Co-curricular - Junior Sport Stage 3

"Read it in the Paper"

There used to be a great adage used in sport, ‘Read it in the Paper’. Unfortunately, with the rise of electronic media and the demise of the newspaper, this phrase is not used much anymore. It comes from a time when all the sporting results for a weekend, school and club were published in the Sunday newspaper. This phrase would be tossed around and used on the field, in the grandstand and in discussions post-match.

Over this past weekend, there have been a number of instances that have caused controversy and promoted much discussion. Whether it has been a close match with the referee decision being decisive, a discrepancy in scoring or a pitch being unplayable, all these situations would have been in the past, summed up by ‘read it in the paper.’

I was first introduced to this comment by my grandfather, after a discussion following a weekend’s game. I was whinging (there is no other word for it) about how I didn’t think I was out, that there were many factors in the rules which told me I wasn’t out and how the umpire could have made such a bad decision. After probably quite a while of just having sat there and listening to me, my grandfather uttered those infamous words, “Well John, you’ll just have to read it in the paper.”

The words initially stung a bit, and it took me a while to understand what he had meant. However, after some soul searching, I finally came to the following conclusion. This is what I understood of the phrase: my opinion of the events didn’t matter. In the end, no matter what I said or who I said it to, nothing was going to change, I would still read in the Sunday paper that I was out. The game had ended, people had moved on and so must I. The decision made might have been unfortunate, and it may have been wrong, but at the end of the day I was given out and I had to accept it and build a little resilience.

After explaining to my grandfather that I had figured out what he had meant, he asked me a question that stopped me in my tracks. He asked, “Do you know how to stop it?” This was going to be great I thought, I am going to be given the answer to ‘how do I solve the bad decision, the error or the bias decision.’ I will know who to turn to, to make it all better. He then told me to stop looking for people to blame and to be better. Needless to say, not the answer I was hoping for. My grandfather went on. He told me about concentrating on what I could control, being a better player. If the game results were close, work harder to create a bigger gap in the score. If the game had to be close, play clean and tidy and don’t invite the referee into the game with foul play. Make better choices in your play, use your teammates and work better as a team. He was encouraging me to turn the focus back on myself and not to outwardly project on things that have no influence on the issue. 

This inward focus is not always easy to do and can sometimes give you answers that you may not like. However, if this becomes common practice, the end result is greater development and more enjoyment in our games. I think we could all benefit from ‘reading it in the paper’ a little more often.

Last week, boys from the Junor School were involved in the IPSHA Touch Football trials. Congratulations to Tate Quailey, Tony Karam and Atticus Haddad for their selection to represent IPSHA at the upcoming CIS trials. 

We also congratulate the following boys for their selection to the St Patrick’s College Junior School Cross Country team: Orlando Iannuzzi, Owen Eggleton, Noah Najm, Elijah Stanley-Nigro, Aston Barilla, Dean Trikalis, Leno Pipino, Atticus Haddad, William Symonds, Henry Roberts, Maksym Barron, Zac Boscutti.

With the Summer season now drawing to a close, with only two weekends remaining, attention is turning towards the Winter sport season. Trials will be commencing soon after the conclusion of Summer season. The dates for trials are Monday 24 March and Monday 31 March. All Winter sports will trial at this time, unless otherwise informed. Locations and times will be announced closer to the date.  All trials will be held outside of school hours on site at the College. Boys should wear their PE uniform along with mouthguards for AFL and Rugby, shinpads for football. Boots should be worn for all Winter sport trials. It is expected that all boys that put their names down for a winter sport fulfill their commitment and play in a team. 

A reminder that the SPC training shirt is compulsory for boys to wear at training. This is particularly important for Football and AFL. Boys in Rugby still have the blue rugby training shirt, however this is being phased out for the new College training shirt. All boys playing Football and AFL must have the training shirt ready for the commencement of Winter season training.

Best of luck to all our teams for the second last round of Summer sport for Term 1. Play hard, but fair. Keep yourself in the game and remain focused until the final whistle.

John Locke

Head of Co-Curricular Stage 3