Category Archives: Collingwood

AFL, Collingwood, Communication, Darren Jolly, Free Speech, Leaders, Leadership, Truth to Power

Jolly Highlights Lack of Truth to Power Within The AFL

Darren Jolly, Collingwood’s number one ruckman has highlighted the lack of Truth to Power in the AFL in his most recent article Paying The Price For Simply Being Honest.

Jolly highlights that people need to be responsible for what they say, but the current restrictions on players and coaches means that they are briefed prior to interviews to ensure that they don’t say anything that could upset the AFL.

This form of censurship doesn’t mean that opinions contrary to those of the AFL don’t exist. Clearly they do. Political correctness is not necessarily healthy for an organisation either. The recent collapse of the Hastie Group is evidence of that.

Why can’t healthy debate be encouraged? What is the benefit of driving contrary opinions underground? In fact I’d argue that reducing healthy debate is more unhealthy for the AFL that the sanitised drivvle that most players and coaches share publicly because they ‘can’t’ say what they really think.

It’s time to support Darren Jolly and encourage the debate about being able to debate within the AFL to be started.

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
AFL, Australian Football League, Collingwood, Gary Ablett, Geelong, Gold Coast Suns, Great Western Sydney, Integrity, Leaders, Leadership, Port Adelaide, The Age, Tom Scully, Travis Boak, Travis Cloke

Geelong’s Behaviour Shows Integrity Despite Criticism

The recent criticism of the Geelong Football Club in the AFL for visiting Port Adelaide player Travis Boak is an example of the rampant hypocrisy prevalent in our community and business world.
Geelong has the right, as does any employer, to seek and recruit anyone it deems talented enough to help it be the most successful organisation that it can be. Travis Boak, as an employee or prospective employee also has the right, bounded by explicit rules within the AFL to discuss his future employment prospects with any organisation that may be worthy of his commitment.

Geelong was explicit about what it was doing. Boak’s contract situation means that in 2013 he will either be playing with Port Adelaide or he will be playing somewhere else.

If you can, consider his position from an employee’s perspective. He is talented and  he has a current rival organisation wanting to speak with him about moving across to them. There is nothing wrong with talking with that organisation. In fact doing so could re-enforce the very reasons why he might choose to stay with Port Adelaide.

People are very naive if they believe that rival clubs haven’t spoken with soon-to-be out of contract players during a season in the past. I’ll cite Gary Ablett and Tom Scully as two examples and you “…would have to be dreaming” (a quote from the Australian move The Castle) to believe that Travis Cloke’s management hasn’t been speaking with other clubs throughout this season. How could a decision about where he is going to play next year occur if they haven’t?

Geelong should be commended for their integrity in being open and honest about what they were doing. Yet they got criticised for it. Some people have suggested that they were arrogant and under-handed. How could they be under handed when they were open and honest about what they were doing?

‘Political correctness’ doesn’t necessarily help integrity. Would people honestly prefer that Geelong drove to Adelaide in the cover of night, spoke with Travis Boak and then publicly denied what they did?

Seriously, think about the values that such a view is projecting… Dishonesty. Is that what we really want? I don’t think so.

It is time that more people stood up to protect honest behaviour. No doubt Port Adelaide does not want to lose Travis Boak. If it is an organisation that is worthy of his commitment, then he will stay. At least Port Adelaide knows what it is up against with Geelong being open about what it has been doing. But what about other clubs who may have spoken with Boak but have not been honest about what they have been doing (for the record I don’t know if any other clubs have spoken with him)? How is that good for Port Adelaide?

The challenge with honesty is that sometimes we might not like the honesty we are hearing. That doesn’t mean the honesty is wrong. It means that it triggers a fear in us, in this case the fear for some people that Travis Boak will move to another club. For others the fear that is triggered is the mere thought that, “This could happen to one of the stars in my club!”. Folks it’s happening anyway and we should be encouraging this type of behaviour to be above ground and not below ground.

Below ground behaviour doesn’t support integrity, yet it is the criticism of organisations like Geelong that drives such behaviour underground because it is considered ‘politically incorrect’. I, for one support Geelong with it’s actions and for it’s integrity in this situation.

