Delisted…..That time of the Year !!!!!

There comes a time in all our lives that we know the answer …….we just don’t want to hear it but the percentages suggest at times it’s your making.

There are 3 types of delisted players

1. Can’t play (brutal but it’s a professional sport)
2. Needs time and might have to go back to a lower level
3. Traded or Drafted

As an Agent I would always try to beat the coach to the dreaded meeting of telling a player it was all over.

How would I do that ?   Basically gather information from July onwards each year on how my player was travelling by asking questions like “maybe you have too many big men” or “surely you’re looking to trade him”

I would then get the Player in to my office prior to Rd 22 or the Finals and tell it like it is.   You are gone !   Blunt, Brutal but honest.  I’m here to get the best out of you.   So we move on to chapter 2 this is my plan to get your re-drafted or traded.    I decided in 1992 the first year of Player Management that every Player had to leave my office with a pat on the back and positive state of mind.   I prided myself on this…..i would actually watch them walk out of my office with their chest pumped out saying “f…..k you I’ll show you” or “I can do this”

One day I was sitting in Mick Malthouse’s Office at Victoria Park and we were picking each others brain.  He was asking who of my players would come to Pie Park and I wanted to know how to sack an employee “gently” from the Office.

Mick has a great way of telling it like it is.    Too often we see footy as life or death.  It aint.  Its simply is part of passage.    I asked Mick how I should explain to a player that he is probably finished.  He told me to recognise that the Player has bought something to the Club, left with an Education and real life experiences.   He has left a better person.  He might not have made the grade at footy but he is clearly a better person for experience.

I remember sacking a receptionist and telling her that “she wasn’t ready for the big time and that she needed to grow up”.  I couldn’t believe some 5-7 years later I went in to a meeting at Slattery Media and she had “all grown up”.   She pulled me aside and said that she cried for 3 days after I sacked her but it had “made her”.    AFL Players are no different sometimes they can’t see the top of the mountain for the fog.  They need someone to part the clouds.  This is the job of the Agent.

So Player X comes to my office for a post season review.  I cut to the chase.   You’re not good enough.  What do you think about that ?    Do you think I’m right ?   It’s a tough caper AFL but I want to see him challenge me.   Most say I’m wrong.  I say prove it.  Are you prepared to play at Port Melbourne for the year ?  Are you prepared to do what it takes …..are you ?  are you ?   They leave almost doing 1000 push ups at reception !!!

Of course some are lucky enough to be traded which is a time of year I loved.  Matching wits with Coaches and Recruiting Men at Clubs that thought they knew more about my client then I did.

Sometimes a good Agent is able to cling to dear life for his client knowing full well one more year might be all it takes for a boy to become a man.   I knew that a kid at Brisbane needed that and I believed in him and backed him in.

I had a very good knack of making a lot of deals seem “special”.  What do I mean by that ?   I never deliberately set out to screw a Club  but let’s say Brisbane are desperate for a key forward.  Brendan Fevola is out of contract at Carlton.  He is a Coleman Medallist for God’s Sake….surely you can’t miss the opportunity.   I didn’t manage Fevola.  I have a young kid Lachlan Henderson desperate to get back to Victoria.    Lachie has grown up in Geelong.  Close to his family and I believe he will become a player if he is closer to his family.

That is not maligning Lachie.  It’s called understanding your client (something very few Agents seem to be able to understand these days) .    I know Lachie is quality at everything.  Why because I take the time to speak to his mum in detail about how he grew up and what he was like at school.   I almost adopt a psychologist assessment program.   Based around gene pool.  Interesting huh bet you never thought that’s what might make the difference  !!!

I use to joke with my ex-wife Jude (psychologist) that she might be the best psychologist in the world but Sport Agents are the best Amateur Psychologists

I speak to Brett Ratten (who I manage) and Greg Swan (long relationship with).  At first they are reluctant to let Fevola go for a kid who is struggling at Brisbane.    It takes a big sell from my end.   Eventually they agree.  Greg Swan says he will cut certain parts of my anatomy out if I’m wrong.  Heard it all before Greg.  Don’t bother sharpening the knife just yet.

If you are going to be any good at being a Sports Agent you have to know how to Educate, how to Assess, and how to Act.

You be the judge if I got it right on Lachie Henderson.

All Speaking Enquiries:   info@rickynixon.com.au