GWS wrote:
Salsiccia wrote:
Feel sorry for Nick. Something not right for the guy
It's not a new story.
These guys spend years in a bubble being told their shit doesn't stink and then one day they leave the bubble and someone points out that it does.
Some didn't believe it in the first place and are fine.
Some realise that it's true and adjust accordingly.
Some can't accept it and lose their shit all over the place.
Not hard to work out where Stevens sits.
A friend of mine in WA bumped into Cousins in a queue for the bank teller or something and said, "oh, how's it going these days" his reply to her was a bit scary.
She said he just replied "tick, tick, tick, tick,…" and gave her a certain kind of look as if to say, "when will the bomb go off?"
That was a year or so before his meltdown period if I recall.
The AFL should be investing in a unit to study what's causing some of their alumni to go off the rails, when they should be set for life after footy with lots of money these days and club networks to deliver opportunities for meaningful work post-footy even for minor AFL players. Learning how to live without the limelight is probably a big part of it for some of them and the AFL should be invested in programs to identify at risk players and ex-players and support their transition to life on the outside.
Its similar story in FIFO world too, where the factors are well understood by researchers, lack of daily contact with family leads to isolation MH diseases, violent cultures and violence-permissive norms on many mine sites, then they have long off-site time characterised by boredom, stress/decompressing, too much money and a peer culture that is all about sensory stimulation maxing.