The Chris Yarran story: From tough times to the AFL and his battle withinJon Anderson,
Herald Sun
November 26, 2016 CHRIS Yarran wanted to play AFL football. He still does, and still might. But in the end it was the weight of obligation and expectation that got the man with the dancing feet and wicked sidestep.
Maybe in another era he could have survived what has become an increasingly pressurised environment, but anxiety attacks don’t play no favourites and that’s where Yarran was at as he attempted to resurrect his derailed career at Richmond.
It’s a condition that could see him smiling with that cheeky “Yaz” grin, the one that adorned the back page of this newspaper on Tuesday morning, leading the optimistic to believe he was close to bringing one of the best shows in town back to the bright lights.
But it can also strip you bare, and that’s where Yarran has been at in recent times. Up and at ‘em for three straight days then as flat as a sh***-carter’s hat on the fourth, listless and preferring to lie in bed than join in training with a group of Richmond players that had done their best to welcome him back into the fold.
He began back with the new boys on November and for a couple of days looked the part, overweight but starting to shed the kilos and prepared to do his share. Then on the third day as he headed to Punt Rd a fear came over him, one that raised the possibility of just driving west until he hit the Nullabor highway on his way home to Perth.
Training was replaced by a meeting with the club psychologist. It remained in-house as Richmond endeavoured to uphold their side of the bargain that had been struck when they gave up pick 19 for him in the 2015 national draft. The pattern continued over the next two weeks until the joint announcement that he would retire from the AFL.
For Yarran it brought immediate relief, the dark cloud that was forever hovering being replaced a ray of sunshine as he no longer fretted about letting Richmond down. For his manager and friend Paul Connors it was the right decision for the time. Connors is defensive when it comes to Yarran, tired of the innuendo that his mental health problems were some kind of ruse.
“I can mount a compelling argument that he’s the most resilient player in the AFL given what he’s been through, in fact he’s a great story to have lasted. But it’s obviously very sad that he won’t be playing for Richmond next year,” said Connors.
“The injuries ultimately killed him and by extension he felt as if he was letting down his teammates at Richmond. And please make this point, the players at Richmond were terrific, as were people such as Dan Richardson and Blair Hartley.”
To understand the Chris Yarran story you need to go back to Perth in 2008 when he was being raised by his mother Deb, his father Malcolm having already served eight years of a lengthy prison sentence that isn’t going to finish any time soon. Yarran was living in Bushby Street, Midvale, an address that goes down in AFL annals given Nic Naitanui (West Coast) and Michael Walters (Fremantle) were also raised there, the trio forever friends.
Naturally enough his father’s incarceration had a profound effect on Yarran as noted in 2008 by AIS-AFL high performance coach Alan McConnell: “When he arrived, he was incapable of holding a conversation,’’ McConnell said. “If you asked him a question he would get so nervous and anxious that the best he could do is repeat that question to you. To get him to engage with you was impossible.”
Over time Yarran started to come out of himself as Michael Voss noted when coaching an AIS under-18 Academy squad that toured South Africa in 2006. Voss described Yarran as “just a good kid”, and one whose rare eye to hand talents came to the fore when a mugger tried to rob him in a Cape Town market.
“I know he’s got a good right hand. He got held at knifepoint and gave a fake hand to the left and a short jab with the right. The next thing the mugger was down on the deck so I knew he could handle himself.”
That side of Yarran has not been sighted in his time in the AFL system apart from a skirmish at the MCG that left Paul Chapman with a cut above his eye and Yarran with a three-week holiday. By that stage in 2015 there were signs he was unhappy, and frustrated. Wayne Hughes, the man who recruited him for Carlton with Pick 6 in the 2008 draft, believes that was around that time his career started to unravel.
Yarran always had potential, coming up through U18 ranks in Western Australia with the likes of Brisbane’s Daniel Rich and West Coast ruck star Nic Naitanui.
Hughes first saw Yarran in the National U16s and not surprisingly liked what he saw. Prior to the draft the Carlton hierarchy discussed trading their Pick 6 but Hughes convinced them otherwise.
