Players, families caught in vicious web
Mark Robinson | May 22, 2008
THE mother of an AFL player with depression last night lashed out at the viciousness of internet fan forums.
"Donna", the mum of a player at a Melbourne-based club, believes the forums contribute to her son's depression.
The effect on the player was extreme, she said, and the effect on the parents "cuts straight to the core".
"There's nothing you can do about it," Donna said.
"It's painful for everyone.
"He goes through periods where he has highs and lows and when he gets slandered on this website, they use his full name and it's obviously brutal.
"It certainly contributes to him having a real low that week.
"Then he starts to feel: 'Am I good enough to be here, what do I have to do, I'm trying my guts out, everyone thinks I'm hopeless, I won't be selected'.
"As a parent your heart goes out to your own child, as it does to the other players slandered, and you just feel so futile. You can't do anything.
"It doesn't matter how much you say and try to support them and encourage them, and say: 'Don't read them', there's just nothing you can do."
The AFL Players' Association yesterday in the Herald Sun said blogging by supporters was "cyber bullying".
Clubs also feared the vicious appraisals of their players could lead to forms of depression.
Several clubs revealed they had warned some of their players to boycott the websites.
Player managers also confirmed yesterday their players had struggled to deal with the attacks.
Donna said last night her son's club and coach were aware of her son's depression and that he was the subject of vitriol on websites.
"It's fine for people to say 'harden up', or 'toughen up', but at the end of the day they are still very vulnerable kids trying to learn how to play footy at an elite level," she said.
"They are going to make mistakes and they don't need misinformed, anonymous 'supporters' (to) slander them when half the time the supporters that write about them haven't been to the game, and they don't know the instructions that have been given to these players.
"Yet, they (hide) behind their anonymity and make out they are bigger than Ben Hur, and think they can say whatever they like.
"That's the frustrating and hurtful part of it.
"And these kids, be they 18, 19, 21 or 22, don't have a leg to stand on.
"Some players can do no wrong and escape everything, which is fantastic for them and that's the way it should be, but for others, they just hone in on them.
"Then it just seems to be a never-ending bandwagon."
Donna said she knew of parents who joined blogs to dispute and object to comments made about their sons.
She said she had, as recently as the weekend, spoken to parents of other players about the websites.
Most disturbing, according to the AFLPA's Pippa Grange, was that player identities were being taken and comments being posted under that player's name.
"They get obviously quite upset about that," Grange said.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23738794-19742,00.html
