When the final siren sounds

The recent retirements of former star AFL players Ben Cousins and Simon Goodwin highlights just how many ways an athlete can call time on their career, be it injury, fatigue or just the ‘end of the road’. However, while their playing career in football may have come to an end, the rest of their life is really just beginning. While Cousins was being urged to explore a coaching role or take to the public speaking circuit within hours of his announcement, the reality is that only a small number of players remain in football.

So for those without a coaching gig or ambassador role lined up, what’s next?

Professor Joy Damousi from the University’s School of Historical Studies and Dr John Cash from the School of Philosophy, Anthropology and Social Inquiry are two people keen to find out just what players’ experiences of life after playing at an elite level are like. The pair has just begun work on a new research project aptly titled After the Siren to investigate how players cope once they hang up their boots.

Professor Damousi says there’s been a shift in the way retirement is approached by both clubs and players over the last 50 years.

“The clubs recruit players so young, sometimes as early as 16 or 17-years-old before drafting them at 18, so its possible players could give 10 years’ service to the same club and still not hit 30,” Professor Damousi says.

“This is a group of young men whose football careers are usually quite limited – the average career is just three years in the AFL – but a career that comes at a very formative time in their early 20s.

“In contrast, their contemporaries have spent 10 years carving out careers, building job experience and specific future paths that not every player has the opportunity to do while playing, so many end their careers and have whole lives without football ahead of them and perhaps not much of an idea of how to navigate it. And I think that’s been one of the big changes in our game since it became a ‘professional’, full-time occupation in the 1990s.

“Clubs have seen over the years what happens to players who don’t have structure after the game. Certainly the approach and treatment by clubs and players has improved in this time and shifted with the nature of professionalism. They’re now much more aware and proactive, and every club will have something for their players. What we want to provide is a greater understanding of how they can decide what to do.”

Dr Cash adds that “retirement from AFL football challenges a sporting identity that has been formed and consolidated from childhood through to adult life, often with intense family involvement. The transition to a life and career after football throws new personal responsibilities upon former players whose life and career experience until then has taken shape in the shadow of their success at football. Typically they have enjoyed the support of family, friends and powerful institutions such as the AFL and the AFL clubs. With retirement comes risks, hazards and, also, new possibilities. Our study investigates how former AFL players negotiate, manage, cope or fail to cope with this new situation and the demands it places upon them.”

After the Siren follows Footy Passions, a book released last year by Professor Damousi and Dr Cash looking into supporters and their intense emotional attachment to their beloved clubs. It charts how this attachment is full of personal significance that links supporters to both their own family history and life’s struggles, joys and disappointments. Where Passions is focused solely on the fans whose lives are caught up in football and barracking, After the Siren looks the other side of the boundary at the experiences and emotions of players. It tracks the life-history of players from childhood on and explores, in particular, how players manage the rollercoaster that is life after football.

Professor Damousi says they are keen to go deeper than just looking at what programs are available to players to ‘upskill’ before they retire. In particular, the study will compare more recent retirees with those from the quasi-amateur years between the 1950s to the 1980s. “It’s about charting that history of when it wasn’t professional, when players did have a career outside football. Was it easier, and what impact did it have on the game and its professionalism?”

“And do greater financial rewards as well as greater support from the AFL Players Association, the AFL and the clubs make a difference to the way players experience the end of their playing career and subsequent life?”

The themes from early interviews and surveys have focused strongly on the importance of family networks to support players, as well as the need to develop a trade, a degree or some other interest outside of football. There’s certainly evidence of that changing attitude, with the recent announcement that Open Universities Australia would partner with the AFL Players Association (AFLPA) to provide greater tertiary education options to players through on-line study.

While such structures are important, Professor Damousi says it’s even more critical that a balanced, more positive view of life after retirement is painted for those both in and external to the game.

“We do see it very much feeding back to current players, ex-players and clubs, trying to paint a picture of what has worked for some, what hasn’t but really identify some positives as very often we only ever read about the negatives. We can certainly point to more successful stories, as there are many who have managed to do it well.

“We’re trying to get a very balanced view of the whole process and what might be a strategy going forward. Both the AFL and the AFLPA are very aware of this issue, and we’re trying to provide research based solutions to them.

“It’s a side that isn’t really disclosed all that much, but it’s fascinating to see another side to the professionalism of the game and how much of a rollercoaster it is for players.”

The University of Melbourne will host its annual Grand Final Breakfast & Cordner Oration on Friday 24 September, 7.30am at University House. Enquiries: Margaret Sullivan
8344 7775
masu@unimelb.edu.au.