So what is the real difference between a professional and amateur footballer?
Obviously the difference is the money, the professional footballer gets paid to do what he or she is doing out on the park. The amateurs are doing it for the love of it and the love of it only.
This love is what makes it so difficult and heart breaking to watch the professionals take what they do for granted and throw it all away. I am sure the majority of the professional players also love this game but some of them appear to either have lost the passion or just take the game and the pay for granted. The money is also the reason why the supporters expect to see the Mariners players maintain certain standards.
What does being a professional really mean? Well as a reasonably paid professional (albeit in a non-football industry) there are certain things that I believe I must do and standards I must maintain as a professional.
In my industry there are regulations and regulators that must be adhered to, there are also other standards that I impose on myself and my work as a professional. So as professional football players do the Mariners up hold their own standards and those imposed on them?
For the most part I think they do uphold the standards but a minority seem to be letting the professional standards down. Obviously the two most notable are Pedj Bojic and Adam Kwasnik, these two guys over the course of the past two games have let themselves, the team, the manager and the supporters down.
In both cases there is fault on the side of the A-League and the officials that represent the A-League, but at the same time the players must put their hands up and admit that they were responsible for their actions. If I or any other employee in my organisation was to take the actions of either Pedj or Adam at our desks we would probably not be sitting there the day after.
Before everyone pulls out the old argument that Football and an office work environment are not the same I will pull it out myself. The footballers work environment is very different to that of an office, building site or factory. There is far more going on in a game of football, there is far more adrenaline and physical contact than in any of these workplaces and as such many things can and will occur on a football pitch that would never fly in any other workplace.
Obviously there is also a confrontational nature to the work that is only found in sports and a few other professions such as the legal fraternity. This is why some of the things that occur on the field are considered okay in football but would never be allowed elsewhere. These types of actions are the fouls that occur in a game or the professional touches and tugs that a player commits to try and gain the upper hand. These types of actions are akin to the political manoeuvrings that occur in a corporate environment.
Even allowing for this leeway with physicality there are things that should never occur on the football pitch. One of those is the cheap shot or violent conduct as the MRP likes to call it. The sly elbow that Pedj threw two weeks ago was unforgivable and one of the stupidest moves a professional footballer can pull.
They have to know by now that every single move on the field is captured and replayed time and again. Last week I mentioned how dumb Pedj was and I stated then that the MRP may have been a little heavy handed in the punishment however I will state again that Pedj was not blameless.
Every player on the Mariners squad must know by now that they are being watched due to the old reputation (which seems hard to shake) of the team as being rough and dirty. With the team wanting to finish in the top two they must take the high road from here on out to ensure they do not endanger the short term goals of the Mariners. This may mean taking a few backhanders or elbows in the short term but if the team plays to the fullest of its ability they may just have the last laugh at the end of the season. They might get to the ACL or even hope beyond hope, hold up the golden toilet seat of the A-League Championship.
The other situation that obviously caused the Mariners an issue in the last game could best be termed as ‘loose lips'. Not too many sports in the world would tolerate the verbal abuse and remonstrations with the referee that occur time and again in the football world. Ricky Ponting has been fined numerous times for simply asking a question of an umpire in a way that most footballers would class as polite to the extreme.
Now Cricket is far from a contact sport and as such the adrenaline is not running as high in the players, this means that they should be able to have a more rational way of speaking to the umpire. However none of the other ‘football codes' (we all know they should be called handball codes but hey let's stay with the tradition) allow their referees to be spoken to or man handled like a football referee. League and Union only allow one player to question a referee, the captain and they are supposed to do so in a manner that is considered polite and non-derogatory.
Yet in Football we seem to allow the referee to be yelled at and remonstrated with in the most impolite way such as pointing fingers and sign language. That is except for the Central Coast Mariners, the CCM have now had two players sent off for telling a referee they got a decision incorrect.
We of course would all love to forget the most famous of these cases, when Danny V gave Referee Shields a high five for a game well adjudicated. But the most recent situation is from the New Years game when Adam Kwasnik was given a second caution by Referee Sheppard for voicing his concerns at not getting a whistle. This was probably one of the lesser things said to the referee through the evening given that Kevin Muscat was also on the park however this was not the first time a Mariners player was cautioned this year for the same offence.
Daniel McBreen has been given a few cautions this season for the exact same thing, however he has never been silly enough to do so when has already been given a caution. Kwasnik may or may not have deserved that caution and as I was not in a position to hear what was said I do not want to comment on whether or not the card was deserved. What I would like to say is Kwasnik must be the stupidest player on the park to mouth off when he is the only guy on a card. At least Muscat has the captains armband on when he gives the referee a mouthful. So the moral from the New Year debacle, no Mariners player should be giving the referee any tips or pointers during the game except Wilkinson. Surly as a professional you can hold your tongue for an hour and a half.
The unprofessional actions of the Mariners squad have cost the team three points so far and could be a further six points if the loss of Kwasnik stems the flow of goals (hopefully Baird will make up for the Kwasi situation). The Mariners appeared to be able to handle everything thrown at them in the last hours of 2010 until they self destructed. If the players cannot uphold a professional standard then I am sure there are a number of amateurs who would love to give it a go instead.
