STAY in school, kids.
It’s a message consistently pushed by athletes in the US, but whether they mean it or not is another thing altogether.
The AFL, however, even now in its full-time status, is ensuring that its players do believe in it and in fact practise it.
The clubs and the AFLPA are steadfast in ensuring that players do something meaningful outside of their day-to-day football commitments.
A footballer’s career, as a general rule, is short. The average time spent on a list is just over three years.
Not long, is it?
Consider then this story that can be all too familiar for a 17-year-old draftee being senior or rookie-listed a few weeks after they have finished school:
- Commences the busy and arduous training lifestyle that is an AFL pre-season, starting late November
- Decides to apply for university come January, and begins an undergraduate degree
- Plays in the first NAB Cup game and shows some promise
- After round 14 of the home and away season, he has played six senior games
- Dislocates his shoulder in round 15, undergoes major surgery and misses the rest of the season
- Has a strong second pre-season, only to suffer another shoulder injury in round two of the following season
- Encounters complications with the subsequent surgery, has a long rehabilitation and plays only two other games for the season with his club's affiliate
- At the end of his second year, he is offered a one-year deal to prove himself, only to suffer a broken leg in pre-season training
- After another long rehabilitation process, he plays four games towards the end of the season with the affiliate side, but is not the same player as he was when he arrived
- The club wants to trade him but, unfortunately, no other club takes up an interest in him
- He is delisted come October 31
It's a bitterly unlucky story, but not an unusual one if you asked a person who has been involved at an AFL club for eight years or more.
Imagine if that same player had decided not to undertake some study at university.
Effectively, he would have wasted his first three years out of school, achieved very little and be another soul lost to the system at the tender age of 21.
Some level of study was always on my agenda once I had finished school and that desire did not change just because I landed on an AFL list.
I have loved the opportunity it has given me to distance myself from football issues, have a balance in life and improve me as a person.
My degree has been long and sometimes frustrating due to all my football commitments, but I have four units remaining to complete my undergrad which, to this point, has already taken seven years part-time.
An understanding unit co-ordinator and an open communication line have enabled me to get through the degree so far.
Our club totally supports this level of study, along with TAFE, many other small courses, football clinics, life skills training, and hours spent at workplaces that players will undertake.
This, for some, will add extra demands and maybe at times even be seen as a distraction from their number one focus in life.
But I am glad that I have stuck it out.
I think I would have gone crazy if I didn’t.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
It’s a message consistently pushed by athletes in the US, but whether they mean it or not is another thing altogether.
The AFL, however, even now in its full-time status, is ensuring that its players do believe in it and in fact practise it.
The clubs and the AFLPA are steadfast in ensuring that players do something meaningful outside of their day-to-day football commitments.
A footballer’s career, as a general rule, is short. The average time spent on a list is just over three years.
Not long, is it?
Consider then this story that can be all too familiar for a 17-year-old draftee being senior or rookie-listed a few weeks after they have finished school:
- Commences the busy and arduous training lifestyle that is an AFL pre-season, starting late November
- Decides to apply for university come January, and begins an undergraduate degree
- Plays in the first NAB Cup game and shows some promise
- After round 14 of the home and away season, he has played six senior games
- Dislocates his shoulder in round 15, undergoes major surgery and misses the rest of the season
- Has a strong second pre-season, only to suffer another shoulder injury in round two of the following season
- Encounters complications with the subsequent surgery, has a long rehabilitation and plays only two other games for the season with his club's affiliate
- At the end of his second year, he is offered a one-year deal to prove himself, only to suffer a broken leg in pre-season training
- After another long rehabilitation process, he plays four games towards the end of the season with the affiliate side, but is not the same player as he was when he arrived
- The club wants to trade him but, unfortunately, no other club takes up an interest in him
- He is delisted come October 31
It's a bitterly unlucky story, but not an unusual one if you asked a person who has been involved at an AFL club for eight years or more.
Imagine if that same player had decided not to undertake some study at university.
Effectively, he would have wasted his first three years out of school, achieved very little and be another soul lost to the system at the tender age of 21.
Some level of study was always on my agenda once I had finished school and that desire did not change just because I landed on an AFL list.
I have loved the opportunity it has given me to distance myself from football issues, have a balance in life and improve me as a person.
My degree has been long and sometimes frustrating due to all my football commitments, but I have four units remaining to complete my undergrad which, to this point, has already taken seven years part-time.
An understanding unit co-ordinator and an open communication line have enabled me to get through the degree so far.
Our club totally supports this level of study, along with TAFE, many other small courses, football clinics, life skills training, and hours spent at workplaces that players will undertake.
This, for some, will add extra demands and maybe at times even be seen as a distraction from their number one focus in life.
But I am glad that I have stuck it out.
I think I would have gone crazy if I didn’t.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
