He’s been probably one of the champions of our game and for a bloke to go out like that, its very sad. It just goes to show that no individual is greater than the team.’’ 
      To have cast him with BBB is a slight on BBB for whilst BBB has earnt his reputation for being a wild child on the field, it would seem he has knuckled down for the team at Footscray and he keeps a reasonably low profile off the field despite some appearances on the Footy show and his not going on last night shows his team commitmitment and discipline.
      You’ll always have your oddballs about in whatever field and some can be successful as Acker has shown he can be but look at all your most successful and you may find most have a commitment first to what they are doing and in team sports to the team.
      And it is the latter in which he hasn’t come up to the mark.

    • Ant Sharwood says:

      03:40pm | 23/07/10

      You guys are all starting to convince me you’re right. There are some pretty well researched, well written arguments up there.

      I still dig Aker, but. Can’t help it. Just really like and respect the guy.

 

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