This can also translate to how players show their off-field personality on field. The conservative, hard-nosed player needs the extroverted brash teammate just as much as each other. For every Tom Atkins you need a Bailey Smith, for every Jai Newcombe you need a Nick Watson.
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Speaking of Smith and Watson, I’m putting my hand up (not middle finger) to say I enjoy the theatre these colourful characters bring to the game and the attention they attract. It is entertainment backed up with performance.
I understand others might feel different, but as the saying goes, you can choose to be offended by whatever you want; you have that right.
Footy fans also need to understand that what their coaches are saying about their antics in public might not always be the same as the message that is being delivered to them behind closed doors.
There is no doubt Smith’s coach Chris Scott and Sam Mitchell – who coaches Watson’s Hawks – would be supporting them, and encouraging them to be the personality that makes them happy. But I also expect the coaches will have some caveats, and perhaps an occasional subtle word of caution.
Most importantly, the questions that Scott, Mitchell and their assistants will be asking include: Is their behaviour hurting the team? Are they still playing within our team rules? Are they a good teammate?
Nick Watson plays with an energy that can lift his teammates.Credit: AFL Photos
From where I sit, on the outside looking in, those two have been a massive reason why their sides sit inside the top eight.
I know some will think I’m biased because Smith now plays at my old club in the No.3 guernsey I used to wear, but I really do love the spunk and edgy, new-age attitude he plays with, just as much as I love the way Watson does his thing and also Harley Reid at West Coast.
At 24, Smith has arrived at Geelong at the peak of his powers. After missing all of his final year at the Western Bulldogs because of a knee injury, he would’ve been excused for starting a bit slowly at the Cats.
But he’s been a revelation; exactly what Geelong needed, complementing Max Holmes as a one-two punch in the midfield and freeing up Patrick Dangerfield to spend more time as a forward.
He’s relishing being a bona fide midfielder, getting more of the ball than ever before and pushing himself with gut-running and work ethic that commands the respect of his new teammates.
One thing that hasn’t changed since he moved to the Cattery is Smith’s ability to attract attention and – from some quarters – criticism for how he expresses himself.
Amid their exhaustion – emotional and physical – at the end of a game, most players roll out a series of cliches when they’re interviewed by the host broadcaster’s boundary rider as they leave the field.
But not Smith. Last week after the Cats snuck home against Collingwood, he signed off his interview with Fox’s Cam Mooney with a not-so-subtle dig at his former club the Doggies about the size of the crowd they’d played in front of in Ballarat earlier that day.
We constantly ask for less cliches from our players and want them to give us, more of themselves. Smith did that. That’s not to say we can’t critique him for what he said, but nor should he be smashed for it.
The last thing we want is Smith rolling out the “one week at a time” junk next time the Cats win a thriller.
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As much as we now accept there are different personalities playing the game and learn to embrace those differences, we also must accept there will be different reactions to Smith’s comments.
Some will be upset, others won’t care, and there will be a group who, like myself, enjoyed the Bont’s response just as much.
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