Last week one of greatest men of all time died, after 30 years of battling a disease that tore at the very fabric of the quality of his life.
He conquered the challenges of many men of his time, somewhat similar to those we are facing today and have since the beginning of time - wars of race and religion being fought in far off lands.
Muhammad Ali changed the way people see sportsmen. His was a viscous sport. One of true battle.
One day put on a pair of gloves, ask a friend to hold some pads and do your best for 3 rounds of 3 minutes.
Now put someone in front of you weighing 200 + pounds who wants to hit you harder than you can hit him. Ali was the greatest of all time at this and he did it with character and style.
Last week a few other men passed away.
One was a man who worked a field on the driest parts of Africa. That man didn't have press conferences each day before he went out to work. His fans were still asleep in their straw beds when he left for work and his greatest fan, would wake when he left with hope that her man would return safe and sound, well after dark that night.
Another man died last week. He would leave his modest 3 bedroom house and go to work with no crowds cheering for him as he trudged through the cold morning rain. Every day he would sit on a train for 90 minutes to go a job he had done for 25 years in a warehouse.
All these men were as great as the other.
Some have the innate ability to draw a crowd and have people listen to their passionate words, some just do what they do to bring food to the table.
I, in no way, am doubting the greatness of Ali.
But what makes a man great?
I also want to make it clear that I see the same challenges in a woman. What makes a woman great?
No person is perfect or can ever be.
Ali was far from perfect. But when time came to do a job for firstly himself and in turn for another, he was the best he could be.
Ali was a boxer and that's maybe why he fought those last few fights, when many felt he shouldn't.
But he went to work, like the man in Africa and the man at the warehouse, and did what it is he does best.
Ali inspired men, women and children all over the world to be great. Those other two men who also died last week inspired those closest to them. Those kids, in their straw beds, would watch their Father as he went out to the fields and they thought to themselves 'I have to use the opportunity my father has given me'.
Ali fought battles in an out of the ring for his entire life. That day a boy stole his bike when he was 14 and he went to the gym to learn how to box, was the beginning.
I enjoyed watching the 'Ali' show and learning about his legacy. As I have of many other sportsmen.
They have said that he was the greatest of all time.
I suggest that the greatest of all time are everywhere. Men and Women doing what they do because that's just what they do.
The nurses and carers in retirement homes and hospitals do great things all through their daily 12 hour shift. There's no post match press conference to ask them how they felt they went today.
But they may go home today, read a book of a new author they heard about, listen to a new piece of music they saw someone liked on social media.
The authors of that book, that music, did something great for someone who is great.
Inspiring others to be great, is a gift we all have and writing a few words on a screen may help to inspire the next.
Friday, June 10, 2016
Friday, December 6, 2013
The hill ain't so bad
As the draw for the Australian rugby league competition season 2014 was rolled out, the ongoing discussion and argument on the use of local suburban grounds versus the major stadiums continued for another year.
In this writers humble opinion these are some of the key points of difference:
Big stadiums: comfort, corporate hospitality, much needed revenue, quality of service of the facilities.
Suburban grounds: tradition, history, you are closer to the playing field and its closer to home
To get to 80,000 seat Olympic stadium at Homebush from the northern beaches of Sydney is quite a journey, whereas with games at Brookvale you can make a decision after the sunday roast or after school pick up on a Friday to pop down and watch the mighty eagles. To get to Homebush for a Friday night game when there aren't the special event buses you are going to spend in excess of an hour travelling and if the game finishes at 9pm, your kids are not in bed till very late, and the next day you have the all day sports taxi service in front of you.
Is the experience of seeing the stars play on the big stage versus a few grumpy kids late on Saturday afternoon worth it? I could easily argue that the young child will still hold that memory with the long trip as well as a short trip to their local ground and they may still strive to follow in their hero's footsteps.
When the games are played at the big stadiums the players get the big coach buses into the big grounds via underground tunnels. At the local grounds the players, on occasion, walk right through the front gate and not through the back entrance. Players can watch the earlier games from the public area allowing a kid with an autograph book or playing cards to grab a signature and a selfie. Those opportunities are something to treasure and something the large stadiums cannot provide.
