Rebecca Wilson: Footy or family go with your heart
07may05
TWO very personal decisions were made by two of the country's biggest footy stars this week.
One bloke decided to put footy ahead of family. The other one went the opposite way and made a call which could ultimately end his professional sporting career.
Rugby league's Trent Barrett played for Country last night in a representative match and announced earlier in the week that if his wife, Kylie, had gone into labour around the time of the match, he would miss the birth of his second child. He made the decision based on his career and what he believed was a necessity to resurrect it in the rep arena.
At the beginning of the week, Sydney Swans captain Stuart Maxfield told his coach and team-mates that he would move to Melbourne for half of every week because his ex-wife and children had moved back to Victoria. Maxfield spent a couple of days with his two babies in Melbourne to make a decision left to him by coach Paul Roos.
By Thursday, the great Swans club man decided he would choose his kids ahead of the job. In a simple but gracious statement to the media, Stuart Maxfield claimed he wasn't a good enough player to leave his mark on the team in just three days. The reasons Roos picked him as captain became very apparent when he downplayed his own ability and the huge part he plays in this Swans team.
The personal turmoil he must have suffered in recent months has taken its toll on Maxfield. This bloke has lived footy for many, many years. He was so dedicated to the red and white that he ran extra training sessions on the beach through many winters in an effort to win an elusive flag. To finally be anointed captain and then to relinquish it, must have been extremely difficult.
Trent Barrett and Stuart Maxfield have handled in extremely different ways the dilemma of the modern footballer. They are both full-time professionals earning huge money to play sport. They signed contracts that required them to virtually sign their lives over to their clubs. But what the contracts didn't include were clauses about personal life and emotional issues.
Barrett made a call many, many others have made before him. Back in the old days, before full-time professionalism, a lot of footy players opted for the field ahead of the labour ward. It was generally accepted practice in most clubs. There is the famous story of a bloke at his mad Monday celebrations who had to be collected from the pub by his sister-in-law and dragged drunk into the labour ward. His wife was overdue, so surprise wasn't an excuse.
Then along came the SNAGs (Sensitive New Age Guys, for those living in a cave) and the ballgame changed. Players started doing what most men now wouldn't miss for quids attending the birth of a baby. For mothers reading this, and for blokes who have been at the birth of a child, the very notion that a father could consider missing the birth of a baby for a footy game is seen as a strange call.
Barrett has already been at the birth of his first child. Maybe he thinks that's good enough. Or perhaps his decision just shows what lengths he will go to for a rep jumper. The league star has had a shocking run of injuries. For someone who has been expected to have a New South Wales jersey on his back for most of his career, he has only managed to play six State of Origin matches. Desperation does strange things to personal judgement.
Barrett injured his foot in this game two years ago and was forced out of league for the rest of the season. Enormous pressure has been placed on him because he is yet to really deliver on the massive expectations of his youth.
All of that must come into play when a young man is deciding what is best for him. Whether Barrett has ever actually thought a lot about growing old and what makes a great memory is questionable. After all, he is only 27.
Maxfield has the benefit of a few more years and some great advisers. Coach Roos has been nothing short of amazing. If Maxfield is a nominee for SNAG of the year, Roos wins the award. He told Maxfield the decision to keep the captaincy was up to him. He has also told his emotional captain that nothing comes before family even if the Swans have lost three games in succession and are in shocking form.
Maxfield has learnt the hard way that you can play elite footy and win lots of games. You can play for your state or enter the hall of fame. But nothing you achieve in any career, including footy, can match the experience of having a son or daughter. Maxfield knows he made the right choice. Barrett will probably get his longed-for Blues jersey. But I bet that when he first sees that new baby, he'll wonder why he ever weighed up which one was more important.
