AFL Players need to evolve as people
This is quite a common theme coming form the AFL Clubs and Coaches at the moment. AFL Footballers are so caught up in the intense nature of AFL Football that they forget about life outside football. Mark Harvey is just one of many coaches that is going to give his Fremantle Dockers players some experiences that will be “fairly traumatic”. AFL Clubs are all about giving their players life experiences these days but does this really have an impact on the players?
Recently John Worsfold and the West Coast Eagles made a trip to South Africa to promote the game of AFL Football and also to give the players
an “understanding about what opportunities they have delivered to themselves, regardless of being footballers, by living in Australia,”. I guess the Eagles are trying to change the culture and behavioral issues they seem to have. Worsfold was quoted as saying:
“I think it was eye-opening for them, and some of them were probably shocked by what they saw and smelled and heard, but they all coped with it extremely well.”
I just wonder if when the players get back from these sort of “life changing” trips and camps they actually do appreciate where they are and the privlidge they have. I mean a couple of weeks after being back and doing another 10-15 gruelling pre season sessions do they even remember the reason of the trip they were on or are they back to their old self and tangled up in the hype of being an AFL Footballer?
It will be interesting to observe the impact these types of trips have on, not only the Eagles, but also the Dockers because they themselves have some off field cultural issue they have to deal with.
