Don Pyke’s parting remarks on tolls need to resonate

Don Pyke has provided another timely reminder of how top-shelf Australian football is demanding too much of its coaches and players and that the greatest challenge today is trying to balance the pursuit of on-field success with off-field happiness.

Look at the pictures of Don Pyke from the spring of 2015 when he arrived from Perth to take charge of the Adelaide Football Club’s AFL team in the most demanding circumstances with the death of Phil Walsh.

Look at the pictures of Don Pyke as the winter of discontent — and his AFL coaching prospects — closed at West Lakes last week.

The starkly contrasting images — detailing the toll on Pyke while coaching the Crows for four seasons — are another timely reminder of how top-shelf Australian football has with its professional era demanded too much of its coaches and players.

Pyke’s parting remarks will echo well beyond West Lakes, particularly in a week when the game (rather than the “industry”) was left in shock — and in need of reflection — with the death of St Kilda hero Danny Frawley.

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Don Pyke at West Lakes after his appointment in 2015. Picture: Simon Cross

... and after announcing his departure from West Lakes. Picture: AAP/Emma Brasier

In what will be Pyke’s most memorable statement — after four years of being so deadpan circumspect in all his public remarks — is this timely note: “The landscape we now operate in is as an industry is more challenging than ever for players, administrators, boards, coaches, and this is leading to a wide range of issues around contentment.

“I hope in the future we can find a better balance in how we view the game, regardless of the result, otherwise I do fear for the people’s genuine love of the game.

“There is no doubt this is a unique environment and it is becoming more challenging. It is a challenging environment, but the reality is which I’ve said before is the game is about people and we’re dealing with people. At times we can lose sight of that.

“The reality is the pressure in this game is significant and that’s part of what you do take on. That’s why we are excited by the opportunity, but I think there’s a line and we’re treading carefully to the line.”

It is a shame Pyke referred to an “industry”. And it is a pity that Pyke did not wake up to the issue as he watched his player group at West Lakes become less and less content with its daily lot at the Adelaide Football Club.

As the “First Lady” of Australian football, Caroline Wilson, said on Radio 3AW at the weekend, Pyke does have a bit to answer in this space for that infamous camp on the Gold Coast last year.

Pyke was told by his closest confidants in Perth a week before his resignation as Crows coach that he should consider walking. He responded with confidence in his ability to work a new team; he was sure there was sufficient young talent at West Lakes to make Adelaide competitive again; and he certainly was considering his pride as a coach.

And then something changed last week to have Pyke resign while holding two years on his contract. Either Pyke looked at those pictures to see the toll the job was taking on him (and those around him) — or he was told of the tone emerging in the feedback sessions underway with the Crows players and external reviewer Jason Dunstall. It seems the latter.

Pyke arrived at West Lakes to offer light after the club’s darkest hour with the death of Phil Walsh. He noted he was taking over a resilient group. Two years later he had Adelaide in its first AFL grand final in 19 years — and then, with good intentions but poor execution, put the Crows football program on a bad path starting with that ill-crafted pre-season camp on the Gold Coast.

There Pyke broke the bonds of trust with his players. There is no denying this anymore.

The lack of “contentment” at Adelaide in the past two years — and the price that is being paid by Pyke and others, including some players who are to be shipped out in October’s trade market and delisting period — are yet another bad chapter in the professional era of Australian football.

The pressure to succeed to satisfy corporate sponsors proves yet again that no-one hands over millions and millions of dollars without a catch. A decade ago, in his weekly press briefings at West Lakes, coach Neil Craig offered some grand wisdom from his experiences in cycling on what professionalism does to ruin sport.

There are horrible stories emerging in Australian football as it becomes a “chosen profession” rather than a sport. One Adelaide-based teenager refused to leave his bedroom at his family home for two weeks after failing to be drafted in 2014. Another very successful SANFL footballer approaching the end of his career in the State league is privately seeking counselling for his mental anxiety. This has been traced to missing out on an AFL draft call more than a decade ago.

And this year — with the Tayla Harris moment standing as a key point in fighting back — Australian football has become most aware of the damage being done to players from trolling on social media.

So, as Pyke has noted, the greatest challenge in Australian football today is not achieving success on the field but finding happiness off the park. How did it come to this when the sport should be filled with young men and women living their dream rather than enduring nightmares?

In his first — and perhaps only — AFL senior coaching role, Pyke has learned the greatest challenge for an AFL mentor is keeping all of his team and staff happy. Such a lesson has come at a heavy price to his pride — and his own happiness.