In any aspect of life if you want something, you undoubtedly have to make sacrifices. Ask anyone who has had success in politics, business, music, the arts, or sport and they will all be able to share something that they had to sacrifice to make it to the top, or be successful. Yet importantly all made the choice to make those sacrifices because of what they wanted to achieve.
The Springboks rugby team has a documentary coming out about their World Cup victory last year called “Chasing The Sun.” An excerpt from the film was shared this week, and shows their coach Rassie Erasmus talking to the squad about the sacrifices that athletes have to make to get to the top. He very importantly points out that even when you make it to the top you continue to have to make those sacrifices if you want to stay there. He admitted to his players that he himself forgot that when he was a player, and was a bad influence on the team environment. (Warning there are some expletives in the clip below).
The fact is if you want success, if you want all the perks that come with success, including the money you have to make sacrifices, and continue to make sacrifices.
There have been many athletes across many sports that have had talent coming out of their ears but have never fulfilled that talent simply because they were not prepared to make those sacrifices. That is their choice, and we should not judge them for having what appears to be a different view to what many of us think we would have. Yet do you know if you would be prepared to make those sacrifices until you are actually in that situation?
Australian Hockey is a prime example of what appears to many as a group of players making huge sacrifices in order to make it to the top in their chosen sport. The players identified as having what it takes to represent the Hockeyroos and the Kookaburras are asked to move to Perth where the high performance unit has been successfully based for three decades. They receive a scholarship, not pay. The scholarship would only just cover their rent if they were living alone! It is a pittance in comparison to their commitment and dedication. They do not receive superannuation payments, like many of the professional athletes in other sports, as they are not salaried. They are on a scholarship. So many, who will spend ten years in the program start behind the pack when they retire. They do not receive holiday pay either. Yet as discussed on Podcast 73 with Brian Fitzpatrick from Headspace who works with the Kookaburras, the team focuses on the issue that each of the players made a choice to be there. The emphasis is on that choice rather than sacrifices.
One man who made the opposite decision, and some say sacrificed a chance to win the World Cup was the great Dutch Footballer Johan Cruyff. Cruyff is regarded by many as one of the greatest players ever. He played 48 times for the Netherlands and scored 33 goals. The national team never lost a game in which he scored. In 1974 he led the Netherlands to the final of the World Cup, where they lost to West Germany. He was named player of the tournament.
Cruyff helped the Netherlands to qualify for the 1978 World Cup Finals in Argentina but at the end of 1977 shocked many by announcing his retirement from International football. He was 30 years old. He would continue to play club football for another six years.
Many people tried to persuade him to change his mind. He stood firm. At the time there were many stories that he had withdrawn from the team because he did not agree with the military dictatorship in Argentina and did not wish to become a pawn in their politics. Other stories claimed that he had fallen out with the Dutch FA, and that he felt the tournament was too long to be away from home. Everybody had a view and opinion.
Only in 2008 did Cruyff reveal the reasons why he chose not to play. While playing at Barcelona, and a few months before the tournament, several criminals entered his house in Barcelona at night and tied him and his family up at gunpoint.
“The children were going to school accompanied by the police. The police slept in our house for three or four months. I was going to matches with a bodyguard,” he told Catalunya Radio. “All these things change your point of view towards many things. There are moments in life in which there are other values.”
Unfairly at the time Cruyff’s wife was blamed by some fans for putting him off playing in Argentina. The reason he spoke up in 2008 was to defend the woman he had married aged 21 in 1968, and to whom he was still married to 40 years later.
“It was the moment to leave football and I couldn’t play in the World Cup after this.” Cruyff understandably explained. Most put in that situation would not sacrifice their family for a game after being held at gunpoint.
There is much debate raging at the moment as many of the professional sports try to find a way resume their competitions. The primary reason being that television and sponsorship money currently on hold can flow back into their coffers.
The AFL has been looking at trying to move every team to a hub, and have them play games behind closed doors. Such a move would mean that the players would have to be quarantined for a long time. It has been said that it would be a minimum of 20 weeks.
Is that fair on the players?
Just as a point of reference, Don Bradman’s 1948 Invincibles left Australia for England on March 19th, sailing via Ceylon as it was then – now Sri Lanka – they arrived in Tilbury on April 16th. They played their first game on the 28th of April. They would play 34 matches, 31 of which are recored as being First Class matches. Between the 28th April and 18th September the team of 17 players had 112 days of play scheduled in 144 days. They left two days after the last game was played and had another long trip home. Wives, girlfriends and family were not allowed to travel to be with the team and certainly not allowed at the same hotel. This team that is given legendary status in Australian sport was away from their families and loved ones for 30 weeks. We will not go into a comparison of pay as everyone knows that Cricketers in that era were paid a pittance.
Surely at the end of the day the current issue boils down to choices. Do the players want to make such a sacrifice for essentially five months in order that the AFL receives the money from television and sponsors? Money that will help ensure that they maintain the salaries that they have become accustomed to.
When you look at the big picture it is not such a huge price to pay. There are many who have been away from families for a long period of time, and can today only rely on the various forms of electronic and telecommunications to connect with families. The Fly in Fly out employees are having a tough time of it, our health workers have had little or no choice to make family sacrifices just to do their job!
The AFL has a choice. If they want this to go ahead, and let’s not forget this is purely for commercial reasons, then they and the clubs need to look at moving the players wives, girlfriends and family to wherever that hub is, if that is going to ensure that all players make themselves available and safeguards their mental health. In this situation there surely is a duty of care that falls with the AFL and the players clubs?
Everybody has a choice. Of course peer pressure is a terrible thing in a group such as a sporting environment, but if the culture in that club or sport is healthy those players who feel that they do not want to be a part of such a scheme should be entitled to speak up and say so. Their views should be respected and their contract should be safe. Why? Simply because this is a very different proposition to the one the signed up to.
There are many sports across the globe that are holding off postponing seasons that have started or about to start. Many for the same reasons as the AFL is trying to find a solution, because they will not be paid the money they expected if the league does not commence, or is not completed. Some will argue that they are putting money before the well being of the players. Others will say they are protecting the future of the sport. Everyone will have a different opinion on this.
Does a player play for the love of the game? Do they play for the money? Or are there other things that are ultimately more important, such as family? No doubt many players are asking themselves these questions right now, and they need to be honest with themselves as the decisions they make will undoubtedly have a lasting affect on their lives. Whatever each individual decides we should respect that decision.
Is it a sacrifice, and if so is it one worth making? Or is it simply a matter of choice?
