Junior Football Attack - Caroline Wilson

[SaintBot]

my club glen iris gladiators won the GF to Beverly Hills under less than impressive circumstances.

Two large melees on the ground, three players being stretchered/assisted off throughout the game and one angry dad jumping the fence to hit the coach.

during the grand final the opposition - Beverley Hills were rather dirty and their parents: abusive.

the father who jumped the fence was the father of a kid called **** Batsanis. Apparently he has huge wraps and is expected to be drafted one day.

heres the article


No excuse for attacking a junior coach
Caroline Wilson | September 9, 2007

TWO weeks have passed since our son's team won its under-15 grand final. It was a game that began with typical adolescent nervous energy, punctuated by an angry northerly that caused the lead to change several times and completed by an occasionally tense presentation attended by two young policemen carrying guns.

Maybe it was the mistral that provoked a father from the opposing team to run onto the ground and physically confront our young coach during the final quarter. He claimed it was the sight of his son — the star of the team, who already had been injured — being taken from the ground after a heavy bump.

Either way, it was one of the more disgraceful acts I have ever witnessed at a game of football and certainly the worst during my son's eight seasons of junior football.

The politics that have followed the incident have been baffling. The father in question, who claimed his son had been targeted all day, had to be removed from the ground by other parents but not before he had picked up our coach's spectacles and broken them into pieces.

I was not close enough to hear some of the obscene abuse that other witnesses testified was being directed at our coach. Some of us were warned, however, by the team manager to stand away from the opposition parents and therefore our coach's bench.

During the presentation, some of the abuse directed towards him while he tried to speak marred the ceremony, although it must be said our boys still seemed joyous enough. And we got the feeling as we trailed from the ground and headed for our clubhouse across the other side of town that the independent officials who witnessed everything were not keen to press charges.

At the time of going to press, our team has not been notified of any punishment directed at this father who still seems to believe his actions were somehow justified, judging by the letter he sent to the league. The case was heard by the league three nights ago and there the father said he had not been able to bring himself to apologise in writing to our club.

His shamefully conditional apology to the governing body indicated our league should place greater controls on hard tagging, that his son was taken out during a behind-the-play incident and that our coach turned around and smiled after the incident. His letter, which received strong support from his club president, indicated such behaviour was typical of our club.

Clearly, I am conflicted here but all of the above is so ridiculously far off the mark it is laughable. The so-called behind-the-play incident was a legitimate hip and shoulder that resulted in an opposition free kick because it was deemed a second or two late. The game, including footage of the father on the ground, all has been captured on video.

This from a father who should have known better. He has another son playing for an AFL club and he must have been around junior football for some time. The club president's father was an AFL club president. Can they honestly be trying to justify a parent entering an arena and attacking an opposition coach?

Under-15 A-grade football is not always for the faint-hearted. One of our players was concussed early in the game and taken to hospital. Our full-forward played with a broken hand. I have no doubt I was watching at least a small handful of boys who will be drafted in 2010.

I wonder whether the league, which each year puts on a brilliant competition that has given our sons almost a lifetime of brilliant memories, joy, disappointment and hopefully some lifelong friendships, would prefer this incident disappeared.

But in recent years, I have become more and more familiar with what I used to know as a syndrome and now believe to be a big problem for football and society. I hate the way some parents abuse not only opposition players but sometimes their own children. Most disgusting is the way some parents abuse the young umpires, some of them teenagers.

At one game last year, one umpire failed to show and the poor man who performed the job on his own was treated with a torrent of scorn and bad language for four quarters. I can still see the look on his shattered face at the end of the game.

As for our coach, I believe his spectacles were not the only thing that was shattered a fortnight ago.

It was a back-to-back premiership for our son's team and the coach, who has had his fair share of personal tragedy in recent years. Last year, his post-premiership speech moved some to tears and another mother on my behalf removed the six typed pages from his pocket for safekeeping after he had spoken.

Towards the end of it, he stated: "At the ripe old age of 23, I've seen a lot of football. Played, watched, ran water and now coached. I've seen some incredible things in football. Two Brownlows to my hero Robert Harvey. Watching Brisbane take three flags in a row.

"I've played with plenty of league footballers … and played under the captaincy of arguably the best player in the AFL in Chris Judd. And I promise you none of these things come close to the feeling I had on Sunday afternoon when the final siren blew and I watched as all the boys piled on top of each other in the centre of the ground.

"Seeing the faces on every parent and friend around the ground … I can't imagine having the same feeling again too soon, so for now, I'll have to bottle up as much of it as I can."

It is of enormous regret to us that the 2007 flag and the reputation of our coach has been, if only in a small way, besmirched by an ugly parent. He should apologise to our coach and our club. And he should replace the spectacles.