As a local junior I had the opportunity to wear the maroon and white on Brookvale oval in the lower professional grades. Not as many games as I would like but reality in your ability is one of the great life lessons. To have a crowd of 20,000, back in the early 90's the OH&S policies weren't as strict as they were now, to have that crowd cheering you and your mates on for the Under 21's game versus St George was a memory that only red wine will take from me. When the ball was thrown to the teams 4th choice goal kicker and I was asked to attempt the conversion from the sideline with the hill behind me, I was in heaven. I had made this kick 1,000 times before from that very spot, as Brooky is a public park so we could go down there and pretend to be stars from a very early age.
Whilst my kick at goal was high, it was long and on target......it slid past the flag on top of the left hand post and was waived away. My only true chance at points were gone and that reality thing jumped up again.
Its experiences like that, that are not available on the big grounds. You cannot play out your childhood fantasies in a lower grade professional league game.
Heck, I still get chills walking across any footy field and see how I could structure a play. I only remember the good stuff though. Memories of my defensive lapses have long since gone with the local milko delivering glass bottles with coloured foil tops.
Being able to walk onto the public accessible park where the professionals play is something special, you can't do that in a big stadium. You can't register your love for a location then strive to achieve a goal.
However, a kid wanting to be a pilot can't build a toy plane and head down to mascot to give it a go....the kid has to complete school, uni and work his way up over many, many years to use the runway at Sydney airport and get paid for it.
I have sat in some stadiums to watch baseball in the US and the cathedral like atmosphere was special. My mother states that a photo of me taken in 1997 in the now gone Shea Stadium to watch a Mets game is one of the most satisfied looks she has ever seen on me.
In 2000, my wife and I were taken by our Aston Villa supporting friends to the old Dell in Southampton to watch a premier league football game. We were in the away supporters area and I can safely say that the facilities made available at the Dell had Brookvale or Leichhardt ovals look like the Shangri La.
Not long after they built a new stadium for Southampton called St Marys. Not long after they were relegated to lower divisions. With the old stadium gone, did the teams magic go with them? Its something that I cannot measure with factual evidence so I will leave it to the reader to gather any assumption.
Manly has always played out of Brookvale and they have had lean years, not many, but a few. In the last bunch of years with the current core playing group there has been great success. Could I argue that the right hand side attack of DCE across to Lyons with both Stewarts chiming in has all been due to the green green grass of Brookvale? Tell me why I can't?
With the crowd so close when the game is on the line, the players would be robots if they didn't get that extra grunt in their legs as they hear the roar of the crowd only 15 feet away.
Again reality must be addressed. If a business, which Manly is whether you like it or not, had the business decision to make, sink or swim, any Board would not be providing true support to its stakeholders, the fans, in letting the team die.
In the new TV contract, the NRL has to deliver a product of 8 games a week. If Manly were to fold due to staying at Brooky then the NRL would not have enough product to supply and they would lose revenue that also supports junior development.
The clock is ticking on these big decisions. The AFL has made them, but I struggle to draw a comparison due to the differences in the city's and their transport and the higher volume of supporters in Melbourne. If you can get 90,000 to a regular season game, you book the MCG. When teams can only get 15,000 to a game at Homebush, why wouldn't you play it at a local ground.
The other argument is the quality of the product on the TV for Rugby League and AFL. AFL is a bigger ground and they kick the ball 60 metres plus from player to player. Its a game better watched at the ground so you can see the expanse of the players movements. Whereas League and Rugby are more central screen games, and allow for a better customer experience on the couch.
I'll make this personal now and offer a solution. Allow me the opportunity to watch my team play at a suburban ground. If the game looks like being a cracker and the crowd is going to exceed 15,000 then have the flexibility to move it to the Sydney Football Stadium which is a great place to watch the game. Allow the members to be given better transport to the new location.
I don't envy those having to make those decisions as I can make an argument for both sides. I like that I am only 15 minutes drive away if I make a late decision to go, and I am also a capitalist and a realist and the game is now a business and it must be profitable to sustain and deliver on its contracts.
For at least one more year we can sit on the uncomfortable hill at Brooky, wait in a cue for 15 minutes for lukewarm pie and get to see:
"King is tackled on the half way line and plays the ball. Ballin delivers the ball on a long pass to Cherry Evans. He shifts to his right taking in two defenders and making space for Glenn Stewart, Stewart catches and passes in one motion to his brother Brett and he is away down the touchline. Lyons cuts inside in support as the defence comes at the Manly fullback. Stewart drops the ball inside to the Manly skipper and Lyons strides away for another Manly try"
And I can watch that from 15 feet away and be home on my couch in 15 minutes.
