I was trolling around the club websites this morning looking for news and information and I came across this wonderful photograph on the Kingborough site.
I open it up for all readers to write a suitable caption befitting the undying dedication shown in what must be the photo of the year.
The Asia Cup is over and the start of the English Premier League season is only a matter of days away. Here is your chance to exchange experiences and let us all know…
Did you choose your club or did it choose you?
First up tell us which EPL club you follow and why?
Secondly, what is your most memorable experience involving this club. It might be a match they played, a visit to the club itself, a meeting with one of it’s players. Anything really as long as it is applicable to your experience with the club.
Happy to hear stories from clubs other than those from the EPL too. Where does your passion come from?
Going by this spray Vinnie Grella can’t take the heat in the Thailand kitchen.
Vinnie Grella on the receiving end again
Vinnie has virtually given our direct opponents in the Asia Cup a right royal bollicking if not the entire Asian Confederation following his send off in the quarter final against Japan.
Sounds like spilt milk to me. What do others think?
Self
Brazendale
Thorpe
Reserves: Zebras 2 v Uni 2
19s: Zebras 2 v Uni 2
Hedge 2 Bremner
Hunt
Reserves: Olympic 0 v Clarence 2
19s: Olympic 2 v Clarence 4
Beecroft (pen) Rybak
Brown Shackcloth
Reserves: South 4 v Eagles 0
19s: South 0 v Eagles 4
Kent 2 Hinkley
Dawes
Reserves: Metro 2 v Kingborough 4
19s: Metro 5 v Kingborough 4
Wells Huigsloot 2
Fielding
Ladic
Reserves: Taroona 1 v Knights 0
19s: Taroona 1 v Knights 2
| Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | For | Against | Points | |
| Zebras | 15 | 11 | 3 | 1 | 51 | 15 | 36 |
| South | 15 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 33 | 13 | 33 |
| Olympic | 15 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 30 | 17 | 29 |
| Clarence | 15 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 29 | 29 | 28 |
| Knights | 15 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 26 | 27 | 23 |
| Kingborough | 15 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 21 | 24 | 20 |
| University* | 13 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 21 | 21 | 15** |
| Taroona | 14 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 12 | 37 | 8** |
| Eagles | 15 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 12 | 32 | 7 |
| Metro* | 14 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 15 | 43 | 6 |
* To replay fixture from 22.7.05 (due to referee error) - replay 1.9.07
** Washed out game yet to be played
Next week’s matches
Glenorchy Knights v Metro Claremont
New Town Eagles v Taroona
Clarence United v South Hobart
Kingborough Lions v Tilford Zebras
University v Hobart Olympic
Smith Tabrett
Olsen
Crosswell
Reserves: Burnie 1 v Ulverstone 4
18s: Burnie 2 v Ulverstone 2
Mulraney
Howe 3
Reserves: Devonport 1 v Prospect 1
18s: Devonport 3 v Prospect 2
Reserves:
18s:
Oosterloo Mies
Reserves: Riverside 1 v Launceston City 5
18s: Riverside 1 v Launceston City 1
Kids need to be shown right way
I received this article through a friend and it comes from Wayne Bennett (coach Brisbane Broncos, NRL). I’m not going to preempt it with any comment but I welcome feedback on this topic as I believe it is very poignent and timely.
I HAVE heard a little and heard a lot about coaching Generation Y. I’m still trying to make up my mind where the myth ends and reality begins.
Each year at the Broncos we bring in between six and eight 18-year-olds. We’ve been doing that over a great period of time and I still haven’t seen anything to suggest we have to appease them and give in to them simply because they’re from a group that wants everything now - and wants to have fun while getting it.
One of the keys to success is knowing what’s required to reach a goal and the next thing is to get together a group of people prepared to pay the price.
It’s true, Generation Y has been exposed to the internet, video games, mobile phones and iPods from a young age, but part of my argument here is if you accept mobile phones can be left on all the time, if you accept someone can spend all day playing video games, then, you know you are creating problems.
One of the most important aspects in the culture of your organisation is your older players. They set the work ethic. They welcome the workload, they train properly, set standards and refuse to have them compromised by 18, 19 or 20-year-olds looking for shortcuts to success.
My experience is that the newcomers pick up the tone and standards very quickly. Members of the Y Generation are now in the real world with real people and you either do it or you don’t - and if you don’t, there’s no place for you.
There’s a suggestion we have to coach differently because of this generation. In an article in The Australian this year, Nicole Jeffery spoke to experts who suggested the new breed won’t accept the coach always knows best.
