So a few of us Magoos coaches have been exclaiming about how much commitment for football has changed. Even over the last couple of years it's changed. I recall when I first started playing footy it was a massive issue and almost taboo to miss a single Tuesday training session - now its surprising to get enough players to a training session for a full oval drill. I was shunned for half a season for going to Bali. To miss a game for anything other than a funeral was mortifying.
What happened? When did these type of excuses become acceptable?
"I am watching the Crows"
"I am going to a music festival"
"I have a cold"
"It's my aunties 50th"
"I have an engagement party"
"I am having lunch with my parents"
The above are excuses I have heard this year for missing games. Do players just not care anymore? Are we that desperate to get numbers that we have to pick them anyway?
The balance of power has now swung to players to such a degree that clubs are almost held to ransom. I threatened to not play a player for an extra week because I thought his excuse was weak. His response - "Sweet, I wanted another week off anyway".
I totally understand that at D6 and D6R level it's casual-ish football. I have had the most relaxed and easy going attitude to training and preparation in Mitchell Park's history - much to peoples chagrin - in an attempt to provide an enjoyable environment for these young blokes to play footy, provided you played your heart out on gameday you could rock up and smash Pokémon until 12:10 if you want - and I'd still be happy. At least you'd be there. Still, nope, players have something better to do.
I was having this argument with a few of #thechapter galahs who seem to think missing a few games a year is no big deal. I looked at the ladder and wondered if there was a distinct difference between the top teams and bottom teams in regards to how many players have played the majority of the year. Was it just that West Croyden are more talented, Woodville fitter and Ingle Farm and Brahma Lodge stronger? Or was there something else as well?
Taking the 80/20 rule towards games played, so 14 rounds thus far, how many players in each team have played more than 80% of games - 11.2 so make it 12 or more games played. What was clear was that, intuitively, the higher the percentage of players that had played 80% of games or more, invariably the higher the ladder position of that team. Fitzroy a slight outlier:
tl;dr - commitment and consistency = wins.
Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2016 4:24 pm
.. Probably fair enough, we don't really deserve to be under consideration