Phil Jackett
In this writers humble opinion these are some of the key points of difference:
Big stadiums: comfort, corporate hospitality, much needed revenue, quality of service of the facilities.
Suburban grounds: tradition, history, you are closer to the playing field and its closer to home
To get to 80,000 seat Olympic stadium at Homebush from the northern beaches of Sydney is quite a journey, whereas with games at Brookvale you can make a decision after the sunday roast or after school pick up on a Friday to pop down and watch the mighty eagles. To get to Homebush for a Friday night game when there aren't the special event buses you are going to spend in excess of an hour travelling and if the game finishes at 9pm, your kids are not in bed till very late, and the next day you have the all day sports taxi service in front of you.
Is the experience of seeing the stars play on the big stage versus a few grumpy kids late on Saturday afternoon worth it? I could easily argue that the young child will still hold that memory with the long trip as well as a short trip to their local ground and they may still strive to follow in their hero's footsteps.
When the games are played at the big stadiums the players get the big coach buses into the big grounds via underground tunnels. At the local grounds the players, on occasion, walk right through the front gate and not through the back entrance. Players can watch the earlier games from the public area allowing a kid with an autograph book or playing cards to grab a signature and a selfie. Those opportunities are something to treasure and something the large stadiums cannot provide.
As a local junior I had the opportunity to wear the maroon and white on Brookvale oval in the lower professional grades. Not as many games as I would like but reality in your ability is one of the great life lessons. To have a crowd of 20,000, back in the early 90's the OH&S policies weren't as strict as they were now, to have that crowd cheering you and your mates on for the Under 21's game versus St George was a memory that only red wine will take from me. When the ball was thrown to the teams 4th choice goal kicker and I was asked to attempt the conversion from the sideline with the hill behind me, I was in heaven. I had made this kick 1,000 times before from that very spot, as Brooky is a public park so we could go down there and pretend to be stars from a very early age.
Whilst my kick at goal was high, it was long and on target......it slid past the flag on top of the left hand post and was waived away. My only true chance at points were gone and that reality thing jumped up again.
Its experiences like that, that are not available on the big grounds. You cannot play out your childhood fantasies in a lower grade professional league game.
Heck, I still get chills walking across any footy field and see how I could structure a play. I only remember the good stuff though. Memories of my defensive lapses have long since gone with the local milko delivering glass bottles with coloured foil tops.
Being able to walk onto the public accessible park where the professionals play is something special, you can't do that in a big stadium. You can't register your love for a location then strive to achieve a goal.
However, a kid wanting to be a pilot can't build a toy plane and head down to mascot to give it a go....the kid has to complete school, uni and work his way up over many, many years to use the runway at Sydney airport and get paid for it.
I have sat in some stadiums to watch baseball in the US and the cathedral like atmosphere was special. My mother states that a photo of me taken in 1997 in the now gone Shea Stadium to watch a Mets game is one of the most satisfied looks she has ever seen on me.
In 2000, my wife and I were taken by our Aston Villa supporting friends to the old Dell in Southampton to watch a premier league football game. We were in the away supporters area and I can safely say that the facilities made available at the Dell had Brookvale or Leichhardt ovals look like the Shangri La.
Not long after they built a new stadium for Southampton called St Marys. Not long after they were relegated to lower divisions. With the old stadium gone, did the teams magic go with them? Its something that I cannot measure with factual evidence so I will leave it to the reader to gather any assumption.
Manly has always played out of Brookvale and they have had lean years, not many, but a few. In the last bunch of years with the current core playing group there has been great success. Could I argue that the right hand side attack of DCE across to Lyons with both Stewarts chiming in has all been due to the green green grass of Brookvale? Tell me why I can't?
With the crowd so close when the game is on the line, the players would be robots if they didn't get that extra grunt in their legs as they hear the roar of the crowd only 15 feet away.
Again reality must be addressed. If a business, which Manly is whether you like it or not, had the business decision to make, sink or swim, any Board would not be providing true support to its stakeholders, the fans, in letting the team die.
