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SEN • April 17th, 2025 9:13 am
Special comments from Nathan Buckley
When it comes to mental health struggles in the game, the big issue is how it's perceived, because you've got no idea and I've got no idea.
There's Harry McKay's relationship with Carlton and with Michael Voss, what's happening in his life and what he needs. And then you and I and anyone else who speculates on that, we have no idea of what needs to take place and what needs to happen.
We've got no idea on Willie Rioli. We got no idea on Elijah Hollands. We've got no idea on Jamarra Ugle-Hagan.
There's speculation, there's innuendo and there there might even be some facts only that paint part of the picture. Only the individual who's actually going through whatever they're going through knows it all and whether they're coping or not.
It’s not only just if they are aware but also the coaches, the football clubs along with the parents, who are intimately and lovingly involved in the wellbeing of their son or daughter. Only they are the ones that are close enough to make these calls on how to care for an individual.
WE ARE ALL HUMAN
The fact that they're professionals and that they're asked to fulfill a certain role for the team and for the club is definitely something that needs to be considered as well. Players struggling happens more often than we care to think. It happens consistently, because humans are humans and they're going to go through times of struggle and duress.
Managing and supporting individuals through those moments is what brings the glue in a in a team and in a club. If you get that wrong - I know this by personal experience - you might never be able to rebuild that fracture, but if you support people the right way through their hardships, then you might actually build a bond and a connection that lasts for their entire career and beyond, and that's really what you're trying to do.
So personal leave or time off is basically about helping someone through it, through some hardship, to get beyond that, to be a better version of themselves and that's a coaching challenge.
EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT
Early days in my coaching I was probably too cut and dry, too pragmatic. The attitude I had for myself as a preparer was that you just suck it up.
Suck it up, work harder, do more and compartmentalise; but not everyone has that ability and some people really struggle. They can really struggle by soldiering through it or trying to beat their head up against the brick wall. It can make things worse so you have to understand who you're working with.
Some coaches and clubs are criticised for not being open with their supporter group but it's all about protecting the individual. Some are going to be worse off if it's public and it's not your information to tell either. It's not necessarily the club’s remit to play that out in public. It's hard.
I remember Alex Fasolo didn't rock up to training and Robbo (Mark Robinson) sent a tweet and the insinuation was that it might have had a drugs connotation. He had to step back from that because that was around the same time he wrote the article about supposing how many positives there might have been in our playing list.
It wasn't an appropriate article, and it wasn't accurate either.
So you can make assessments and judgments on a little bit of information, if you like, but the fact is that there will be players that take the mickey and that don't front up authentically.
They take advantage of cracks that are available and take an easy way out. They will eventually work themselves, behave themselves out of a club or out of the system, and they'll be showing that they're not able to live up to the expectations and standards of a professional footballer or of a professional sports person.
In the short period, you still got to offer everyone support and give them the opportunity to behave their way; so in that juxtaposition is difficult as a coach.
When it plays out in public there's just too many people that have opinions that don't have all the information. It’s really hard to speculate on what may or may not be happening, and you've got to trust that the organisation is making the right calls for that individual, not just for now, but for down the track.
