Some of the comments here remind me of a quote that came from some wise person I can't recall the name of right now. It goes something along the lines of "the rubbish you walk past in the hall is the standard you're setting for your colleagues".
What are we happy to walk past?
I know the quote in a different context and generally agree with it. But you know, we won 3 flags due in no small part to our players, as acknowledged by themselves in the media, embracing who they are, revealing their vulnerability to their team mates and being unconditionally accepting of their team mates for the individuals they are. Sometimes those standards are not as clear as we first think, and that we need more context to really understand them.
Unless someone can honestly say they know different, judging Jr on that bit of footage as a snapshot of where he is at attitude wise is very harsh. He wanted to come to Tigerland, he wanted to walk in his fathers shoes. He is clearly upset in that footage and refusing to take the phone is not a great look, but that is all we know. It can be taken as being petulant, but it can also be taken as him being very disappointed in himself, in his performance as part of a team that he really wants to be part of.
The footage that has come out today, which shows this incident and then some more footage afterwards, just highlights how manipulative the media can be.
I am not trying to preach here, or tell people they are wrong, but the quote can be said about us as supporters of the Tigers.
A few weeks ago I made a couple of posts on the Tom Brown thread. I got caught up in the prevailing opinion at the time that, to paraphrase, Brown was a bust. Certainly not the first time I have done this with various players over the last 15 years or so.
But somebody quite rightly pointed out that we were being exceptionally hard on him. For some reason it resonated with me, and I had to agree. I was posting about a kid that I have never even seen based almost exclusively on the opinions of other posters. I actually felt a bit ashamed of having done that, but also concerned that maybe I was reverting to the negativity that rightly or wrongly had become almost synonymous with Tigers supporters from the late 80's through to 2016.
Now we have all seen much more of Jr than Brown for sure, so we have a much bigger body of evidence on which to make judgements, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I would be lying to say I am not a little concerned about Jrs apparent lack of development given the opportunities he has been given. And if I saw the actions in that footage being repeated in similar situations a few more times moving forward, I would be very concerned.
But as I said in my earlier post, a couple of his team mates getting around him after the team song to offer him their support speaks volumes to me of Jrs attitude and what his team mates think of him. I could be wrong. Maybe the media deliberately stopped the footage there and didn't show Pickett and Broad giving Jr a few hard clips around the ears and telling him to pull his head in
, but I don't think that would be the case.