AFL legend Malcolm Blight calls on AFL to act over ‘sick, sick’ questions aimed at draftees, fearing they could lead to mental health problems
AFL legend Malcolm Blight has called on league boss Gillon McLachlan to act over ‘sick, sick’ questions being asked of potential draftees, fearing they could lead to mental health problems for young players.
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AFL legend Malcolm Blight has slammed AFL clubs over the “sick’’ questions they are asking potential draftees, fearing they could lead to serious mental health problems.
And the dual Adelaide premiership coach has called on AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan to put an immediate stop to them.
Brownlow and Magarey Medallist Blight said he was furious after hearing that likely number two draft pick Noah Anderson, from Victoria, had at the AFL Draft Combine been put through the famous thought experiment known as the trolley problem, which assesses the morals of their subjects.
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Anderson told SEN on Wednesday that he was asked by one AFL club: “You’re standing at the train station and there is five people on the train tracks and the train is coming but next to you is a lever. If you pull the lever the train goes onto another track but runs over one person. Would you pull the lever?”
It leaves respondents forced to make an ethical decision about whether it is the morally preferable option to take action and save four lives but also make yourself partially responsible for a person’s death — or choose not to participate and let events take their course.
Other similar “really weird questions’’, mostly psych tests, including from Anderson’s likely destination, Gold Coast, were asked of him.
Ahead of World Mental Health Day today, Blight didn’t hold back in what he thought of the new-age situation.
“This is sick, a sick, sick thing that is going on,’’ he said on Sportsday SA.
“These questions that our 18-year-old kids are getting asked by recruiters are about life and death.
“It should never happen, it’s crazy.
“Why would you ask such a range of questions about weird situations that would never happen?
“It’s ludicrous, hypothethetical rubbish. Why would you put young men in the situation of choosing how many people should die in a make believe test of character?
“What I would ask the recruiters and everyone in the football world now is, if the AFL don’t do something about this we may have more mental health problems.’’
Blight went as far as to say that “someone had hijacked our game’’.
“I’m serious about this,’’ Blight said.
“People have to ring up Gillon McLachlan and tell him that this is absolute garbage.
“What’s it got to do with playing footy?
“What about recruiters watching with their eyes to discover if a player can play football.
“If you’re a recruiter, watch what the player does.
“And what about your tongue, you can ask coaches, teachers, friends about players.’’
Blight’s spray comes after outgoing Adelaide Crows player Cam Ellis-Yolmen fired a parting shot at the club’s infamous Gold Coast 2018 preseason camp.
Ellis-Yolmen, who joined Brisbane as an unrestricted free agent on the weekend, said the camp’s mind-training focus had played a role in the Crows’ shocking fall from grand finalist to missing the top eight in each of the past two campaigns.
“I wasn’t a fan of how it (the camp) was run,” Ellis-Yolmen told SEN on Tuesday morning.
“It just didn’t help (and) it didn’t do what it was supposed to do.
“A lot of people weren’t happy with it and it probably did play a bit of a part in what’s happened (to the team) in the last couple of years.
“I wouldn’t say it’s scarred me personally, but it didn’t help with going forward. It didn’t help me in my footy.”
Originally published as AFL legend Malcolm Blight calls on AFL to act over ‘sick, sick’ questions aimed at draftees, fearing they could lead to mental health problems