General Discussions

[Gointocarlton]

Just read an article re what Edwardo Betts went through on 'that camp' when at the Crows. For someone steeped in indigenous Aussie spirituality, beliefs and culture this was nothing other than psychological abuse... IMHO.

And for someone who has undergone full-on military training (very early 70s) by Naval personnel (precursor to Seals), what Edwardo reported sounded very different to what I went through. Our training brought us together, tighter. Humiliation was minimal -- and when it did happen, it was couched in humour, the Aussie way -- mate ship, encouraging mates, going the extra to help a mate... etc., was the focus, along with extreme physical fitness, endurance, psychological pain/exhaustion management/strategies. And at the end of it we really loved and respected our trainers. The discipline and love of mate I learned during that training helped me enormously and gave me skills I still use to this day.

I recall Crows/Tiggers grand final day line-ups pre game when the Crows were lined up like a bunch of stiff, comical tough guy individual statues... and the Tiggers? Arms around each other.

I heard Sam Edmund describe extracts from the book, the camp was nuts and players should have told them to GAGF'd.
Amongst a heap of stupid stuff, they were asked to do the power stance and cup the nut sack of the guy next to you (some sumo ritual apparently. The players refused thankfully.