Geelong star Harry Taylor on AFL finals and the value of perseverance
Driving back to Geelong after a qualifying final defeat,dual-premiership defender Harry Taylor could have given in to worry and despair. But he found inspiration in an unlikely source.
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In 1847 was born a creative man with a brilliant mind who possessed a strong desire to invent things that would change the world as we know it.
He would build, fail. Build again. Fail again. Learn from his mistakes and build again. Fail, build until after some 10,000 attempts this inspired man called Thomas Edison created the electric light bulb.
Our lives are all infinitely richer because this man believed “the most certain way to succeed is always to just try one more time.”
Sometimes in life we just need to find a way to evoke our spirit of perseverance. Thomas Edison showed the world what can be achieved by having a voracious appetite for accomplishment, regardless of what obstacles lie in your way.
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AFL finals football presents an unbelievable environment in which one can learn about the value of perseverance. Finals are intense, adrenaline mixes with anxiousness leaving your legs and stomach feeling a little tighter than normal. My legs and stomach were extra tight on Friday night knowing I would be starting on, in my opinion, one of the best forwards of the modern game in Josh Kennedy.
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We go back a long way, Josh and I, all the way back to the Geraldton under-10s in Western Australia.
The two of us played together then and in the under-12s, and also at East Fremantle later on.
We both grew up in a town called Northampton, which is home to about 800 people at the most.
The fact we’re both from the same small town playing in the under-10s to playing on the MCG in a big final on Friday night was quite the feeling.
It’s hard being on opposite sides of the country but we like to exchange texts now and then, and when we’re in the same area we’ll try to catch up.
Last year when I hurt my plantar fascia, I reached out to him because he had previously had issues with both of his feet in the past.
On the field we don’t say much to each other.
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The players who you have deep respect for, and he’s one for me, I find you don’t tend to exchange too many words with.
We both uttered a quick “all the best” before the bounce on Friday night and that was it.
I knew I was in for a tough night as he possesses speed, lateral movement and is a great set shot for goal.
But his strongest attribute is the selflessness he shows for his teammates. For all of the 610 goals he has kicked in his career, there are at least another 610 he has helped set up through his selfless work rate and ability to create contests. Come and watch the behind-goals vision of West Coast games with me and you won’t need much convincing that he is one of the most selfless players in the game.
The adrenaline-anxiety combination is increased by losing a final the previous week. We have to fight thoughts that work to strangle clarity in our minds. Last Friday night as we drove ourselves back down to Geelong we did so with our attention tangled with frustration and defeat.
As your eyes focus on the road, your mind wanders back to the game, the moments where you didn’t perform as you wished you had. You lie in bed and stare at the ceiling as these same thoughts tie knots in the corners of your conscience. Perspective is easily lost.
Having played poorly last Friday night against Collingwood, we as a team needed to learn from our mistakes and front up to the next challenge before us. The quicker we jumped into the process of learning, the better off we would be.
Our coaches review each game meticulously, win or lose. We as players see the key points of their review. How messages are framed and voiced to players is in my view one of the very important arts of coaching. There was no hiding away from our poor performance against Collingwood but how the key learnings from the game were communicated to us was just as important as the what in influencing how we were going to approach the next opportunity.
Edison said: “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like hard work.”
Opportunity comes with risk. The chance of failing is very real. We could have conceded the first four goals of the game against West Coast. We could have given up a halftime lead. We could have been knocked out of the finals in straight sets.
Potentially losing is a reality. But so is winning. Screaming out the Cats song after the game with your best mates could happen. The chance to play at the MCG against Richmond in a preliminary final may transpire. Opportunity always comes with inherent risk, but with opportunity also comes the chance to do something great.
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As AFL players we live in this space on a weekly basis. We build, win or lose, learn and build again. Only one team can win the ultimate prize and so the risks are intensified. But we persevere. We front up and we try over and over again.
We learn to look at failure in a positive way. Because who’s place is it to say we have failed? We as a playing group have control over what measures we have for failure and success, what tools we can use to process win and loss.
As Edison once said: “I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that haven’t worked.” So, we persevere and build ready to face Richmond next Friday night. Now that’s an opportunity.