Players cop a blogging
Mark Robinson
May 21, 2008 12:00am
AFL players have been banned from scouring fan websites, for fear the vicious player appraisals could lead to depression.
At one club, support staff also have been threatened with the sack if they are caught blogging or leaking valuable information to the websites.
Labelled "cyber bullying" and "big brother" blogging by the AFL Players' Association, clubs have taken the drastic step of encouraging a boycott of the popular fan sites.
"I wouldn't encourage any players to use them. I think it's for bloggers, and I think it's mostly for titillation rather any decent feedback," AFLPA general manager of psychology, people and culture, Pippa Grange said yesterday.
"It's more your big brother-type trivia.
"I would agree with coaches telling players not to look, but I would also encourage the players not to think of it in any way as criticism - it's just a random sample of people with not much better to do."
Most football clubs have independent supporter websites, including Saintsational, TalkingCarlton, Demonology, Punt Road End, Nick's Collingwood Page and and Bomberblitz.
One of the most popular is BigFooty.
On them, anonymous bloggers ritually attack players for their performances, and the criticisms sometimes carry racial and sexual overtones.
One coach, who did not want to draw attention to his players, yesterday said: "They get real nasty."
The coach said he was aware of one player receiving "particularly scathing" criticism and he had approached the player and asked if he was aware of it.
"Thankfully, he said it didn't matter because he didn't read it, but bloody oath, it could affect the player," the coach said. "It's a serious issue, a major issue.
"Even if one player gets depression, or his form falls away, it could end his career."
One club official last night confirmed the coach had directed some of his players to stop reading sites.
"Yes, we have suggested to some players they avoid online fan sites," the official said.
A football manager from another club said he had addressed the issue with the players.
He also revealed he had warned support staff that if they leaked information to websites, or people knowingly connected to the websites, they would be sacked.
"We have said, 'Whatever you know is not to be passed on to people outside the club'," he said.
He said players had to avoid any scathing critiques.
"It's like critical fan mail, it could do your head in, and it's the same thing with websites.
"You should read some of it, it's rubbish.
"You've got to understand the ego of players and fragility comes with that as well."
Grange yesterday said AFL footballers were in the "culture of celebrities".
"And there's a lot of nasty stuff out there," she said.
She likens it to cyber bullying at schools, where there are alarming cases of bullying bringing on forms of depression and even attempted suicide.
"There's no restriction of what people are able to do with the internet," Grange said.
"Blogging on websites about players is a form of bullying, it's public bullying of people in celebrity positions.
"And the footy players, unless they personally take some course of investigation, have got absolutely no comeback."
Grange said public criticism of players had been addressed, although cyber criticism hadn't specifically been on the agenda.
"We talk to the players about building resilience about feedback and what they need to let through to the keeper, and what's actually value for them and how they make a choice about each," she said.
"We don't specifically focus on websites, but that's going to happen with our digital lifestyle at the minute."
More serious, she said, were players' identities being taken by bloggers.
"The biggest thing I've encountered in my role where it's been a problem is where people take the identity of the player and claim to be making comments on behalf of the player," she said.
"They get obviously quite upset about that."
ANYONE with personal problems can call Lifelineon 131 114; Victorian Statewide Suicide Helpline on 1300 651 251; or Mensline Australia on 1300 789 978.
