BulldogBelle
19-05-2009, 11:19 PM
Excellent article on Aker....
Jason Akermanis: the man behind the mouth (http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25509153-19742,00.html)
The Herald Sun
Damian Barrett | May 20, 2009
JASON Akermanis has had a chaotic adult life, but it is the intoxicating days in late September and October 2001 that provide the framework for his football and private lives. Within that period, there was a Brownlow Medal win, an inaugural Brisbane Lions premiership and a wedding to his soulmate Megan.
But there also was a discussion with a man he considered a friend that left him shocked.
The conversation goes some way to explaining to an outsider why things ended up so ugly for him at Brisbane and related to his wedding day, where Akermanis had noticed two empty chairs on a table designated for Lions teammates.
Strangely, he noticed that the partners of the invited players managed to attend.
Akermanis thought it odd, but didn't think a lot of it at the time. He only got around to asking the two players concerned, Justin Leppitsch and Mal Michael, two years later why they had chosen to snub his wedding.
"I finally pressed Leppa on it, and I still can't believe what he said, it still surprises me, " Akermanis said this week.
"He told me he didn't agree with my success at the end of that season. I was like, 'Ohhh, man'. I just said, 'Are you for real?'
"I asked Mal the same thing, and at least he said he made a mistake and that he had let Leppa influence him in a way that he shouldn't have allowed.
"That was my first real dealing with that sort of stuff at the club."
Akermanis, who on Friday will become just the fifth VFL/AFL player to achieve the 300-match-Brownlow Medal-premiership trifecta, chose to raise the Leppitsch anecdote while responding to the regular questions relating to why there are just a handful of former teammates with whom he has maintained contact.
"Leppa was an influential person in our group and he could have been an enormous leader, but I always felt he was a divider," Akermanis said.
"He was very strong with his opinions, as I always was, and still am. But my opinions are for everyone, if people want to listen. They're my point of view and they're not ever delivered behind people's backs."
Being Jason Akermanis. It is many things to many people. To Leppitsch, many other Lions teammates and his former coach, it is certainly not how best to forge a career in football, and that outlook was messily played out in 2006 when he left Brisbane and joined Western Bulldogs.
But to the man himself, being Jason Akermanis has been pretty good. There is not one regret.
"Regrets are for fools," he said.
Does he regret, though, the fact many of the men with whom he shared three premierships, 248 matches and 12 years of his life think him odd at best, and a disruptive individual at worst?
"No," he said. "Maybe they are the ones who are the selfish ones. There are a lot of myths about me, and, really, me being put in that individual category is where the misconception starts and ends about me."
To some of those former teammates, being Jason Akermanis is about being an individual in a team game.
"But that's just an easy thing for people to say, and I, still, do not know what it means and what, really, does being an individual mean anyway?" Akermanis said.
"That stuff started simply because I started to do a bit of media in Brisbane, when no one else could be bothered doing it. So, I do something that helps the club, helps promote football in Queensland, and I'm an individual. That's how it works. Yeah, right.
"I was happy for anyone to do the media, but they didn't want to. I did it, gave an opinion, the media outlets liked it, it is no more complicated than that."
Being Jason Akermanis.
It's about having a difficult upbringing. As a child then teenager, things were not easy. There was little money for his single mum to raise him and younger brother Rory. From Mildura to Brisbane they travelled when he was nine.
His mum Shona died 12 years ago, a photo in his house reminding him every day of her importance in his life.
His dad Denis reappeared in his life three years ago, when Akermanis made the decision to make contact. He will be at Etihad Stadium for his 300th match, along with other members of Akermanis' new family, including an older half-brother and older half-sister, and a younger half-sister.
"Mum was a typist, which means she brought me and Rory up on a typist's wage," Akermanis said. "She had her faults, like everyone, and there are probably some things she could have done better.
"She made some decisions which weren't great, but what she did do was she taught me how to live."
Being Jason Akermanis.
It's about being proud of everything achieved in football, and equally proud of personal achievements - the looming 300th, the 391 goals, the Brownlow Medal and a couple of best-and-fairest awards, the four-times All-Australian - as he is of the three premierships won from four consecutive Grand Final appearances.
"The 300 thing proves you're durable, and I'm proud of that and I feel blessed," Akermanis said.
"I'm proud of the Brownlow, too. It is a rare thing. Is it wrong to say that winning it made me just as proud as the team things? There is no difference to me between the premierships and the Brownlow, they are on the same level to me.
"I am realistic I got the Brownlow in an outstanding era and in a super team, and obviously teammates helped me get it. I didn't choose it, it wasn't my choice to win it, but I am not going to speak ill of it.
"Winning it is still being successful and I don't care what others say or think about that."
Being Jason Akermanis? Would it be easier not being him?
