Chapter 1: What insights does Phil Davis share about the current AFL season?
This is your town. This is your station. This is Whateley.
A few more of your thoughts this Wednesday morning ahead of Phil Davis. Morning, Gerard. Although I live in Brisbane and am a big Lions fan, I'm glad to see the back of opening round this year has been the worst yet with such a fragmented fixture. I used to think the AFL was so much better run than NRL. Not anymore. That's from Dingo Derek. Why can't round one be a derby in every state?
No one travels. Fans get to see their club at the start of a season. Every game will be a sellout. Queensland teams on Thursday. New South Wales teams Friday. Then Vic... WA and South Australia Saturday and Sunday call it footies back or welcome back fans or just round one. We don't need a gimmick. That's from Deb. Our AFL season ends with a bang with a big artist playing the grand final.
We should start the season in a similar vein by making each match an event. At least one in each capital city. Get big local or touring artists to headline the footy. That'll compete with the NRL Vegas. That's from Paul. And again, making this Vic-centric and no focus on northern states again. I honestly don't know what you're listening to if that has been your take out, as Gary Lyon would do.
The eminently sensible Phil Davis. There are big topics to cover this week. We reconnect.
Welcome back, Phil. Good morning, Gerard. Nice to be back. We both had a little week off and we're refreshed.
All right. There's a lot for us to deal with. So long-time captain, senior figure in the Players Association, prominent voice in the mental health debate, and probably critically this week outside the footy bubble. Just let's pick your mind on the Elijah Hollins scenario, how it's played out so far and what's to be learnt. Where would you like to start?
I think we should start and everyone should start in the first place is with Elijah and ensuring that he's okay, he's got the support that he needs. I think we all were, you know, feeling for him when we saw the footage and then the flow and effects has been quite significant. And you can only imagine... what a destabilizing week it's been for him coming up to now.
It wasn't great footage from what we've seen. The stories don't help or add to it. However, it is part and parcel of a $2 billion industry with such media interest that it will always get legs of its own. So I think, first of all, it's all about Elijah, ensuring that he's got the support I feel for him and his family.
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Chapter 2: How does Phil Davis address the mental health of players?
And the third one is sort of like joining the two and that's career transition. I think they're three of the biggest problems facing the game. And we've seen it across the last 12 to 18 months, the amount of challenges that are through our game.
You know, unfortunately we've seen suicide, there are divorces, there's financial distress, there's mental health issues, all these things that we're seeing across the plethora of players at the moment. And if we come back to mental health, which to me is probably the number one, we go, well, what are the systems in place?
Yep, every club has two PDMs, one in charge of sort of like the indigenous part of the program, the other broadly. And then we also generally have a psychologist. If you look at what's on their remit, two PDMs, play development managers, sorry, just doesn't get it done with what's required.
If you want to incorporate mental health and making sure players are attuned to that, it doesn't seem like it's cutting it. And then I think, what about our psychology programs? Yep, largely performance psychologists, Jared, inside AFL clubs, not so much the broader piece. And yes, they can touch and they can cross over, but there's some work.
Like personally, when I played, I had the performance psych at the club and then I had my own psych outside of that. And that's sort of how I positioned myself. And I think, as I said, if you then look at that and you go, okay, well, have the AFL put in a structure in every club to give every club the best chance, every player the best chance to handle what I think increasing demands.
If you think about level of scrutiny, like, I think there's like, I don't know, this is going to be, I'm going to get well wrong and everyone's going to yell at me, but somewhere between 10 and 20 footy shows now a week, Jared, there's There are more journalists associated with the AFL than the government, from what I've been told.
And then you've got social media now, from Instagram to Twitter to TikTok. It's all encompassing.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of the Elijah Hollins scenario?
So I think if you think about the strain on the players, I don't think we've got the structure right. And then B, the governance, like... Yeah, it's all well and good to have these play development managers and the like and psychs, but where's the accountability of what's being done? Like where's the plan?
Where's the action plan that gets followed and we have some governance around it to ensure that we're checking and ticking off that things are being done? So I think as we summarize it there, Jared, I think about it's like, A, let's look after Elijah. He needs some support.
Secondly, let's dig into Carlton's oversight and why, and they should get punished accordingly because this is not good enough. And then thirdly, at the AFL level, let's ensure we've got the right structure and then the right governance and oversight to ensure it works properly.
So I think there's a lot there, and this is a flashpoint for the industry. It's just interesting. You probably need hindsight to fully assess, but the first flinch is to let's do something. So let's stage a mental health game. We seem to have forgotten we already do that with Spud's game, which is a poignant touchpoint across the season. Maybe that could be expanded upon. But...