[ifonlybarkswashere]

Maybe it was the mistral that provoked a father from the opposing team to run onto the ground and physically confront our young coach during the final quarter[/b]

Idiot farkwits like this guy should be prosecuted. Simple as that. Forget about apologies, replacing glasses, remorseful comments in the local paper... a press conference claiming bi-polar and that we should all feel sorry... prosecute morons like this... let's face it, despite all the in roads we still have some people out there that are clearly irrational and don't know the difference between right and what is very, very wrong.

[Gabba]

we had a couple of fights during the year, got fined 300 for one melee. Oh, and one person was knocked out during a match. It was not in play either, it was a huge punch to the head.

[n1ck]

Who's father was it?

[satchmo]

the father who jumped the fence was the father of a kid called **** Batsanis. Apparently he has huge wraps and is expected to be drafted one day.

There ya go, Nick !

The father of nathan batsanis of port adelaide ?

[n1ck]

woops... must have missed that part

[Riewoldting]

It was a game that began with typical adolescent nervous energy, punctuated by an angry northerly that caused the lead to change several times and completed by an occasionally tense presentation attended by two young policemen carrying guns.

You mean policemen now carry guns?

STOP THE PRESSES!

You're a HACK, Wilson.

[stinger]

well....a drama queen at least......

[lovin_dal_santo]

have seen and heard of some pretty nasty ones,
middle of this year, crowd vs players brawl at half time..
one kid had to be taken to hospital with concussion after a parent hurled him into a fence

just this weekend witnessed a brawl between teams at quarter time

[saint66au]

Sheesh..bad parental behaviour has been happening at junior footy since Adam and Eve were kids. Not all of us, though, had the resources of a journo Mum and a Sunday newspaper to have a sook about it.

Not condoning it for one second, but devoting your column in a major newspaper to your kids U/15 GF?? Next Tony Jones will be announcing his kids footy results on Ch 9.

[Riewoldting]

Sheesh..bad parental behaviour has been happening at junior footy since Adam and Eve were kids. Not all of us, though, had the resources of a journo Mum and a Sunday newspaper to have a sook about it.

Not condoning it for one second, but devoting your column in a major newspaper to your kids U/15 GF?? Next Tony Jones will be announcing his kids footy results on Ch 9.

(cough) ... Media Watch tip-off ... (cough)

[satchmo]

Sadly though, it is becoming much more common.

[Leo.J]

Sadly though, it is becoming much more common.

Its been happening for years, I was invovled in 2 all in brawls as a junior where players and spectators were hospitalised, this was 20 years ago.

It's just getting more press atm. It doesn't make it any more or less acceptable however.

[Teflon]

IF i was a junior and i saw Caro jump the fence hurtling toward me.....Id feign death to be spared looking at the head.

[The_Dud]

the most suprising thing for me was that someone actually had sex with Caroline Wilson

[Enrico_Misso]

the most suprising thing for me was that someone actually had sex with Caroline Wilson

Insert photo of Richmond 1974 Premiership Team here ....

[Alfie Hewsdale]

Whilst the idiot should be banned by the league from attending junior football for a period of some years and prosecuted by the authorities for assaulting the coach, it is somewhat inappropriate for this to the subject of a comment piece by the Age's Chief Football Writer, particularly when she has such a huge conflict of interest.

[killa_gram]

Beverly Hills has always attracted the less than desirables in under age footy. They have been abusing oppositions since the 70's.

[SENsei]

Junior home of Paul Roos, Richard Osborne & John Blakey if I remember correctly, is Beverly Hills.

Beverly Hills are a hard-core nut job of a club (apologies for the rash generalisation).

Glen Iris come from the more sedate Waverley League.

But nothing excuses a parent getting on the ground to attack a coach.

[osama milne laden]

never mind the point that she has access to a media voice and the bloke she's accusing doesn't ...

great abuse of her position as a journalist

[saintspremiers]

breathalize all the parents prior to the game starting and reduce the crowd by two thirds.

There you go Caro - try that one out!!!

[cowboy18]

I disagree with those calls claiming she's abusing her role as a journalist/opinion writer. The actions she describes are shameful and should be brought to the public eye.

It would be more of an abuse if she chose to cover up the ridiculous behaviour of some parents and supporters. It's even worse when heroes choose to abuse ( and sometimes attack) junior umpires but to attack another teams players or officials is insane.

She did a terrific job putting the game and the fall-out in context. Conveying the efforts of the coach of the winning team and his philosophy made the story more compelling in my opinion.

[osama milne laden]

oh, life is always so black and white

[cowboy18]

Perhaps some of you guys can help me out - what's wrong with what she's written?

She states her conflict , her personal interest in her child's coach and her disappointment with how junior football is tarnished.

But how does this relate to what she says about the incident and the broader repercussions?

[Selhurst Saint]

Beverly Hills has always attracted the less than desirables in under age footy. They have been abusing oppositions since the 70's.

I played for Beverley Hills in the 70s.