"No doubt it would be a lot less stressful, but no," Akermanis said. "Most people would never have lived under some of the pressure I have found myself in, but mostly that's been my choice.
"I don't care what someone thinks if I put no value on their opinion. I care what people think if I respect you. Those people know who they are, and the people who are smart enough know what I'm like.
"And, I would like to think that there are enough people in footy who would appreciate I've given a bit for the clubs I've played at and maybe for the game, too."
Coach Rodney Eade would seem to agree.
"Yesterday we had an opposition meeting and his thoughts were really succinct and applicable, and players appreciate that and the one-on-ones with him at times," Eade said. "You'd be silly not to use his knowledge."
Being Jason Akermanis.
On the home front, it is being husband of Megan and dad to Charlotte and Sienna.
"The best part of my life - I love the girls in my life, and while I've got a lot of stuff on, I'm fortunate enough to be able to come home during the day to be with them, and I love doing that and I love putting them to bed and doing all that sort of stuff," Akermanis said.
"I am as accountable as anyone at home, and as accountable as anyone in football. I can't get away with anything."
Megan concedes she is not like Jason. She says life is entertaining with him in it, but says it in a way that makes one think she might be happier if he entertained her a whole lot less.
Watching him play at Etihad Stadium against St Kilda this year, Megan became infuriated with two old ladies in the row behind who were abusing her husband, suggesting he should retire.
"I try to bite my tongue, but there are times you can't and I just said to them, 'Do you mind?' " Megan said. "In Chris Judd's first game at Carlton, there was this guy sitting next to me and Charlotte and he was saying some not very nice things about Jason.
"Charlotte was yelling out, 'Go Daddy'. The guy said, 'Can I check who is Daddy before I insult him?' And I said, "It's too late for that,' " she said.
Said Jason: "Megan carries that and I know it hurts her and that it happens a fair bit. Me? It's part and parcel of what goes on. I'm certainly used to it. Those ladies . . . I mean, it was just a couple of old ducks sitting in the stand with no idea of what was going on."
Megan: "I play devil's advocate with him. I just want to make sure he has thought about everything. He usually has, actually, but I still like to make sure."
Being Jason Akermanis.
Right now from a playing perspective, being Jason Akermanis means this is his final season. But, as has been the case throughout his 15 seasons and 299 matches, there may yet be a change of plan.
"All I'll say on that is this: if Rodney came to me at the end of the year and said, 'Have you thought about playing another year?', well, I would have a decision to make," Akermanis said.
"Until that becomes a possibility, all I want to do is help this group achieve what this club has been waiting for for 55 years. A premiership."
Straight shooter
The world of football, according to Jason Akermanis ...
MATES FROM BRISBANE
"I get on well with Blacky.
I like Vossy. Vossy doesn't know how to take me. I said he didn't deserve to be coaching, and, really, he should know that as well. In the qualification category, he doesn't deserve it. Tony Kelly (Lions chairman) has a man-crush on Vossy. It's almost unhealthy. I want Vossy to be successful, because I like Michael - he's a good guy."
THE SCOTT BROTHERS?
"I get on well with Brad, could talk to him for hours. Chris? Well, I couldn't talk to him for hours."
EVER BEEN WRONG?
"Oh yeah. I've made mistakes. But I've learnt not to carry that around. I am only ever dirty on myself if I make the same mistake twice."
BEST INDIVIDUAL MATCH
"Geelong in '05 at the Gabba. The '03 Grand Final was OK, too."
LIFE AT THE BULLDOGS
"My body was battered when I got here. I had huge needles going in to fix things, they were more like skewers. It's been getting better since. This year I can run. I love this place. I don't love how this game is not an even playing field when it comes to off-field things, but I love this place."
RELIABLE KICKING AT GOAL
"I'm actually getting a few (Bulldogs) players being sent to me for coaching. The biggest problem with kicking is between hand and foot. All the problems happen in the hand, not the foot. You can place it on to your foot in different ways, but it is a real art. A low ball drop nullifies a lot of problems, but it also can create some if you are too stiff. A lot of problems are when blokes are too upright."
TIPS FOR WHEN YOU ARE 35m OUT ON A SET SHOT
"I'm thinking about two things - one, don't run too fast, as a lot of the problems are when a guy runs in too fast and takes big steps. And you have to get your shoulders straight."
MATES AT THE BULLDOGS
"A lot of 'em . . . Dale Morris, Mitch Hahn. I play golf with Matty Boyd. Daniel Cross."
BEST PLAYER IN LIONS' DAYS
"Vossy had the hardness, Blacky the hands, Hart was the best gut-runner, closely followed by Nigel Lappin. No one could bust a pack like Vossy, so Vossy. He would let everyone know, too. He was a very good verbaliser."
BEST OPPOSITION PLAYER
"We didn't see enough of him at his absolute best, but Kouta. Carey was the best over the journey."
