I was reading up on the demise of the South African Cricket Team this morning, and noticed an article referring to South Africa's "innocent climb".
"It's a concept put forward by the NBA coach Pat Riley, who believes that when a team comes together unselfishly and feels itself growing stronger, turf wars and power struggles are put aside."
http://content.cricinfo.com/rsavaus2009/content/current/story/394892.htmlRiley's book The Winner Within, which I haven't read, is well summarised here:
http://websterpacific.wordpress.com/2007/02/03/the-winner-within/It got me thinking that we ourselves are about to embark on our own innocent climb.
The innocent climb is the surge that occurs within a team as they are accomplishing more because of the synergy that occurs within a team. Innocence means understanding that the team comes first and being carried along by that; being naive means being ignorant...Teamwork and all of its benefits happen when everyone puts the team first. innocence comes when the leader believes in something and puts him or herself out to accomplish that.From Day 1, Judd has said he
believes Carlton has an exciting core of young talent coming through, something which drew him to Carlton. For it to be a significant factor in his decision to play with the Blues indicates the depths of his belief.
No-one has ever doubted Ratten's belief in the young squad he is developing. His comments immediately after his interim appointment were all about excitement and belief, and the potential to be much better than what we had been.
And The Great Dick Pratt, he knew what had to be done and the teamwork began with him back when all seemed lost. He brought a spirit back to our club because he believed it was better than that, he knew it was better than the rabble we appeared and he believed in himself and the club.
Yet neither Judd nor Ratten nor Pratt have ever put themselves forward as the solution to Carlton's woes, yet all three have shown strong belief in the opportunity to make something great, a belief which has spread throughout not only our young squad but through our administration and supporter base.
The remainder of the summary of Chapter 1 draws a lovely parallel.
Magic Johnson was a leader and great team player because he put the team first and because he looked at everyone on the team and adapted his style so that everyone’s strength’s were accentuated. I may have my blue contact lenses in at the moment, but it would be very east to replace Magic Johnson with Chris Judd. His on field exploits last year were constantly team oriented and often brought other players into the game as only Chris Judd can.
At West Coast, surrounded by experience and talent, Judd was almost a free spirit. Faced with a vastly different Carlton unit he had to sacrifice his usual game and adapt his style accordingly. This benefited the team on the scoreboard, and at the expense of his own game Judd put the team first.
Other chapters covering topics such as The Disease of Me, choking, breakthroughs and complacency would appear to cover various matters which the Carlton footy club will be facing in the coming weeks, months and years, especially if success starts to take hold.
I was particularly interested in the summary of Chapter 3 which details the The Core Covenant.
The core covenant is what the team agrees upon to be the most truly important things...Good covenants bind people together, create an equal footing, help people take care of their responsibilities and create the foundation for teamwork. Every team that has accomplished great things has decided, very consciously, what it wants to be, what values it wants to represent.Whilst I don't know exactly what went on during the pre-season boot camp, much of what's described above appeared to take place there. The removal of names reduced everyone on the camp to an equal footing. The activities required teamwork and group responsibility. It would've created a bond and very much so a "foundation for teamwork".
Further down in the summary of Chapter 3 it states:
A lot of people don’t get what they want right away and must work or live in the trenches for a while before they get where they really want to be. Riley has 3 rules for people to Set the most out of the time they spend in the trenches:
1. Don’t demean the time spent in the trenches.
2. Use any time not spent on center stage to strengthen your powers of perception.
3. Keep reminding yourself that attitude is the mother of luck.Whilst the above can be applied to Carlton as a Club, I very much think of Simon Wiggins as someone who has always exhibited the above philosophies.
There is no denying he is a fantastic Clubman, as we all witnessed after his 100th last year. I heard him interviewed after a Bullants game early last year and he was rapt to be playing with them. He was in the trenches yet not for one minute considered demeaning being there. He's spent a lot of time in and out of the seniors, yet has always maintained the rarest of attitudes.
GO BLUES!
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