injuryupdate
01-05-2004, 05:18 PM
Although not strictly related to injury (although many coaches take the blame when their team has too many players fall victim to injuries), this article in Herald-Sun, by Mike Sheahan (29/4/04), is a good illustration of the devastation felt in losing the coaching job at a footy club. More ex-coaches, ex-players and ex-officials suffer depression than is generally realised:
Buck stops here: Gary Buckenara's fall from grace took a heavy toll, starting with frustration, confusion and self-doubt, and ending with a sense of failure, self-loathing and depression, and what he regarded as the shame of a place in the dole queue.
DURING the four-year period, 1986-89, Gary Buckenara played in Hawthorn teams that lost just 18 games.
When Buckenara became Sydney's coach in 1992, the first seven games produced a respectable three wins and a draw . . . before 18 losses in a row and the sack.
The fall from grace took a heavy toll, starting with frustration, confusion and self-doubt, and ending with a sense of failure, self-loathing and depression, and what he regarded as the shame of a place in the dole queue.
Thankfully, he survived the most testing period of his life before returning to league football and recruiting manager at the Hawks.
Barring an arthritic knee that has earned him the nickname, Chester, from the old television serial, Gunsmoke, he is in good shape.
He also understands Danny Frawley's current torment and suspected vulnerability.
Frawley's Richmond, which has two wins from its past 19 games, plays Hawthorn at Telstra Dome tonight.
"I know what he's going through as far as trying to keep things in perspective is concerned," Buckenara said.
"There's a lot worse things going on in the world, and I'm sure Danny knows that, but, at the time, you feel like you're all alone, living a nightmare.
"When you get into that downward spiral, you do feel everyone's against you, even to the point where you think your players are against you.
"The footy community does generally feel for Danny, but it's hard to not think that you're all alone."
Buckenara terms it "the losing spiral" that turns to freefall as everything falls apart.
"You start to think `I don't know if I'm going to be able to stop it'.
"You try everything under the sun, you lose confidence, you then even start to question some of the blokes and their motives for playing.
"Everyone starts to look for someone to blame. All of the bad things in a team environment – lack of discipline, loss of confidence, in-fighting, finger-pointing and back stabbing, that all starts.
"Then you create the bunker mentality, where everyone shuts up shop. Players start to look after their own careers; they don't take risks, they go stat chasing, they play for self-preservation.
"It's just a huge vicious circle and something has to give to break the cycle."
After he was sacked, Buckenara went home to Perth and the darkest period of his life.
"I ended up with depression, and probably I'm still in a way working through all that," he said.
"I went home with my tail between my legs. I couldn't get a job. I was probably nine months unemployed.
"I couldn't get myself going. Eventually I got right, got a job, started coaching again over there, which was good for me.
"I can feel what Danny's going through. At the moment, he would be thinking where's the next win going to come from? How do we go about it? If this keeps going, what's my future going to be?
"I found that because I was the Sydney coach who was discarded after losing 18 in a row, my whole reputation in footy suffered. People didn't want to have a bar of me, and footy ostracised me. It didn't sit well with me, the fact that I was perceived as a failure."
He wisely sought counsel of his old coach Allan Jeans, and had the day-to-day support of then Sydney officials Kevin Egan and Rob Snowdon.
Buckenara now believes too much attention and importance is attached to the coach.
"Was Allan Jeans no good as a coach after he left Hawthorn, where he'd coached three premiership teams? Of course not."
Richmond finished 13th of 15 in Jeans' only year at Punt Road, after which he told friends: "You haven't coached until you've coached at a bottom club."
Buckenara said Frawley would know when it was time to go."Danny will know in a month or so what he should be doing," he said.
"Just hanging in there for the sake of hanging in there won't do any good. Even though they made the decision, I knew I couldn't help Sydney.
"In the end it was a relief."
He said Frawley was lucky to have strong family support and needed to guard against pushing people away, as he (Buckenara) had done.
"You shy away from people because you feel embarrassed," he said.
Buck stops here: Gary Buckenara's fall from grace took a heavy toll, starting with frustration, confusion and self-doubt, and ending with a sense of failure, self-loathing and depression, and what he regarded as the shame of a place in the dole queue.
DURING the four-year period, 1986-89, Gary Buckenara played in Hawthorn teams that lost just 18 games.
When Buckenara became Sydney's coach in 1992, the first seven games produced a respectable three wins and a draw . . . before 18 losses in a row and the sack.
The fall from grace took a heavy toll, starting with frustration, confusion and self-doubt, and ending with a sense of failure, self-loathing and depression, and what he regarded as the shame of a place in the dole queue.
Thankfully, he survived the most testing period of his life before returning to league football and recruiting manager at the Hawks.
Barring an arthritic knee that has earned him the nickname, Chester, from the old television serial, Gunsmoke, he is in good shape.
He also understands Danny Frawley's current torment and suspected vulnerability.
Frawley's Richmond, which has two wins from its past 19 games, plays Hawthorn at Telstra Dome tonight.
"I know what he's going through as far as trying to keep things in perspective is concerned," Buckenara said.
"There's a lot worse things going on in the world, and I'm sure Danny knows that, but, at the time, you feel like you're all alone, living a nightmare.
"When you get into that downward spiral, you do feel everyone's against you, even to the point where you think your players are against you.
"The footy community does generally feel for Danny, but it's hard to not think that you're all alone."
Buckenara terms it "the losing spiral" that turns to freefall as everything falls apart.
"You start to think `I don't know if I'm going to be able to stop it'.
"You try everything under the sun, you lose confidence, you then even start to question some of the blokes and their motives for playing.
"Everyone starts to look for someone to blame. All of the bad things in a team environment – lack of discipline, loss of confidence, in-fighting, finger-pointing and back stabbing, that all starts.
"Then you create the bunker mentality, where everyone shuts up shop. Players start to look after their own careers; they don't take risks, they go stat chasing, they play for self-preservation.
"It's just a huge vicious circle and something has to give to break the cycle."
After he was sacked, Buckenara went home to Perth and the darkest period of his life.
"I ended up with depression, and probably I'm still in a way working through all that," he said.
"I went home with my tail between my legs. I couldn't get a job. I was probably nine months unemployed.
"I couldn't get myself going. Eventually I got right, got a job, started coaching again over there, which was good for me.
"I can feel what Danny's going through. At the moment, he would be thinking where's the next win going to come from? How do we go about it? If this keeps going, what's my future going to be?
"I found that because I was the Sydney coach who was discarded after losing 18 in a row, my whole reputation in footy suffered. People didn't want to have a bar of me, and footy ostracised me. It didn't sit well with me, the fact that I was perceived as a failure."
He wisely sought counsel of his old coach Allan Jeans, and had the day-to-day support of then Sydney officials Kevin Egan and Rob Snowdon.
Buckenara now believes too much attention and importance is attached to the coach.
"Was Allan Jeans no good as a coach after he left Hawthorn, where he'd coached three premiership teams? Of course not."
Richmond finished 13th of 15 in Jeans' only year at Punt Road, after which he told friends: "You haven't coached until you've coached at a bottom club."
Buckenara said Frawley would know when it was time to go."Danny will know in a month or so what he should be doing," he said.
"Just hanging in there for the sake of hanging in there won't do any good. Even though they made the decision, I knew I couldn't help Sydney.
"In the end it was a relief."
He said Frawley was lucky to have strong family support and needed to guard against pushing people away, as he (Buckenara) had done.
"You shy away from people because you feel embarrassed," he said.