“You asked would I have taken him at Pick 1 if we had it? No, Nic Naitanui was clearly ahead of either Michael Hurley and Chris Yarran. But when the talk started about trading that pick I argued we couldn’t afford to cost ourselves someone like Chris Yarran.
“We were obviously aware his father was in jail but in visiting Chris’s home it convinced us he was going to be the right pick. He was doing his best at school and his mum Deb was a terrific, a hardworking lady who kept an impressive house.
“At Carlton I think it took ‘Rats’ (Carlton coach Brett Ratten) a while to embrace him as a player but once he watched that ABC documentary ‘Three Boys Dreaming’ he understood where Chris had come from.
“His best time was when he was with Michelle Trewartha (who worked in the club’s media department). She was a part of his life as much as anyone had been in the past at Carlton.”
Around the time of their breakup stories started to emerge of regular Casino sightings of Yarran as his life started to spiral. But he never became what is known in the AFL industry as a “bad person”, Yarran hurting himself more than others.
Even today there is a view held by some that Yarran, while he is aware of his rare talents, doesn’t believe he deserves to be playing AFL football, and throughout his eight years in the system he has constantly worried about stories being written of his father’s incarceration.
He knows he can make a football talk and run rings around your average AFL player but it’s the expectation that goes with it he can’t handle. In 2007 Gary Ablettt snr admitted to regularly breaking down under the weight of public hope during his halcyon days with the Cats.
Paul Connors believes a year in the WAFL, where the scrutiny is far less, would benefit Yarran: “I would love him to play footy with Swan Districts where he has some terrific friends in Tony Notte and Todd Banfield. Clancee Pearce and Jamie Bennell will also be there,” said Connors.
“The structure of a football club would be beneficial for Chris. Could he play in the AFL again? Yes, but he needs to play in 2017 with Swan Districts. He was very lonely in Melbourne because he had lost a lot of his Carlton network and he didn’t feel that he had been able to form those bonds at Richmond, something that would have been easier had he played.”
He has had very little contact with the off-field leaders of Carlton since his departure last year, something that surprises and disappoints some of Yarran’s friends, but he was delighted to be invited to Dennis Armfield’s wedding last weekend.
Armfield took to Instagram to express his feelings: “So proud of you big fella. We must encourage everyone to be able to speak up and seek help. We need to support you and I know I definitely will. I’ll be here for you anywhere, anytime. Loved having you by my side at my wedding. We have come so far, you have taught me so much (kicking around the body) love you brother.”
Eddie Betts, David Ellard, Jeff Garlett, Kane Lucas and Mitch Robinson remain friends from his Carlton days, whereas Tom Couch has seen as much of Yarran as anyone over the past four months in his role as personal trainer and confidant.
Couch, who this week moved to Tasmania as playing coach of North Launceston and head of the Simon Black Academy in that city, starts chuckling when asked about Yarran.
“He’s a cheeky little bugger ‘Yaz’, bouncing off the walls when he’s up and about. He makes you laugh and you want to be in his company. That’s why it’s so hard to see him when he’s flat. There’s nothing you can say to help him out of it. But he’s far from the only one in that situation on or just off AFL lists. It’s just the ‘Yaz’ is the highest profile of them,” said Couch, 28.
“I thought had he got to Christmas he would have been right. Physically and mentally he would have then known he could make it. Sadly he couldn’t quite get here but speaking to him during the week, it’s the right decision for the time.
“The Richmond players were very good to him, very welcoming. Blokes like Sam Lloyd and Jack Riewoldt, but really all of them. He’ll stay in WA and you know what, I reckon he will fall on his feet. He’s socially smart and good with people. He’ll be fine because he’s switched on.
“He just had to get away from the pressure that goes with being paid big money. From outside it seems like the best life, playing sport for a living and getting really well paid but most people have little idea what it’s like inside the bubble. I can tell you this, if a kid who got drafted on Friday decided to keep a diary, it would make some book.”
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/the-chris-yarran-story-from-tough-times-to-the-afl-and-his-battle-within/news-story/4a363a7809290c1d50cad7813b62aee1
