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Added Sunday 06/01/2008 Well, you get it all on 15man, the occasional economic session, a little rugby, and now book reviews. Having just completed the Andrew Johns book, “The Two of Me”, there are certainly a few things in there that I agree with. Firstly though, I certainly didn’t find it a book that people describe as “one you just can’t put down”, I found I had to “read it” each time I went to it, I can generally read 300 to 700 pages per day, but this one took a week to chew through. It is a warts and all expose of the Johns persona, and you certainly pick up that Andrew does not think he is as good as people around him found him to be. However, he is wrong on that, this guy could play. Now, two very pertinent points that I agree with that Johns brought up in his book, he says somewhere in there that skills are honed and developed through playing, basically, that’s not word for word, but it is the gist of the statement, and surely coming from one of the greatest ever to strap on a boot, someone must take notice. The second talks about the over training of juniors, and Johns says that 15 and 16 year olds are training exactly the same way as their NRL counterparts, the enjoyment is gone for them, and we are just developing robots. No arguments here, you can see that at 8 out of 9 GPS schools here in Qld for one. Not hard to turn up to a Schoolboy training session anywhere and watch kids repeating a mindless array of set plays, yet alot of them can't catch well, or don't carry the ball well, some have trouble remembering the set plays. Plenty of other interesting stuff through the book, and Johns dispels some of the stories on the size of salaries that supposedly did the rounds, doesn’t hide for a minute that he was on good money and is well off, but the salaries are not as big as we sometimes hear. The chapter on his negotiations with the ARU and NSWRU make an interesting read, and my take in it is that the negotiating process of the ARU, and rugby bodies in general, ( I have witnessed a lot of it first hand, it is dreadful, if most of us did deals the way these guys do, we would be out of business) is tedious, flawed and inept. This is one time that I agree with Eddie Jones, rugby should have signed this guy. Forget about he drugs, if you can guarantee me that the rugby system is that good that not one, not one single player in our four super 14 franchises is not a casual drug taker, then I would re think my statement, the issue is with education, but drugs is another matter and any drug use in 2004, the time of negotiation, was rumoured, not confirmed. What rugby missed was the opportunity to sign a guy that even at 30 or 31 could have re defined how the game was/is played. Personally I am yet to see anyone that plays as deep to the line as this guy did, his vision and reaction times were at another level to most, Berrick Barnes at 15 was another that grabbed my attention with his ability to play at the line. If you have the opportunity to buy the best, even if the best is nearing the end, I think you have to take the risk. Johns would have no doubt survived much longer in the less physical game of rugby union, less physical through less games, and less physical in the fact that the game still does not have the “ball in play time” of rugby league. The guy knows a lot about the game as well, and had some clear plans on how he would approach the game. I don’t think most of us understand just how close rugby was to gaining the services of Andrew Johns. While the signing of a guy like Johns doesn’t even begin to address the issues in Australia of the development of forwards that are up to the requirements of provincial and international football, he certainly would have offered more than just his playing ability to the code, his great knowledge of all things oval balled would have added another dimension to the code. From a personal perspective, Johns would be more than welcome to come along and run a couple of sessions with the college kids here on the Downs. Rugby certainly needs to develop the harder edges we see in the rugby league world. His take on Willie Mason, and he doesn’t have a bad word for anyone except himself, is interesting too, in that Willie gets flogged in the media, and we never hear about his good work with and for kids. I guess the media just waits for Willie to say something, and picks out the controversial stuff, or stuff it can make controversial. Again I am a big fan of Willie Mason the player, and many are not. He didn’t have the greatest 2007, but he is one of the more destructive runners and defenders in the game, both games in fact today. Johns and Mason are two guys I would pay money to watch play, although widescreen televisions for me beat the live experience hands down. I guess that is something that comes with age, no chair like my lounge chair! Johns also says that rugby league has become a game for robots, or robots are being developed in rugby league. Ditto rugby union, it frustrates me to see kids trying to remember what they are supposed to do in certain areas of a football field. Just let them play for goodness sake, to make some mistakes, and then figure out why the mistakes were made, maybe they should have passed a step earlier, maybe they should have passed a step later. Nothing too analytical, just plant a few things without animation that they may try in the next game, never have them be fearful of trying something, fearful of being roasted by a coach or a parent. Very evident throughout the book is his work ethic. Even as talented as he was, it was never good enough, he worked to make his game better. This is evident not only from him, but others around him that get sections in the book. On his bi polar disease, or what used to be known as manic depression, I have seen so many lives ended, and most of them young males, through suicide. We always go away asking why, but never really have an answer. Could this be a part of the reason, coupled with the pressures and expectations of modern society? Who knows, and I guess I never will, I usually only ever see the grief of those left behind, wonder what they must be going through, but you never have an answer unless you go there, I don’t think so anyway. Finally, the mental toughness of this guy comes through. To play in that game with cracked ribs and a punctured lung is almost unimaginable. Most of us that have played have played with discomfort of some sort, but to even think of playing with a recently punctured lung and cracked ribs, in an NRL grand final, takes the mental side of over coming pain to a new level. Still to this day I hear people say that he couldn’t play, was a terrible footballer, I always ask them what channel they are watching, is there another Andrew Johns playing on another channel I need to have a look at? So ends a book review that would get zero from 10 in a class situation. |