Jason Akermanis: the man behind the mouth (http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25509153-19742,00.html)
The Herald Sun
Damian Barrett | May 20, 2009
JASON Akermanis has had a chaotic adult life, but it is the intoxicating days in late September and October 2001 that provide the framework for his football and private lives. Within that period, there was a Brownlow Medal win, an inaugural Brisbane Lions premiership and a wedding to his soulmate Megan.
But there also was a discussion with a man he considered a friend that left him shocked.
The conversation goes some way to explaining to an outsider why things ended up so ugly for him at Brisbane and related to his wedding day, where Akermanis had noticed two empty chairs on a table designated for Lions teammates.
Strangely, he noticed that the partners of the invited players managed to attend.
Akermanis thought it odd, but didn't think a lot of it at the time. He only got around to asking the two players concerned, Justin Leppitsch and Mal Michael, two years later why they had chosen to snub his wedding.
"I finally pressed Leppa on it, and I still can't believe what he said, it still surprises me, " Akermanis said this week.
"He told me he didn't agree with my success at the end of that season. I was like, 'Ohhh, man'. I just said, 'Are you for real?'
"I asked Mal the same thing, and at least he said he made a mistake and that he had let Leppa influence him in a way that he shouldn't have allowed.
"That was my first real dealing with that sort of stuff at the club."
Akermanis, who on Friday will become just the fifth VFL/AFL player to achieve the 300-match-Brownlow Medal-premiership trifecta, chose to raise the Leppitsch anecdote while responding to the regular questions relating to why there are just a handful of former teammates with whom he has maintained contact.
"Leppa was an influential person in our group and he could have been an enormous leader, but I always felt he was a divider," Akermanis said.
"He was very strong with his opinions, as I always was, and still am. But my opinions are for everyone, if people want to listen. They're my point of view and they're not ever delivered behind people's backs."
Being Jason Akermanis. It is many things to many people. To Leppitsch, many other Lions teammates and his former coach, it is certainly not how best to forge a career in football, and that outlook was messily played out in 2006 when he left Brisbane and joined Western Bulldogs.
But to the man himself, being Jason Akermanis has been pretty good. There is not one regret.
"Regrets are for fools," he said.
Does he regret, though, the fact many of the men with whom he shared three premierships, 248 matches and 12 years of his life think him odd at best, and a disruptive individual at worst?
"No," he said. "Maybe they are the ones who are the selfish ones. There are a lot of myths about me, and, really, me being put in that individual category is where the misconception starts and ends about me."
To some of those former teammates, being Jason Akermanis is about being an individual in a team game.
"But that's just an easy thing for people to say, and I, still, do not know what it means and what, really, does being an individual mean anyway?" Akermanis said.
"That stuff started simply because I started to do a bit of media in Brisbane, when no one else could be bothered doing it. So, I do something that helps the club, helps promote football in Queensland, and I'm an individual. That's how it works. Yeah, right.
"I was happy for anyone to do the media, but they didn't want to. I did it, gave an opinion, the media outlets liked it, it is no more complicated than that."
Being Jason Akermanis.
It's about having a difficult upbringing. As a child then teenager, things were not easy. There was little money for his single mum to raise him and younger brother Rory. From Mildura to Brisbane they travelled when he was nine.
His mum Shona died 12 years ago, a photo in his house reminding him every day of her importance in his life.
His dad Denis reappeared in his life three years ago, when Akermanis made the decision to make contact. He will be at Etihad Stadium for his 300th match, along with other members of Akermanis' new family, including an older half-brother and older half-sister, and a younger half-sister.
"Mum was a typist, which means she brought me and Rory up on a typist's wage," Akermanis said. "She had her faults, like everyone, and there are probably some things she could have done better.
"She made some decisions which weren't great, but what she did do was she taught me how to live."
Being Jason Akermanis.
It's about being proud of everything achieved in football, and equally proud of personal achievements - the looming 300th, the 391 goals, the Brownlow Medal and a couple of best-and-fairest awards, the four-times All-Australian - as he is of the three premierships won from four consecutive Grand Final appearances.
"The 300 thing proves you're durable, and I'm proud of that and I feel blessed," Akermanis said.
"I'm proud of the Brownlow, too. It is a rare thing. Is it wrong to say that winning it made me just as proud as the team things? There is no difference to me between the premierships and the Brownlow, they are on the same level to me.
"I am realistic I got the Brownlow in an outstanding era and in a super team, and obviously teammates helped me get it. I didn't choose it, it wasn't my choice to win it, but I am not going to speak ill of it.
"Winning it is still being successful and I don't care what others say or think about that."
Being Jason Akermanis? Would it be easier not being him?
"No doubt it would be a lot less stressful, but no," Akermanis said. "Most people would never have lived under some of the pressure I have found myself in, but mostly that's been my choice.
