The creases on Barret Bonden's arse
In my younger days, when Amazon was still a book store, I immersed myself in a series of novels by Patrick O’Brian. Commonly known as the “Aubrey-Maturin series” they detailed the exploits of a Royal Naval Officer, Jack Aubrey, and his surgeon/spy/natural philosopher friend, Stephen Maturin. They opened a wonderful and often detailed window into the navy of the times and the Napoleonic wars. Every few years I go back to them and they never fail to disappoint.
The events of recent times reminded me of a scene from one of the later books, “The Yellow Admiral”. My memory is a little hazy so forgive me if I don’t have the sequence of events or the wording quite right!
Aubrey’s coxswain, Barret Bonden, acting as champion for Aubrey’s estate takes part in a bare knuckle boxing match against Black Evans, the game keeper for a rival estate. As the fight progresses, both men become progressively worse for wear. Bones get broken, blood streams freely and knuckles split deep. Suddenly Evans grabs Bonden by the pig tail and rattles him against a corner post. With Bonden unable to get back up, Evans takes the win.
Having lost the fight to this somewhat questionable manoevre Bonden remarks sometime later “That’s another crease in me arse, sir”.
When challenged as to what the devil he meant he explained “Every time I learn a lesson, I get another crease on me arse”.
It’s not a saying I’d heard before or since, but I remember it just the same. The creases are important. They’re symbolic of times when we took the opportunity to from our experiences and mistakes. It is oft said that good decisions come from experience, experience comes from bad decisions.
It’s never that clear cut though, is it? We never stop learning. Even when we think we’ve got enough creases on our arses that we’ve got life figured out, there’s always something lurking around the corner to challenge us. In that respect, this season has been particularly challenging.
I think there will be many on the payroll of the Rocks organisation with slightly more creases in their arses than they had six months ago. I’m all for that, though in a results driven business it can be hard to stomach in the short term. If you’re still reading at this point, having expected more basketball and less Royal Navy, then allow me to throw a few curve balls at you.
The “Recruitment by committee” approach is broadly positive.
“What?!” I hear you say! Are you taking the piss?! Think outside the box on this one. There’s no doubt in my mind that recruitment by committee is a risky strategy however there’s some things worth thinking about here:
1. Leaving all the major decisions to a head coach is not the norm. We’re conditioned to think this in the UK as our media is saturated with coverage of football where the word of the head coach/manager is, at many clubs, still considered law. We’ve seen in countless sports across the world that this isn’t always how it’s done and nor should it be. GMs, scouting teams, presidents, senior players etc often play a part in recruitment – particularly in the NBA. The takeaway point from this is that relying solely on one person to recruit a team is narrow minded. If there’s a wealth of basketball experience at your disposal then draw on it.
2. Recruitment by committee spreads blame. It’s an inadvertent defence mechanism of sorts. There’s no doubt in my mind that, had he been in sole charge of recruiting, then Daryll Wood would be under some serious pressure right now. Not only from his employers but from the fans too. By involving several people in the decision making process it makes it harder to turn the guns on any one individual. It has probably bought Daryll time from a fanbase who generally seem to understand that while the buck stops with the head coach it doesn’t stop
solely with him. This course of action lessens the chance of a scapegoat, at least in the short term.
3. Involving other people in the decision making process builds loyalty and affinity. The counterpoint to this is that involving players to recruit other players raises integrity issues. If player A gets 30 minutes per game, is it in his interests to look for someone better than him, thus risking a cut of minutes? As Gareth Murray and Kieron Achara are heavily involved in the Rocks Academy and the “Rocks in the community” CIC it suggests to me that they’re as invested in the club as the rest of us. Failure benefits no-one.
Except failure
does benefit people. Failure benefits anyone mature enough to accept and analyse their mistakes. That’s the key here. I don’t actually mind getting beaten that much – it’s not like we’ve ever been that good anyway (subject of a future blog). If we show better form and tactical awareness then it’ll suggest to me that we’re learning from our mistakes and improving how we do things.
Which, readers, is how you get the creases on your arse.