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- Jun 4, 2016
- 13,001
- 39,354
- AFL Club
- Carlton
Nah it's absolutely awesome. Trial by fire breeds the best champions. Otherwise you get Nick Daicos who with even a smidge less talent would be utterly dogshit due to his softness. Coddled his whole life. 'whispers'. Geeet outta here with that shit.Absolutely reprehensible tactics at under 16 level. Considering tagging is taboo in the under 18 championships.
I saw the second half and while it was nit brutal by AFL standards, he seemed to get obligatory shoulders and elbows from almost every oppo player he encountered. Had plenty of blocks trying to quell his influence. He was clearly fed up in the latter part of the game. I did not see his dominant first quarter.
It is sad that a kid is subjected to that kind of aggression as a 15 year old. You can sort of understand some attention at club level for an opposition star, but a National carnival designed to showcase young talent should see it off limits. It is a sign of respect from opponents, but is contrary to the spirit and likely the rules of the game at the level.
He is clearly big enough to cop it. He is certainly tending more to “bull” than his old man at such an early age. Probably has been a focus from Andrew and other coaches to have bulked up so much, so early with his lineage.
Afl is the only sport that coddles it's youth so much.
Get into the men's system as a cricketer exposed to all sorts of brutal mental tactics, bumper barrages and things if you're half talented by 14. It's essentially the key reason Sydney grade cricket shits out more great cricketers per capita than any other system in the world. And it does that despite the shitheap politics, farcical selection favouritism and private school vs public school biases. Imagine the targeting you get playing against Doug bollinger as a 15 year old.
Handle adversity. Get exposed early. Stop being soft.