Burkie on leadership + other saint stories.

[saintbrat]

http://insidefootballonline.com/burke.html
Clubs place responsibility into the hands of players lacking the maturity to handle it, writes NATHAN BURKE.

AT the risk of dredging up old stories, I thought now would be the opportune time to test my opinion on the whole Ben Cousins, troubled-star scenario with you.
The reason I raise it again is that in the past month many teams have been finalising their revamped leadership groups and even appointing new captains to lead their campaigns this year.
The accepted method of choosing the leadership groups is to determine the behaviours you want the group to exhibit and then have the players vote on which teammate best “livesâ€

[Oh When the Saints]

Burkie really has a crack at the GT theory of young leadership ....

Great article though.

My philosophy on captaincy is that it be given to a person as a reward for behaving like a captain and possessing great leadership skills.
It should not be given to somebody in the hope that they will knuckle down and then start behaving like a captain.

Find the players who are willing to pay the high price to maintain teamwork, who have the guts to pull the same rein on the stars as the rookie, back them with standards that relate to coaches, administrators and let them lead.
In 20 years of football I have not seen a 20-year-old with this capability, and every young player who has led at an early age has stated that they would have done a much better job later in their careers.

[Oh When the Saints]

Also interesting comments from Crackers suggesting that GT was interested in the CEO's job at Melbourne, but that they would look outside football circles for the suitable appointee.

Makes a good point though about how Melbourne are struggling far more than the Roos or Dogs ...

The Gold Coast Demons?

[Armoooo]

I have found it interesting that nobody has mentioned Melbourne, they seem to have a pathetic fan base, however the belief has always been that their higher ups have always had the money available to keep the club a float...