Does a career fail without a flag?
Idea
St Kilda great Stewart Loewe walked past me a few years ago in the grand final moments after the final siren and commented wistfully: “It makes you sick, doesn’t it?”
This begs the question: If you devote every ounce of your being to achieving something for a decade or so and you fail to do so, have you failed?
In a world where we like everything to be binary and unnuanced, the answer is of course yes. But let’s dig a little deeper.
Championships are what players play for, but the journey doesn’t start that way. You ask any young football player what they want in their life and they will all say one thing: to be drafted. There is no talk of being a prime minister at such a tender age. They just want the opportunity to train and play with their idols. Stepping into the MCG, SCG or Adelaide Oval to live the professional athlete lifestyle.
If they’re lucky enough to make that happen, the next goal is equally simple: play the game.
Everyone is different, but generally around the third or fourth year in the system, or around the 50-game mark, the focus becomes more on team success. You have taken a little more control of your own game and the focus is shifting from “me” to “we” and winning.
To show how different journeys can be, Essendon’s Nate Caddy and Brisbane Lions’ Logan Morris played against each other last Sunday in a match the Lions won by 90 points. They are at that stage of their careers right now.
Caddy was selected with the 10th pick in the 2023 draft and had 11 wins in 43 matches. Morris was selected with the 31st pick in the same draft and achieved 44 wins in 61 matches, including 8 finals.
Morris got 2.4 from 12 disposals, while Caddy got 2.1 from 11 disposals.
For the purposes of this article, I asked three list managers at AFL clubs a question. If they were the Tasmania Devils’ roster manager and had only one choice, who would they take from Caddy and Morris?
After much deliberation and smiles that amounted to “what a great question” (thank you), two said Caddy and one chose Morris. The person who selected Morris qualified this by thinking that when you start a new club you need players who have seen what good leadership means. Caddy’s recent re-signing means he also knows what good leadership means.
I went to every grand final I could during my playing career and stayed until the winning players took their victory lap. It was some kind of terrible punishment that made me feel sick to my stomach because I wasn’t as good as the 22 players who experienced Ultimate.
But you left the MCG still full of hope for next season. When the final sirens of the season sounded, all teams returned equally to the top or bottom, depending on your level of optimism/pessimism.
But the feeling of watching the grand final the year you retire is a completely different proposition if you haven’t experienced premiership success. The disease was not there; It was replaced by drowsiness. A painful numbness.
That year I skipped the obligatory post-match beer at a bar and went home. I sat on the couch feeling empty. The dream was dead. It certainly wasn’t the pain of death in the family, but it was real.
The Premiership winners come into their own during grand final week. They have a special basis. I haven’t experienced this, but I feel like I understand the rhino. When they see other Premiership winners, they give a knowing nod along with a smile that suggests brotherhood. We losers keep our eyes a little lower.
This feeling of failure disappears soon after retirement when you pave the way for other adventures such as family, work and beyond. Would life be better if I won the premiership? Probably, especially during grand finale week. Does this worry me? Not even a bit. I love my life.
The wide range of experiences you have had and the people you have met throughout your professional football career should be valued. They give you an advantage that no university course can, and if you have the humility to accept starting from the bottom again in a chosen field, the next chapter can be just as rewarding, first place or not.
In the song by The Lumineers Stubborn LoveWesley Schultz sings: “It’s better to feel the pain than to feel the pain”
it’s nothing. The opposite of love’s indifference…”
Did I feel the pain and choose love over indifference? Absolutely and I’m so glad I did it.
Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.
Wayne Campbell is a former Richmond captain and All-Australian, former Gold Coast football manager and current Sydney Swans academy boss.
