40-odd players had been running around in 34 degree heat for an hour when Simpson came on last week. He looked quick and had great hands, but things were pretty heavily stacked in his favour on the day. He did well, and certainly enough to suggest he should get a few more games this year, but if he thinks a half of good football in his 'first game' against a bunch of blokes who were buggered entitles him to a game the next week he's wrong. Fyfe and Mayne came into the team. Both pretty handy (although Mayne doesn't look right....but that's another issue).
Now, Simpson might fancy himself a better player than Neale, Sutcliff, Suban and C Pearce, with whom he was probably competing for a spot. I dare say in time he will be proven right on that. But has he done more at this point in time to deserve that spot? In a game on the postage stamp ground against a very good team with it's back against the wall, I reckon Suban and C Pearce were better selections, Sutcliff has forgotten how to kick, but can play (please see other thread) and given Neale averaged 30 touches for a while last season, I can certainly see why the club is giving him a crack.
But maybe Simpson's reaction isn't rational, but emotional. Fine. That happens. Does anyone think that if Simpson walked into Roly's office and tore strips off him, he would have relayed the conversation to the public? I'd suggest not. That's a real dummy spit, and I reckon it would happen from time to time with players. My (limited) understanding of young indigenous kids is that that sort of confrontation is unlikely to happen in the first place. But if Simpson was upset, and didn't want to fly to Sydney on the school holidays to sit in the stands, he could have communicated that to the club somehow (even by another player!), and my guess is the club would have dealt with it as quietly and as respectfully as possible.
What seems to have happened is that Simpson has gotten upset and hasn't communicated with anyone at the club, including teammates, that he wasn't going over for the game - which led to the farcical situation of his name being read over the airport intercom. It's pretty hard for the club to keep its dealings in-house when Simpson's behaviour has led to the issue literally being broadcast to the media at the airport.
From that point the club handled it poorly. I reckon the initial inclination was to protect Simpson by saying that he was never meant to be flying, but people saw through that. Eventually they came clean. People might disagree on what the correct approach is (personally, I would have been happier if they just picked one), but the 'communication issue', wasn't one of their creating.
I sincerely hope there is scope for differences in our footy club, and there appears to be a failing here. It was reported that Walters has been mentoring Josh, so maybe there was a disconnect because Walters has just had surgery and isn't at the club. But if Josh feels so upset of betrayed he is going to walk out on his responsibilities to the club, there has to be a mechanism there for that to be communicated. He doesn't have to walk into Roly's office, look him in the eye and tell him to get stuffed, but he has to be able to pick up the phone and tell a teammate he's not going to be on the plane, even for his own sake. I reckon the players would have been disappointed he couldn't even do that. There has to be trust among teammates. I reckon that's the first thing Pav says to him.
From the club's point of view, I think given Josh was likely to be disappointed when he was dropped, it was important that someone support him afterwards. Surely we have people at the club who can do that (I'm thinking people like Roger, Walters and Johnno, but it could be anyone really). Maybe they did that, and Josh didn't take the call. Who knows? But there's a lesson to be learnt there.
Coaches talk about 'non negotiables'. I find talk like that unsettling, but for mine, it's a non negotiable that if you are a player on our list you are robust enough to cop being dropped, and you communicate absences to someone on the team. Josh will learn that pretty quickly I reckon, and after copping a bit of a whack, hopefully he'll come out of this with that understanding.
