meryn

Babbel is also responsible for the way he talks about the players publicly and whether he builds their confidence and belief or undermines it. High expectations are good. Guidance and constructive criticism away from the spotlight is good. Blaming and regular negativity in public are not good and usually achieves the opposite of building performance and belief. Same applies to parenting, teaching and managing staff. Coaching is no different in this way.

There's a lot of things I don't feel qualified to comment on about our slump and the reasons for that. But I have been listening to Babbel's post game press conference every week and thinking about the way he talks about the players. Sometimes it has been refreshing and honest and other times so blunt and critical, even blaming, that I find it uncomfortable. Along with other things, I think this is having an effect, not a good one, and that is being noted by others. In last night's press conference three or four of the questions from different journalists were asking Babbel about hi

Enjoyed chatting with the guy next to us. After a while I said "Do you support an A League team?" He hesitated long enough, thinking about what to say, for me to think then say "Are you a Sydney FC Supporter?" He replied "No actually I'm a Wanderers member." When I said I was too we both laughed about that slightly cautious frozen moment sussing out each other.

Strange sight at the game: a man near us arrived a bit late and walked down the steps to his seat holding up to people a large home made sign that said "True working class people of Australia say welcome to DPR Korea." ??

A few of us were commenting last week about Melbourne Victory having KFC on their jerseys, thinking our club wouldn't do that. Tacky decision. Actually more than that, a bad decision given western Sydney's stats on poor diet and obesity. Messages matter. The evidence shows that it is not working to say "Oh it's just up to individuals to make good choices."

I am Jack's mum. We are deeply touched by the tribute already organised and I spoke yesterday with both the RBB and CEO John Tsatsimas. We will be at the game tomorrow evening, as will some of Jack's teammates from Winston Hills club wearing their orange jerseys. We know that in our raw grief and numbness we are one of the families in the middle of a huge international incident. Our radios etc have not been on since 7.15am Friday morning. I am paying no attention at the moment to all that. The tribute tomorrow evening is enough, and the timing is right. We don't desire any more. We deeply ap

Thanks Dmixtaaa. Will do.

Thanks Braad and thanks dmixtaaa for linking the news.com article here in the first place. I'm sure the club do get too many requests. However I'm happy to ask the club again, this time with a link to today's article on the boys. They would absolutely love to go to a game. Who is the best person at the club to contact?

I've just come back from watching these boys play because our daughter (also a wsw member) is the coach and we do what we can to support her and the boys. They have all been training weekly since last October. A big thanks should go to Merrylands Football Club who agreed to accept them as a whole team and welcomed them in and has stuck by them through ups and downs. A big thanks also to individuals from Roseville Uniting Church who put their hands up to pay for the boy's registrations. The boy's skills and footwork are impressive. They have never played full field football before and there ha

Wow Poumista...eyes glazed over at the first one, even though I tried hard just to get the abstract. I really did. Second one is saying it's digging in the soil and eating the produce that exposes us to micro bacteria that both help our immune system and boost serotonin, and therefore mood. So dirt is good. Gardening is good. We knew that, but now we can dissect biologically exactly what may be going on. I must admit the serotonin bit is interesting. So... take home message is we need soil and the organisms in it, and children need it too.

Favourite moment off the pitch.... We were in the back row of the western stand in front of a double box of well dressed Koreans. After one of the goals and the cheering from their box, someone started a 'who are ya' chant which spread and was taken up with everyone around also turning and pointing and chanting. Their reaction? Polite and restrained Korean style waving and clapping and smiling and nodding back at the chanters in good natured way. It was kind of deflating... Pretty hard to keep up an intense slightly aggro chant in the face of such good manners and friendly politeness.

Gardeners and wanderers... This is a bit left field but.... Last night I went to a lecture in Sydney Town Hall by Richard Louv who wrote Last Child in the Woods about a generation of children missing out on contact with nature. He coined the phrase 'nature deficit disorder'. It was about children spending so much time indoors and on screens that they miss out on climbing trees, turning over rocks in the garden , collecting bugs, picking vegetables, walking in the bush etc etc. Basically his hypothesis is that the more high tech our lives become, the more nature we need. This is true for all o

3 mooy 2 poljak 1 Tyson

Are Perth the only team that have cheer girls? I haven't seen that before. Really wish the FFA would say that's not what football is about. Those girls could be enjoying playing their own football instead of dolling up to cheer on the boys. Bad message to send. Grrr...

Jowel, it's online on ABC Radio Player. Special ABC Radio Stream Online.