“Coaches report that youngsters are not willing to do the hard, grinding work … Generation Y is born to sprint rather than stay … they get bored easily … We have three captains and our players are involved in the disciplinary committee.”
Perhaps the problem in all of this might have been the coaches.
“Be punchy in your presentation … don’t have hour-long video presentations.”
I have never had an hour-long presentation in my life. I didn’t need Generation Y to waltz in and tell me they’re going to get bored.
Today we measure everything from RPE (ratio of perceived exertion) to how far and at what speed did they run using global positioning satellite data.
There’s a welfare state mentality out there with athletes - they’re always looking for handouts, for soft options and will only commit if the reward is high enough. In many cases they want something for nothing.
In 1993, when we won the premiership I realised if we were going to have long-term success at the Broncos it wasn’t going to be because I was the coach. It was because of the players.
In those early years I had the attitude it was my way or the highway and it had to be because we had to set guidelines on what was acceptable and what was not acceptable.
But once that was in place - and the players who didn’t conform were gone - I realised it had to change.
So from 1993, we had a senior players’ group that still exists today and the whole purpose of that was for players to take ownership. But you couldn’t come in at 18 or 19 and say “treat me differently”.
Rule 1 has always been there has to be respect. You earn it off the field and you earn it on the field.
We’ve never been into having a number of captains because I think it devalues the position by again trying to appease. It has always been important to me that the captain of the Broncos is treated with great respect by the club. A position of honour and huge responsibility - something to strive for. Lewis, Miles, Langer, Walters, Tallis, Lockyer.
The other thing I’ve avoided is players being involved in disciplinary committees. That’s my job. We had one in 1997, a disciplinary committee involving players, and I remember arriving in Perth to play the Western Reds. The group had been going for about a month and they were having a ball fining their mates and carrying on.
But the party came to an abrupt end in Perth when one of the committeemen, a player, broke curfew. He then decided he wanted to use his get-out-of-jail-free card because he was one of them. So I dismantled the disciplinary committee that morning.
I remember why I set it up and what I was trying to do - take pressure off myself. Deep down I knew I was being false and that incident highlighted it to me.
The idea of having multiple captains and watching the Perth affair unfold, that’s not leadership, that’s management. Management is about consensus, about feeling fuzzy and warm; giving in to soft options. The welfare state mentality where we appease the weak-minded.
Karmichael Hunt came to the Broncos at age 17 and has proceeded to do what no one else has ever done in the 20 years of this club. He was a young 17, not 18 until November, yet every metre we ran, every weight we lifted and every game we played he ran and lifted and played.
He’s into mobile phones and iPods and he’s into the internet and video games, but in the past four years he’s played for his state and country with great distinction without ever questioning once.
Darius Boyd arrives a year later and he does similar things. Team things … forever willing to pay the price to be part of our team.
It’s not a whole lot different to parenting: if you don’t give the kid the guidelines, the routine, the structure, then, you know, the kid goes off and does his own thing, which is often not what the family requires and not what the team requires.
I recognise times have changed. As a kid I remember my parents and elders saying how different we were to their generation.
Yes, I have been prepared to change but I’m not going to change my attitude to discipline and commitment. I’m not going to compromise. I believe too many parents and too many coaches are using Generation Y as an excuse.
Young people have to go to dark places at times in their training environment, in the sports performance area, because that’s the way life is, the only way of finding out how good you really are.
So why can’t we expect good behaviour, punctuality and respect? And why do we listen to all the reasons an individual can’t achieve something instead of challenging them to do what they think they can’t do?
In our welfare environment, complaints are met with benevolence and charity. They run off to the players’ association. We appease them and they drag a lot of do-gooders with them. We continually shift our social standards and accept less and less as being acceptable.
I’m not prepared to let it go and would rather remain a member of a small group who won’t give up on challenging young people to do better.
Sunday 29th July
Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, Jakarta
Live Fox Sport 2
7.30pm
Saturday 28th July
Jaka Baring Stadium, Palembang, IDN
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Hanoi, Vietnam
11pm
LIVE……FOX 2
At the moment the State Premiership is played as a once off single match at KGV between the Northern and Southern Premiers. It has been suggested the best format for this fixture would a true home and away series.
A home and away series with the winner being declared on aggregate scores may very well be the best and fairest way of deciding the State Champion but do clubs really believe the State Premiership is a worthwhile trophy to pursue in this manner??
I welcome your thoughts.