"I don't care what someone thinks if I put no value on their opinion. I care what people think if I respect you. Those people know who they are, and the people who are smart enough know what I'm like.
"And, I would like to think that there are enough people in footy who would appreciate I've given a bit for the clubs I've played at and maybe for the game, too."
Coach Rodney Eade would seem to agree.
"Yesterday we had an opposition meeting and his thoughts were really succinct and applicable, and players appreciate that and the one-on-ones with him at times," Eade said. "You'd be silly not to use his knowledge."
Being Jason Akermanis.
On the home front, it is being husband of Megan and dad to Charlotte and Sienna.
"The best part of my life - I love the girls in my life, and while I've got a lot of stuff on, I'm fortunate enough to be able to come home during the day to be with them, and I love doing that and I love putting them to bed and doing all that sort of stuff," Akermanis said.
"I am as accountable as anyone at home, and as accountable as anyone in football. I can't get away with anything."
Megan concedes she is not like Jason. She says life is entertaining with him in it, but says it in a way that makes one think she might be happier if he entertained her a whole lot less.
Watching him play at Etihad Stadium against St Kilda this year, Megan became infuriated with two old ladies in the row behind who were abusing her husband, suggesting he should retire.
"I try to bite my tongue, but there are times you can't and I just said to them, 'Do you mind?' " Megan said. "In Chris Judd's first game at Carlton, there was this guy sitting next to me and Charlotte and he was saying some not very nice things about Jason.
"Charlotte was yelling out, 'Go Daddy'. The guy said, 'Can I check who is Daddy before I insult him?' And I said, "It's too late for that,' " she said.
Said Jason: "Megan carries that and I know it hurts her and that it happens a fair bit. Me? It's part and parcel of what goes on. I'm certainly used to it. Those ladies . . . I mean, it was just a couple of old ducks sitting in the stand with no idea of what was going on."
Megan: "I play devil's advocate with him. I just want to make sure he has thought about everything. He usually has, actually, but I still like to make sure."
Being Jason Akermanis.
Right now from a playing perspective, being Jason Akermanis means this is his final season. But, as has been the case throughout his 15 seasons and 299 matches, there may yet be a change of plan.
"All I'll say on that is this: if Rodney came to me at the end of the year and said, 'Have you thought about playing another year?', well, I would have a decision to make," Akermanis said.
"Until that becomes a possibility, all I want to do is help this group achieve what this club has been waiting for for 55 years. A premiership."
Straight shooter
The world of football, according to Jason Akermanis ...
MATES FROM BRISBANE
"I get on well with Blacky.
I like Vossy. Vossy doesn't know how to take me. I said he didn't deserve to be coaching, and, really, he should know that as well. In the qualification category, he doesn't deserve it. Tony Kelly (Lions chairman) has a man-crush on Vossy. It's almost unhealthy. I want Vossy to be successful, because I like Michael - he's a good guy."
THE SCOTT BROTHERS?
"I get on well with Brad, could talk to him for hours. Chris? Well, I couldn't talk to him for hours."
EVER BEEN WRONG?
"Oh yeah. I've made mistakes. But I've learnt not to carry that around. I am only ever dirty on myself if I make the same mistake twice."
BEST INDIVIDUAL MATCH
"Geelong in '05 at the Gabba. The '03 Grand Final was OK, too."
LIFE AT THE BULLDOGS
"My body was battered when I got here. I had huge needles going in to fix things, they were more like skewers. It's been getting better since. This year I can run. I love this place. I don't love how this game is not an even playing field when it comes to off-field things, but I love this place."
RELIABLE KICKING AT GOAL
"I'm actually getting a few (Bulldogs) players being sent to me for coaching. The biggest problem with kicking is between hand and foot. All the problems happen in the hand, not the foot. You can place it on to your foot in different ways, but it is a real art. A low ball drop nullifies a lot of problems, but it also can create some if you are too stiff. A lot of problems are when blokes are too upright."
TIPS FOR WHEN YOU ARE 35m OUT ON A SET SHOT
"I'm thinking about two things - one, don't run too fast, as a lot of the problems are when a guy runs in too fast and takes big steps. And you have to get your shoulders straight."
MATES AT THE BULLDOGS
"A lot of 'em . . . Dale Morris, Mitch Hahn. I play golf with Matty Boyd. Daniel Cross."
BEST PLAYER IN LIONS' DAYS
"Vossy had the hardness, Blacky the hands, Hart was the best gut-runner, closely followed by Nigel Lappin. No one could bust a pack like Vossy, so Vossy. He would let everyone know, too. He was a very good verbaliser."
BEST OPPOSITION PLAYER
"We didn't see enough of him at his absolute best, but Kouta. Carey was the best over the journey."