Sackermanis: Cast out for being different

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.