Gary Ryan is a long time member of the Western Bulldogs and Richmond AFL clubs.

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
2010 Grand Final, AFL, Collingwood, High Performance, Leadership, One Percenters, Relationships

In elite sport, as in life, one percenters matter!

For me a defining moment in the Australian Football Leagues (AFL) 2010 Grand Final Replay was the desperate lunge by Collingwood defender Heath Shaw to knock the ball from the hands of St Kilda Captain Nick Riewoldt as he was about to kick the Saints first goal.

Coming from ten metres behind Riewoldt as he marked the ball, Shaw said, “I think little things like that maybe spur the team on. I was just happy to contribute to it.”

While very few of us get to reach to glory of becoming an elite sport champion crowned with being a member of the best team in the nation (or world, depending on the sport), we all have the capacity to done ‘one percenters’ whether at work, at home or in our relationships.

So, what do such ‘one percenters’ look like?

At work they can be as simple and saying a genuine, “Thank you” or “Please”, or remembering a colleagues birthday or partner’s and/or children’s names. They can be as simple as suggesting a team member leave early one day because of the extra effort they have been putting in over time. They could even involve cleaning up a meeting room and returning it to its pre-meeting state once your meeting is over.

At home they can be as simple as acknowledging and thanking whoever did the cooking, and then taking the time yourself to clean up. With friends it can be a quick phone call, text message or Facebook ‘Like’ or comment.

‘One percenters’ by nature aren’t hard. They simply take a level of awareness to recognise that they ‘can’ be done and all they take is a little effort.

On their own ‘one percenters’ don’t make much difference. But added up over time, just like all the ‘one percenters’ in an AFL Grand Final, they can make all the difference to your performance and the quality of your relationships.

How present are ‘one percenters’ in your life and what examples do you have of putting them into action?

PS For those who need to know, I am a member of the Western Bulldogs in the AFL

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
AFL Grand Final Draw, Collingwood, Leaders, Leadership, Professionals, St Kilda

AFL Grand Final Draw Calls For Simple Leadership

As a guest of the AFL Coaches Association for their annual Awards Dinner during the week, little did I realise that I would hear some fateful words of advice for the 2010 AFL Grand Finalists.

Legendary coach Ron Barassi was being inducted into the AFL Coaches Association Hall of Fame. As part of his induction, premiership player (and later a coach in his own right) Stan Alves was delivering a speech regarding the special characteristics of his former coach.

Part of Alves’ speech focussed on the 1977 drawn Grand Final. Alves shared the absolute confusion that swept the players and officials immediately after the final siren sounded.

“We were spent. I was spent. None of us knew what we were supposed to do. It was absolute mayhem.”

Alves shared that when the players, officials and supporters made their way into their rooms, the confusion seemed more intense than out on the ground. Then Ron Barassi did what he did best. He focussed everyone on what needed to be done.

First Barassi asked the players to go into the meeting room and to sit in the order in which they had played.

“Henshaw, you were in the back pocket so you sit here, now everyone else sit in your playing positions.”

Club officials were then invited into the room and Barassi instructed that the meeting room door be left open so that all the supporters who had entered the rooms could hear what he was about to say.

Alves reported that this is what Barassi instructed his players to do.

“If you do the two things that I am about to tell you, and then you turn up to training in the morning, we will win the premiership. Number one, turn up to the club function tonight. Number two, go home at 10pm. Do these two things and we will win the premiership.”

Alves reported that immediately upon Barassi finishing his short speech, the sense of confusion evaporated.

Barassi was able to get everyone, players, officials and supporters to focus on some simple actions. Doing this enabled everyone to have clarity about what they needed to do. In many ways the simplicity of the actions enabled everyone to say to themselves, “Yeah, I can do those two things.”

Barassi’s actions highlight that keeping things simple and helping people to focus on what is doable are magnificent leadership traits in the face of confusion and uncertainty.

For those of you who don’t know, Barassi’s North Melbourne went on to win the Grand Final Replay the following week.

I wonder how St Kilda and Collingwood are coping with their current situation? Will similar leadership to Barassi’s example be present?

What are your examples of leadership that enabled people to focus on simple actions that helped them to cut through complexity and confusion?

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com