We’ve spoken before on this blog of the perils people in PR face tackling group think.
One of the great ironies of group think is that while it’s unfolding, the adherents are internally seen as strong and resolute leaders when they can often be showing weakness.
A failure to consider alternate options and diversify your thinking is often a disastrous path to take.
It’s the very opposite of the strength and leadership you seek to show.
Of course, in PR, as in most organisations, hierarchies, boys club and power structures can make it difficult to challenge group think, but at least there is a platform to try….
In football clubs….
Throughout the last few years, it’s been abundantly clear that insularity, group think and lack of diverse thought has plagued AFLHQ.
Participation in decision making in football isn’t assigned as a meritocracy, but rather doled out based on friendships and feats on the field.
Look at most AFLM clubs, hell, some AFLW teams, and question if coaching jobs, recruiting jobs, the vagaries of “director of football” positions are truly earned or handed out.
A boys club mentality is not a modern invention of course.
Anyone who’s caught even a snippet of the Footy Show from the 90s or listened to Triple M in it’s self preening hey day would know certain sections of football society were truly members only.
It exists in pockets of society, even as the game claims enlightenment in it’s glossiest brochures.
Mal Brown makes a transphobic joke Ugly Dave Grey would have made in the 70s about Dani Laidley at the Carbine club because what’s wrong with just having a LAUGH….
Rex Hunt doesn’t want Daisy Pearce commentating and gets backed up by Dermott….
Mick Malthouse invokes the “well he better get a kick!” rule 108 of the boys club because Rory Lobb dyed his hair…..
We can consider this archaic thinking but truthfully, it’s all examples of homogenous blocks of thinking, of ways of doing things…..
There’s a “footy way” that punishes diverse thought, that believes progression isn’t good, that thinks that AFLW is full of woke agendas….
The “footy way” wouldn’t accept that Ruby Schleicher could be and is (in this blogs opinion) a more articulate commentator on football than Wayne Carey.
My goodness, not the King, why he’s done it in the field……let’s have more of that……
And it’s not like we’ve got an independent media challenging these thoughts, because, well, alignment with media and HQ is nearly in total lockstep…..
Over time, through the Demetriou era onward, the only path forward for people involved in media was to become tentacles on the octopus.
So much of our view of football and the narratives that shape throughout it come from one section of society, one set of viewpoints, one uncritical mass.
Hell, mostly from one Fox Footy building…..
To take an example, think of the corporate synergies and partnerships “the #1 news breaker in the game” Damien Barrett has.
From writing for the AFL website to participating in Sportsbet skits….
Do you think he’ll break a bombshell story on the AFL system with so much to lose?
Did anyone even mention “The Boys Club” book or anything in it in the MSM?
With insular thinking, the boys club essentially decides who gets in the tent and who doesn’t, and they inoculate, insulate and forgive each other for their transgressions.
A culture that forsakes integrity and sunlight, that chooses easy resolutions to make things go away…..
Eddie McGuire forgave Wayne Carey on EMT when he looked down the camera and told his viewers “forget all that other stuff!”
“All that other stuff”, that phrase did some heavy lifting for Carey of course…..
Dermot forgave Eddie, nursing him through his early post Goodes “gaffe” (their words) appearances…..
It’s what they do for each other….
We’ll tackle the lack of thought in media soon, but throughout 2022 Jack Ginnivan (for instance) has been more heavily scrutinised than, say, the performance of Gil McLachlan.
All of this is illustrative of much broader systemic problems within the AFLM game.
Throughout the last few years, time and again, failure to consider alternate perspectives, to consider alternate paths, has caused the game considerable reputational damage.
The Crows camp, the pre season camp in which blindfolded players sat on a bus listening to the Richmond theme and the cultural insensitivities that followed were never challenged……
The culture at Collingwood was challenged by Heritier Lumumba who was subsequently ostracised, traded and had a cooing Nathan Buckley hoping “H gets the help he needs”…..
It’s interesting with the above two examples to note that in reality the boys club forgave all sins.
Don Pyke could be on the field on Saturday celebrating a Sydney Premiership as an assistant, Nathan Buckley will be providing analysis for Fox…
Mark Ricciuto continues to provide some bon mots as “Geez she’s a wet one boys!” on the boundary line with not a care in the world.
However it’s also noticeable that when things challenge the world of group think the boys club isn’t equipped to discuss them.
The fumbling awful panel discussion after Adam Goodes war dance lead by Barry “I don’t like it” Hall with no diversity of thought or perspective.
The insensitive joshin and japin of Eddie McGuire stumbling over a racist joke he’s probably made a thousand times…..
The panel discussion on AFL360 where Robbo ended up shouting at Heritier Lumumba….
The aforementioned visceral reaction to any time a woman appears on a commentary team….
In PR terms, when group think is identified, it’s participants can double down on their own group think.
They can believe outside forces want to change what they’ve built when they know so much better.
It’s not taken as an opportunity to improve processes.
It’s seen as betrayal and past success is used as proof that nothing needs to change or get better.
From Triple M and the Footy Show bragging about ratings….
To basking in the sun post Premiership glory…..
All of which brings us to Hawthorn….
It’s important to note this is bigger than “it wouldn’t happen at my club!” points scoring.