That's one of those measures that will make us all feel better. We're doing something. We're acknowledging that there actually needs to be some industry-wide tangible action plan built on what you've just explained.
Yeah, and I think we've got a great position to be advocates and supporters for the broader thing, and that's where the Spud game fits. I think we're destined for a mental health round. It's been fantastic to see Bailey Smith talk about it. He's a great ambassador. For this, you know, he speaks quite freely and honestly about it.
So there's advocacy and then there's action for your own people in your workplace.
And I think there's an element as well that within this mental health, and if you think back to the three buckets I said before around what I think the challenges are, if you think about the demographic inside a football club as well, you've got a lot of past players there too, and a coaching capacity or an administration capacity as well.
But the broader football department could all help with mental health. We should look after our people. If we want to be a destination sport for eight-year-olds, we should take care of our people at the top end.
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Chapter 4: What does Phil Davis think about Carlton's oversight in player welfare?
Yeah, and that clearly pitfalls that combination.
Yeah, and I think... there's a pretty strong burning platform for change there.
All right. And that's not a one-week or one-month exercise. That's a long-term project, isn't it?
Yeah, we've got some work to do. I think if you look at Kate Hall being stepped up a few years ago, there's some expansion that can be done there. So there's definitely some framework there. And this is not to say that the AFL haven't done all these things. I just think there needs to be a shift. There needs to be a shift with the growing demands and requirements.
And then there's an element of oversight and governance that's required to ensure that when you advance the overall system and structure, it then flows how it should.
Since last we spoke, Phil, Dave Matthews has announced that his tenure as the chief executive of the Giants is going to come to a close at the end of the 2026 season. He has taken on one of the most formidable tasks the sport had ever had, really. I think the league and the club owe him a great debt of gratitude for what he's guided the Giants through. And you probably have...
as tight a perspective on this as anybody.
Yeah, I think, first of all, you say thank you to Dave for going up and banging the fort and building a football club that's had the success that it's had and also in the challenges. I think he'd be the first to admit that he's a bit sleep-deprived after 15 years. But it's 15 years. I should harp on that for a second. Well, A, it's an incredibly long tenure for a CEO.
But secondly, a very long tenure for an interim CEO, which is where he started. So way back when the AFL, Dimitri sent him up to say, hey, could you just help us out? We had a CEO, he left, and we had a bit of a transition period. And basically, Dave was up there for, I think it was like three to six months just to settle down maybe the first year.
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Chapter 5: How do AFL clubs support mental health initiatives?
But then we won six, then we won 11, and away we went. But, yeah, football's not linear. Richmond need to get scrapping. It's going to be a tough weekend this week with a few of their injuries too.
And Melbourne, who are their opponents on Friday night, doing a whole lot of things right as they reinvent themselves.
Well, the thing about Richmond is they'll be saying to themselves, well, look what Melbourne did to Essendon. And then you'd be like, there's some hope. Then if you actually ask yourself where the ceiling is and you look what they did to Brisbane and Gold Coast, you start to think to yourself, wow, this is seriously impressive.
So kudos to what Stephen King, Ned Guy, Paul Guerra and the whole team have done there. They're in a really good spot. I'm not as bullish as everyone else in terms of where they're going to finish the season, but I've seen enough this year, barring disaster, that they're definitely on the right path and they should be bullish about what's next.
All right. I didn't know whether to finish with this or not, but I will. So the Bulldogs are going to have their 10-year celebrations tomorrow night for the 2016 flag. Is that the flag that got away, Phil?
2016, yes. No, I still have flashbacks about that prelim a couple of times that happened, like Bontempelli's goal and the like. But no, that feels as though we were in a great position, won the qualifying final by, I think, 40-odd points. We were absolutely humming. We played quite well in that prelim too, got a few things wrong. But I don't know. I remember it so vividly.
There's this goal, Jerry, that I think epitomizes why we lost. And I actually think it actually more epitomizes why the Bulldogs won. There's the last goal of the third quarter. We tackle the doggies for every possession from the halfback flank, and they kick a goal. Their handballing was so incredible, their ability to absorb the pressure. Anyway, if anyone gets bored, find that goal.
It was seriously impressive. But 10 years already, Joe, that's crazy. But, yeah, that feels like the one that got it away. But they had a phenomenal last five weeks, and they were deserved premiers.
the things that live in the back of the mind of the ex-footballer. Phil, thank you for sharing it with us again this morning. Thank you, Gerard. The eminently sensible Phil Davis. A bit of YouTubing to be done there.
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