In the new TV contract, the NRL has to deliver a product of 8 games a week. If Manly were to fold due to staying at Brooky then the NRL would not have enough product to supply and they would lose revenue that also supports junior development.
The clock is ticking on these big decisions. The AFL has made them, but I struggle to draw a comparison due to the differences in the city's and their transport and the higher volume of supporters in Melbourne. If you can get 90,000 to a regular season game, you book the MCG. When teams can only get 15,000 to a game at Homebush, why wouldn't you play it at a local ground.
The other argument is the quality of the product on the TV for Rugby League and AFL. AFL is a bigger ground and they kick the ball 60 metres plus from player to player. Its a game better watched at the ground so you can see the expanse of the players movements. Whereas League and Rugby are more central screen games, and allow for a better customer experience on the couch.
I'll make this personal now and offer a solution. Allow me the opportunity to watch my team play at a suburban ground. If the game looks like being a cracker and the crowd is going to exceed 15,000 then have the flexibility to move it to the Sydney Football Stadium which is a great place to watch the game. Allow the members to be given better transport to the new location.
I don't envy those having to make those decisions as I can make an argument for both sides. I like that I am only 15 minutes drive away if I make a late decision to go, and I am also a capitalist and a realist and the game is now a business and it must be profitable to sustain and deliver on its contracts.
For at least one more year we can sit on the uncomfortable hill at Brooky, wait in a cue for 15 minutes for lukewarm pie and get to see:
"King is tackled on the half way line and plays the ball. Ballin delivers the ball on a long pass to Cherry Evans. He shifts to his right taking in two defenders and making space for Glenn Stewart, Stewart catches and passes in one motion to his brother Brett and he is away down the touchline. Lyons cuts inside in support as the defence comes at the Manly fullback. Stewart drops the ball inside to the Manly skipper and Lyons strides away for another Manly try"
And I can watch that from 15 feet away and be home on my couch in 15 minutes.
Phil Jackett
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Running Blind To Glory
The journey of a young adult into their preferred sport can be perilous and run them into a world of hurt more than a world of wonder and joy.
I will relate this story to mainly to rugby league as its in my wheel house of understanding along with rugby union. However, this sporting journey can be related to any Australian sport that sees itself as professional.
I will call on solutions like the NCAA in the USA were a young person out of high school may be given a scholarship to a prestigious university/college. Despite them being 6' 10' weighing 210 pounds with a verticle leap that has them in the top 5% of the freshman recruits, they are not allowed to play in front of millions of TV viewers on ESPN unless they reach certain levels in their academic education.
My own adventures in both of the junior rugby codes [union and league] from the age of 10 to 21 when I was cut from Manly Warringah Rugby League Football club, I knew I wasn't good enough or maybe wanted it enough, which is probably closer to the facts. But I have related my personal journey to the plight of many coming in through the system and left with nothing to fall back on when the selectors say "...sorry son, we won't be picking you to play".
At the age of 10 in 1982 I played in my first rugby union rep trials in Manly. I had been playing junior rugby on Saturday mornings for about 5 years. My parents would battle through their week of service in raising a family and take their youngest child to many rugby grounds across the northern beaches of Sydney.
There were no mobile coffee carts 30 years ago to ease the pain of an early start after a 40+ hour week. My sisters would be hauled from their young teenage slumber to watch young Phillip run round a cold rain sodden rugby pitch. That boy was oblivious in the tremendous effort just to get him to that ground.
If the parks were swollen with winter rain, that young buck had to be driven to the ground before he would believe that the game would not be on. His fear that the game would be played without him was real and remains to this day a long lost fear of missing out on the show.
Across Australia in 1982 there were thousands of examples of this young dream being played out. I bet the Italian coffee makers at Vittorio wished they had invented the mobile coffee truck back then.
Now in the 30 years that have past those kids are now parents but the world has changed. As is evolution the world will never stop changing. But we can learn from the past to help the education of our youth.
Whilst that young kid in 1982 who made his first rep team for Manly, got the shiny new team bag and the team tracksuit which he wore with the pride of an African lion, his dream of being a Wallaby and playing on Cardiff Arms Park against JPR Williams had no connection with fame and fortune.
In 2013 there were these same 10 year old kids across Australia will be running around fields in Sydney, Newcastle, Bathurst, Armidale, Brisbane, Mackay, Townsville....
