It was an unexplainable performance. Sydney was thrashed. Everyone was stunned. In the aftermath, people raised eyebrows and shrugged shoulders. How it happened, no one could explain. It just happened.
Was it physical or mental? It seemed both.
Wayne Carey had it figured out days before the grand final, writing about the mental battle, that the grand final would be won between the ears. Carey’s analysis was obvious. It explained everything. It explained nothing.
During the pre-match build up on ABC, Nathan Buckley discussed the 2003 grand final. Collingwood were favoured to defeat Brisbane and got hammered.
‘There was a mix, I described it in 2003,’ Buckley said of the debacle. ‘Half of the group were over-confident and the other half were over-awed. Not a good mix.’
The mental battle. Between the ears. Over confident and over-awed. A bad mix. Buckley’s analysis explained everything. It explained nothing.
When I watched the 2014 grand final again, Sydney’s ineptitude was harder to explain. I’ve pondered the calamity ever since, how so many good players could collectively play poorly.
Discussions with mates didn’t provide answers beyond the brief so I did what any man should when he has a problem. I reached out to Rachael Jones, a sport psychologist from Mental Notes Consulting.
‘It’s hard to go into something as big as a grand final and not get nervous,’ she said. ‘It’s how to manage those nerves on the day.’
Managing nerves can be done, but as Carey wrote, it is a battle. And in the uncertainty of sport, even the mentally strong can fail.
‘When we get nervous our brains can get overloaded with so much information, including the added pressure of being favourites,’ she said. ‘Sometimes elite athletes focus on the expected outcome rather than actions required to get there.’
Expectations create their own expectations. Favouritism must’ve played on Sydney’s minds. Jones said thoughts that focus on anything but winning the ball clog up space needed for relevant information.
‘Which is the specific actions they need to do,’ Jones said. ‘Play by play by play.’
Stick to the game plan. Midway through the first quarter, Sydney was in front but they were being hammered physically. Good players were ineffective. Mistakes seemed contagious. Suddenly, everyone was playing poorly.
Jones said when players make mistakes, teammates become hesitant and they don’t want the ball, which is why Sydney were repeatedly second to the ball or out of position.
‘When you see mistakes creep in, there’s that dread, don’t pass it to me,’ Jones said. ‘You don’t want the ball because you don’t want to let down your teammates.’
Sydney was losing the mental battle. By focussing on not making mistakes, they lost their instincts and took the second option.
‘Your body follows your mind and will go wherever your mind is focused,’ she said.
That is a neat explanation of the calamity of mental pressure.
Amid the calamity, Hawthorn kept kicking goals. It didn’t seem real. Not Sydney, not on grand final day. They took risks late in the second term and early in the third but nothing worked.
Hawthorn capitalised on mistakes. Sydney, for all their grunt and domination, couldn’t make a dent.
It was remarkable how they couldn’t create a consistent period of domination. Under that pressure there was no way back. And it wasn’t just fear of mistakes. It was scoreboard pressure and physical pressure, which adds to the mental pressure.
‘They couldn’t achieve what we call the state of flow,’ Jones said of the pressure. ‘When everything is automatic you don’t have to think and you feel calm, relaxed and in control.’
Hawthorn had the state of flow. Sydney was slow and reactive. Hawthorn had brutalised Sydney’s best. The Swans needed to kick ten consecutive goals to win.
The game turned into chaos. Jones said by half time, their thoughts were cluttered with negativity. They’d already succumbed to the mental pressure.
It’s easy to do when you’re seven goals down. It is worse, Jones said, when the best players can’t get into the game.
‘When experienced players struggle under pressure it puts pressure on inexperienced players who don’t handle pressure as well.’
No Sydney player handled the pressure, playing like they didn’t want the ball. Jones said under that pressure, footballers either take more risks or play safe. Sydney did both, and neither worked.
When risks were all that was left it was too late. The mental battle, by virtue of the scoreboard, was lost at half time. At the start of the third quarter, Sydney played one-on-one football.
‘They went away from their natural game,’ Jones said. When it didn’t work, they lost complete confidence.
It helps explain how Sydney didn’t create one period of extended domination.
The mental state is complex, but as Jones said, it is all about mental management. That there are no guarantees of achieving the state of flow provides the complexity. Suddenly, what worked all year doesn’t work on grand final day.
Sydney didn’t adapt. They couldn’t regroup and get back into the game, physically, mentally or on the scoreboard.
They lost their dignity.
Jones said the pre-season focus should be on rediscovering what worked and not dwelling on failure. Her message is simple: keep it simple…
She said it isn’t necessary for the team to watch a replay of the game.
‘The players could probably tell you play by play exactly what happened,’ she said. ‘I would leave it up to each player to decide if they wanted to watch it again.’
A debrief, she said, with the players leading the conversation is more important. John Longmire and his coaches can listen to what the players need to talk about, rather than what the coaches want to talk about.
‘It will give everyone a sense of closure,’ Jones said. ‘Then you’re able to move forward.’
Footy is said to be 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical, a game played with the body but mostly played between the ears.
Jones said successful teams achieve that state of flow, where the players don’t have to think.
And that mirrors what John Kennedy famously said: DON’T THINK, DO!!!
