Nick Bendel
For how long will the Swans leave Barry in the doghouse?
July 8th 2008 07:05
This is the guiding principle on which the utopian community of Animal Farm is established. Or so its naïve inhabitants believe, until one day they are shocked to discover that the rule is subtly different. “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
Footy clubs share something in common with Animal Farm. We’ve all heard the stirring clichés spouted by players, coaches and administrators, extolling the virtues of their ‘band of brothers’, a ‘family’ in which everyone, from storied veteran to pimply rookie, is treated the same. After all, anybody who has watched even five minutes of sport in their life knows that ‘there’s no “I” in team’.
Yet when it comes time to enforce club rules, we often discover that some players are more equal than others. The storied veteran, it turns out, is usually judged less critically than the pimply rookie. The bloke with the great step or the quick hands has a tendency to get away with more than the anonymous journeyman or the perennial reserve. Various explanations will be given to elucidate the apparent inconsistency, but everybody knows the real reason: footy clubs place a greater value on premierships than principles.
That is why the decision by the Sydney Swans to put Barry Hall on indefinite suspension has come as such a shock. After his cantankerous display against Collingwood- which came just three games after returning from the ban he had incurred for assaulting Brent Staker- Big Bad Barry has been told to have a few deep and meaningfuls with psychologist Grant Brecht. By demonstrating that his key forward is as accountable as his less illustrious charges, coach Paul Roos has placed equality ahead of results. “Hopefully,” Roos said, “he can work through some issues with Grant and come back reasonably quickly, but when that is I don’t know.”
Andrew Demetriou, the AFL chief executive, praised the resolution. “I commend the Swans. I commend all clubs who feel it appropriate that, if they sign up to a set of standards at the beginning of the season with their leadership group, that they follow through with those actions…I think in the past what’s happened is that there have been agreed principles at the start of the season, but depending upon who the player is at the club sometimes those things haven't been followed through. You’ve got to congratulate the Swans. They are a club that does believe in keeping its word.”
While many observers will share Demetriou’s opinion, most coaches will probably take the Sir Humphrey view, deeming Roos’s decision to be not so much ethical as “courageous”. It’s all very well for a struggling club to take disciplinary action against important players- as Melbourne has just done with Aaron Davey, or as Fremantle did earlier in the season with Jeff Farmer and Heath Black- but is it not self-defeating when a genuine contender does so? Mick Malthouse actually admitted as much several years ago, when he confessed that for the good of the team, he treated some Collingwood players more equally than others. And, he added, somewhat unnecessarily, other coaches do it too.
Although he didn’t name names, Malthouse could easily have been talking about Denis Pagan. During North Melbourne’s glory years, he became adept at turning a blind eye to the many indiscretions committed by his star player, Wayne Carey. ‘The King’ could have done anything short of commit murder and he would still have played the following weekend. In return, Carey rewarded him with three grand final appearances and two flags.
Malthouse might also have been talking about the current West Coast boss, John Worsfold. Despite Ben Cousins’s repeated dalliances with booze, drugs and the underworld, Worsfold allowed his Brownlow Medallist to keep playing, appreciating that premierships are won not by the club with the best morals, but the best midfields. Only when Cousins was arrested for drug possession was he dumped, although not before he had repaid his coach with a couple of grand finals and a flag.
It will be interesting to see how this latest Barry Hall saga unfolds. Will Paul Roos keep to his word and only bring back the temperamental star once the psychologist has given him the all clear? Or will he succumb to the temptation of expediency, especially if his team continues losing, or suffering injuries? Over the next few weeks, we will discover just how equal the animals of the Sydney Swans are.
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