Mum's are still running the show in the background looking after the canteen and Dads are still running up and down the side line yelling instructions into what may as well be thin air.
But it's what happens in the next 5 years that has changed and that is why I am writing this story.
As that young player grows and starts to show potential his vision of what is ahead is more than just a tracksuit and bag. Watching the footy shows and seeing the big boys play every week on TV is like a moth to the light. The attraction is unbreakable and takes place in his life...front and centre.
I will balance this view and ackowledge that there are many parents in-still in their child's life a strong sense of balance and they are very successful in ensuring that the weeks school work must be respected before kick off on Saturday.
The journey of a young Rugby League Player into representative football begins with Harold Matthews competition for Under 16's. So for those aged 15, the rugby league clubs start playing selection trials for these teams in the year before the competition starts.
Clubs will hold open trials to select the best local team. Kids will have also been invited from outside the district to trial. To the local youngsters, the new kids are bigger, they look older and they have a swagger many have not seen before.
Also these trials are generally open to all comers from all sports so you also have young guys coming in from Rugby Union, AFL and even soccer. Yes soccer, it once produced one of the highest point scorers in the National Rugby League. This young man attended the Under 21 trials after playing mostly soccer except for schoolboy rugby league. Within just a few years he was playing in the top grade and has gone on to be a career first grade coach in rugby league.
So as a 15 year old you are already competing with more than just the guys you have played against since you were 6 years old.
Let’s break the number’s down so I can demonstrate that the funnel process has already started at age 15. That’s right...your little man was born in 1998 and by 2013 his hopes of a professional footy career are already under the spotlight and in peril.
Its only been 15 Christmas days in which he may have received his first and maybe 2nd bikes.
He has been in high school just 3 years. He still can't drive yet. His body has not begun to change and now he is playing against other 15 year old's who have already begun turning into men.
Your little man may have the heart of a lion and play like one. These types can and do break the mould. Geoff Toovey the current Manly first grade coach and stood just 5 foot 6 and was the smallest player on the field his whole career and played first grade for a generation and played State of Origin so well he forced an immortal in Andrew Johns to play out of position and he played with enormous pride for his country.
A more current example maybe James O'Connor playing rugby for Australia; whilst he couldn't break into Rugby League for the Bulldogs, I ask any man if he is brave enough to run up the middle of the park against the All Blacks, Springboks and the French when you stand just 5'10 and weight 88kg's.
In the Under 16 age, 2013 competition there are 18 Harold Matthews Cup teams. For the players that get to start the game it means that across all of the state there are only 36 front rowers, 36 second rowers, just 18 hookers, locks, half backs, 5/8s and fullbacks. There are also 36 wingers and centre's but as an old front rower I don't count them as equals !!!!
There are generally 20 players in the squad where only 17 get to the play in the 9 round competition. So even in this top group there are 54 players who don't even to get on the field.
That's only 360 players at the age of 15 who are told they are good enough to wear the same colour's as their hero's. As family's we are all so proud of our growing boys and we follow them across the country to watch their games.
But your child’s path to glory comes at a price. Most teams are training five nights a week six to eight weeks before Christmas. Also your food bill will start to grow so much that you will say "...how can you eat that much?".
This culling and selection process happens for your boy two more times over the next 4 years so by the age of 18 your man has done extremely well to get to a top grade contract.
What’s missing in this journey for many is the alternative option in the very real chance they may not make that 360 player cut every second year. This is has all happened before they are old enough to vote, drink !!! and leave home !!!!!
While this is all going on there are important life factors in education and the ability to contribute to society that are taking backward steps in these kids lives.
The ability to learn is harder then the ability to pass a football.
Approaching fast are many forks in the road for teenage sport loving kids who show the ability to take the next step.
A serious problem in Australia is that there is one decision not forced on these rising stars as they leave high school at 17 and 18 years of age. That is an approved academic education that will provide them a crutch to hold onto should they not be in the top 400 players in the top league.
In the USA their sporting college program falls under the organisation known as the NCAA 'National Athletic Collegiate Association'. http://www.ncaa.org
On their website the describe the eligibility criteria:
The NCAA Eligibility Center verifies the academic and amateur status of all student-athletes who wish to compete in Division I or II athletics.
