Everyone wants a piece of the TigersBy Chris Judd
The Age
20 March 2018 There is a heaviness that comes with success, as the Tigers will learn throughout this season. Human beings, like many other animals, have social hierarchies and success in someone’s chosen field - be it sport, business, music or any other profession - pushes them up the social ladder.
At a subconscious level, and from an evolutionary perspective, this move up the ladder increases the prospect of finding a partner, producing offspring and keeping those offspring safe and healthy once they’re born.
While this isn’t at the forefront of the mind of a footballer who has just won a premiership, what does become evident is that people treat you differently. It might be the eagerness of journalists and the public to hear your voice, drink cards making their way into your palm when you’re out at a bar, or businesses eager to partner up so that some of that premiership shine will lead to an increase in sales.
While the increase in attention isn’t to everyone’s liking, the warm feeling of success, and the movement up the social hierarchy is universally craved. And that’s where the heaviness comes in.
Movement on the social structure can be multi directional, so what moves up can also move back down. Suddenly, the successful team and its players have something to lose other than the four points each week. Some premiership teams try to focus on the feeling of still being the hunter rather than being the hunted. However, this feels disingenuous.
The players have seen how people treat them differently now, so at a sub-conscious level they’re aware of their shift in position in society’s food chain. Pretending to still be the hunter in some ways just reinforces the fact that they feel different now to how they did before premiership success, and the heaviness grows.
If you are desperate to maintain the feeling of being the hunter as the reigning premiers, the prey must be a team that has achieved something greater than you. You could use the three-peats achieved recently by Hawthorn and Brisbane Lions in the early 2000’s as your aim, and the team you’re playing each week as merely the vessel that needs to be overcome to take down the ultimate prey.
Or you can simply embrace the heaviness and the fact that you are now the hunted. You canuse success as a proof point that you know what you’re doing and have a high-performance culture, and take confidence from it.
Ultimately, the Richmond players will work out that esoteric ideas around social structure, or the feeling of having something to lose, won’t make any difference to how quickly you can run or how far you can kick a ball.
Here, the Tigers seem particularly well placed. When you hear them speak, they regularly use language centred around gratitude and mindfulness. If Dustin Martin didn’t have the tatts or wasn't pigeon -holed by the media as a party boy early on in his career, he would have taken Brett Kirk’s mantle as the AFL’s “Zen master”, such is his willingness to talk about his practice of mindfulness and the clear importance it plays in his life and football.
Once the siren sounds on match day, there are no more corporate or media requests, no more small talk, nothing else on your “to-do” list that holds relevance. It is here that the Tigers will hope their mindfulness will allow them to switch back into the sub-conscious football execution mode that made them last year’s best team.
Only the players will know they have effectively managed the perks of premiership success throughout the pre-season. Clearly, there is a conflict between commercial arrangements and media requests and the players' training and match preparation. Likewise, the drink cards and various other social possibilities (while a positive from creating potential offspring) clearly conflict with the lifestyle of a professional athlete - who must countevery calorie - and has the ability to haunt you come match day.
Thursday night’s game will be a contrast between sides at different ends of the spectrum. It will be Carlton, filled with young players, looking to expand their offensive play with a freer flowing style, against the reigning premiers, dealing with success for the first time since 1980, boasting a defensive unit that is the envy of every other team in the competition.
Carlton will be hoping that the game is decided out on the field, and not through players internal stories around worthiness. Likewise, Richmond will hope that it is actions that decide it, and not internal narratives around complacency. The AFL and its partners won’t care who wins, but will hope that it’s close enough that no one turns the game off until the final siren sounds.
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/everyone-wants-a-piece-of-the-tigers-20180319-p4z52m.html