The issues are systemic toxic male sports thinking and systemic racism across the system.
As discussed above, inoculated boys club forgiveness of each other is all pervasive.
It happened everywhere…
Our club and yours…..
One the key differentiators in this is Hawthorn had success, genuine success.
Premiership success so who was going to challenge such a swaggering, successful hierarchy?
A 19 year old kid nervously waiting his debut?
Stripped of all of power and identity, staring down coaches and administrators who’s reputation was so insured?
Of course, the Hawthorn story features every single issue of toxic male sports culture crammed into one horrific package.
The main takeaway if the allegations are true (or even partially true) is that the racism was so systemic, that Indigenous players were treated not as individuals, but a collective block.
A puzzle, a problem to solve.
Troubled souls who needed to “prove” themselves loyal to the almighty cause, forsaking all others in pursuit of professional excellence.
A cult like atmosphere with power structures so embedded that players were powerless, spokes on a wheel…..
In short, all of the problems mentioned in the first few paragraphs in regards to group think and insularity, but epically worse…..
It’s hard to comprehend an atmosphere which so dismisses the happiness and individuality of people and families….
The inhumanity and lack of empathy towards the Indigenous/First Nation players of course cascades down from the world the AFLM system has created.
Premierships and their pursuit are everything.
The only form of validation, personally or professionally, at all costs.
Impediments to success like young Indigenous players or players who didn’t go to private school become less than human beings.
They become problems to solve, Adam Simpson (another Premiership coach) said as much.
Said the quiet part out loud…..
Group think strips away empathy, puts people into categories, re-inforces inherent biases…..
When Jeff Kennett makes a “joke” about ripped jeans or Alistair Clarkson comments on the cleanliness of a home, it’s projecting your own cultural biases onto situations.
The “norms” of football being challenged…..
However, at Hawthorn, the inherent biases and group think are so deep, they almost defy belief.
Families (especially those pesky women!) are not seen as a valuable resource, supportive elements in keeping a player happy.
No, they are seen as troublesome, meddlesome, distractions from the kick ball good purpose.
Cassie Lane wrote about her experiences when dating Alan Didak.
That when Didak was drunk and abusive at a function it was her who was taken to task for “not keeping her man in line”.
Such misogynist thinking again ties back to inherent biases and lack of diverse thought.
A cult like adherence that any distraction to “the cause” is inherently bad, that the little lady needs to keep quiet……
It doesn’t take a PR flavored footy blog to tell you the outcomes of the Hawthorn investigation – and again, what it might tell you about your own club – are physically sickening.
Taking Indigenous players from their family has it’s own historical trauma attached, and the cult like “we’re your family now” tales will resonate for a long time.
The conclusion though remains interesting, since no other similar story has truly had any real learnings from it.
The Robbie Muir story resonated for a day.
A champion of the game in Adam Goodes is self-exiled from the game because of his experiences and things just moved on after a while.
Heritier Lumumba, Eddie Betts, the Crows camp…..
What’s still to come?
If it wasn’t for Russell Jacksons diligent reporting where would this report be now?
Still in a drawer?
How many other reports, stories, horrifying tales of player experiences sit in drawers and filing cabinets?
Are we prepared for genuinely difficult, tough conversations or are we happy to support “Indigenous round” as long as it’s happy shots of the crowd and colorful jumpers?
The AFLM system is continually proud of it’s progression and it’s social causes but when sunlight is applied to it’s issues it hopes it disappears in a blizzard of trade rumors and hamstring injury reports.
For all the racist and misogynistic elements of the story, it’s still the groupthink that resonates.
If the entire AFLM system is based on subservience to team, to quashing critical thinking, can we ever truly change perceptions of “the way we do things”.
If the AFLM world is set up to reinforce a structure of privilege and preserve it, is there enough incentive to truly change?
When Rex Hunt talks about Daisy Pearce commentating and wanting more Wayne Carey, it’s a rail against the privileges afforded to “others” as much as anything.
A definition and statement of intent to maintain the privileged.
Within that structure of privilege, group think is reinforced, the male player can do no wrong.
Adulation follows, mis-deeds are covered up as “boys will be boys’…
Drink cards are given out for free, sponsorships from those wanting to meet you…..
There’s always a coterie of fans that will support you no matter what…..
In the case of Hawthorn, as within the broader AFLM, the culture of us against them is reinforced as soon as the world is entered.
How many people are willing to truly challenge a successful AFLM coach with trophies in the cabinet?
And how many other people in that room, how many people in that club, are willing to truly challenge when they have had the same experiences within football?
When everyone who has privilege in that system thinks the same, is brought up the same, what truly can be changed?
It’s a self perpetuating cycle that clamps down on independent thinking and continually seeks to weed out the “different”.
When the very nature of male sport is based in aggressive pursuit of success at all costs…
When we analyse sport through the relatively useless prism of “mental toughness”…
How do we truly break a cycle that will inevitably produce more shameful days?
Until the privileged, the exalted, those with something to give, are willing to share their world…
To break the boys club, to stop thinking about privilege and status as theirs to guard and own…..
Until then, more young players will be under the flickering glow of an office light…
Left facing intimidating, prejudice based choices imposed on them by the powerful……
Haynesplaining 