College-bound student-athletes who want to practice, compete and receive athletically related financial aid during their first year at a Division I or II school need to meet the following requirements:
And to play college sports the student must at a minimum;
- Graduate from high school.
- Complete a minimum of 16 core courses for Division I or 14 core courses for Division II. After August 1, 2013, student-athletes who wish to compete at Division II institutions must complete 16 core courses.
- Earn a minimum required grade-point average in core courses.
- Earn a qualifying test score on either the ACT or SAT.
- Request final amateurism certification from the NCAA Eligibility Center.
This rule came into place after two of the biggest names in basketball and world sport, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James proved themselves to be ready to play without having a proper college education, but it was the many hundreds of failures that required this rule to be written.
There are no such rules in Australian sport and our University structures do not have this historic stepping stone to a sporting career. So while I would like suggest that we begin this path, I am realistic that we are too far gone to get anywhere close to that.
The National Rugby League [NRL] does have guidelines for under 20's that they train in hours that allow then to work of get an education. However, I cannot find any information on what the criteria is.
A few weeks ago we saw the Australian Government wheel out all the sporting CEO's saying that drug abuse was rife across ALL of the sporting codes. These were the professional organisations where the word sport is not at times the primary focus.
Since the beginning of time were there have been professional sporting events there have been people looking to beat the system through drugs and other means so they can gain an advantage. You will never change that unfortunately, it’s in the human DNA of many.
So whilst we do have drugs in sport, the problem that I saw in that press conference was that they were addressing a result of a floored structure.
I want us to educate these young men and women who are racing to glory with blinkers on. They are running so fast that the wind in their eyes is making it too hard for them to see reality.
Why not have had the Ministers of Education standing side by side with the Ministers for Sport and out lay a plan to educate all of these people whose careers are over within the snap of a ligament? Rather than having drug testing authorities and government give us a problem and no solution..
So whilst the universities just are not ready for this type of structure, build back up the Technical and Further Education [TAFE] structures. For example, on Sydney's northern beaches there is the old TAFE at Seaforth which I think has been closed for over 20 years.
Enforce the sporting organisations to present a percentage of their income to developing these structures across the state. They would be sporting agnostic and open their doors to sporting ‘wanna be's’ from across the country.
A teenager can graduate at high school with no minimum mark to play sport. With this new suggested program in place the teenager can obtain the eligibility points required to play sport. Whether it be to top of their points or start a high school certificate again.
Then build these TAFE courses into joint programs of study with the University's.
So in 3 years out of high school a child can be educated and playing professional sport at the same time. Yes it will see less 19 year olds debuting in the top league and some will argue that its a restraint of trade. I would argue that as sporting organisations has a duty of care to their employees for both their education and still developing bodies.
The teenage sportsman can still be signed to a club or in fact to the professional organisation. They can still earn money and also have another job that doesn't effect any salary cap. Of course that could be rorted too but that will be the job of the education system to manage that. Much like the NCAA vigorously rules on breaches of their code in student/player management whilst they are in college.
In this solution to a problem, I am looking to help the players that don't break into the top grades of their chosen sport and those that do. Sporting careers are short and they don’t guarantee an income the day after their contract finishes. Because at 22, 23 or 24 its a long hard road to catch up with your peers who have been learning and working for the last 5 to 6 years.
Help the kids that don't get past the next gate in the ongoing selection process and I believe strongly you will develop a better style of human-being that can contribute to society.
And for those that are good enough to play at the highest level, hold their hands through the bright lights, fame and the un-earned privileges of success. These young adults need as much education on how to treat themselves and those around them as much as those that were told at 14 "...sorry son, we won't be picking you to play".
Phil Jackett
Career 1976 - 2000
Rugby Union Allambie Heights, Forest Killarney, St Pauls High School, Manly Junior age teams, Manly Colts 'First Grade', Manly 'Reserve Grade' , Northern Zone & Sydney City Presidents
Rugby League St Kierans Primary School, Christian Brothers, Beacon Hill, Narraweena, Manly Warringah under 17s, Manly Warringah under 19s, Manly Warringah under 21's, Manly Warringah Reserve Grade, Townsville Brothers 1st grade,
Also baseball, basketball and 3 time premiership winning touch footy for over 35's.
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