#34 Jake Long - you’re cut, so long

Nothing .
Ben’s latest hobby horse.

1 Like

51 new posts. I was worried he had been re-signed

11 Likes

Tbh after the debacle of the saga and its effects on the players and individuals, I’m surprised the club didn’t more noise about pastoral and psychological support services at the club.

And in this day and age of ‘holistic’ high performance strategies I’m surprised we haven’t gone all dank over.

The luxury tax and the adelaide cluster ■■■■ probably won’t encourage us too much either.

If a sport psychologist is only working 2-3 mornings per week at the club. It means they might only get to see 6-7 clients. Does this make much difference to the overall performance at the club? Absolutely not.
It might help a few players with performance, but only seeing a handful of clients won’t make too much difference to the overall club.

Obviously the more resources into a Sport psychology program means better results.

IMO having a Sports Psychologist employed by the club, means there is a greater emphasis on the overall club and the players as a group. It means spending more time with players as a group, and running more Group based sessions. It also means the psychologist gets a greater understanding of the social nature with the players and can use these situations as learning opportunities.

A contracter comes into the office. Sees their clients, and then leaves to the next job. They don’t have an opportunity to witness the social aspects within the club. They don’t get to spend time with the playing group, and get a better understanding of group dynamics.

I’ve worked in enough multi-professional welfare organisations to see the huge difference between professionals who are contract based, and those that are employed.

*For the record. I’m not saying a Contractor won’t do an excellent job with their specific clients.

4 Likes

Like windmill tilting more

Stop making up crap about the club when you have zero idea of what is actually going on.

1 Like

We do have one. Or have had in very recent times.

Given a players schedule and time a psychologist has access to them a full timer wouldn’t work.

What you needs is probably about 2-3 part timers to do weekly sessions. I’m not sure having that is the answer either, not all players need weekly sessions.

What we need is a person who designs programs for individual players after an assessment and then puts in place the running and monitoring of that program.

2 Likes

Which clubs have full time ones? If it’s Freo, Carl, Saints and GCS then it’s not a great advertisement.

Just because Adelaide employed ‘mind ■■■■■ are us’ in the lead up to their GF attempt should we?

I’m not saying that having or not having a full timer is necessarily a bad thing. But like anything copying another club because you think it’s what you should do without an plan and reason for it can be more harm than good.

There is also a role for the sports psychologists to be working with the Coaches and player’s leadership group.

To be able to utilise the supervision from a psychologist, and get the reaction they want from the players is vital.

It allows them to explore how to address the players based on their personalities, and improve techniques for getting the players to learn.

But there is so much that can be explored through a psychologist within a football club. It’s a resource that’s under-utilised imo.

Richmond, Collingwood, Hawthorn, West Coast and Sydney all have full time SP’s

As well as the crows as you say.

Apparently these guys are just interested in bandwagoning, ask @Reboot

Me, I’m interested in maximising our list and winning a flag

1 Like

Surely sports docs and physios aren’t in the cap are they? which would mean sport psych wouldn’t either.
Though I’m fairly sure high performance staff are under the cap and there’s a blur between them and physios, so I have nfi where the line is.

Physios are full time. So, to your point, what’s the difference? After recent happenings, if any club in the comp had a FT sports psych, how is it not us!?

Just in response to comments to many on here, that people assume there is nothing for a sports psych to do when players are training… There’s actually plenty a sports psych can do outside of simply consulting. Such as developing programs that can be used to test and develop players cognitive development targeting things such as reaction times, decision making, spatial awareness, relaxation strategies to aid better sleep/goal kicking routines, etc. There is potentially a lot of value add in this space, beyond simply player welfare (which is also very valuable).

I imagine in this, as with any field of psychology, … it’s hardly a one size fits all situation, strokes n folks etc, so I reckon the preferred set up would be 3 or 4 different ones on a part time basis myself.

1 Like

I reckon it depends what you’re trying to achieve.

I suspect one full time staff and a bunch part time for one to one relationships with individuals would be valuable

I’m not disputing the potential value, you are absolutely right on they way they can impact. But to utilise someone like that you have to do it properly else you can do more damage than good - see Adelaide as an example.

Hence my reservation in doing it because other do.

Fair list there.

I’m all for a more professional apprach done the right way. It’s a really critical position and selecting the person should be a long and difficult process to ensure you have the right one.

Has Longy always gone for Hangers, or just more so recently, has a bit of spring.
Is the tape around his knee limiting his influence, is he carrying a injury?

1 Like

The Adelaide situation has absolutely no relevance to having Psychologists at the club. In fact it’s the complete opposite ends of the spectrum.

A psychologist uses scientific evidence to support the wellbeing of their clients. These psychologists have dedicated years of study to gain their Masters or PHD in this field. Clients have every opportunity to opt out of any relationship with a psychologist. They must abide to a medical body, and can lose their registration if they don’t conform to an evidence based practice.

The programs that were used at the Adelaide Crows had no scientific evidence, in fact the evidence says those methods that were used were always going to have detrimental effects psychologically. There is no room for innovation in psychological programs, especially ones that clients have no opportunity to opt out of.

A bunch of cowboys with business backgrounds have no place to be meddling in peoples psychology, Then selling it as cutting edge performance & leadership programs.

3 Likes

IT’S TIME

1 Like