The Soft Side: Sheeds Coaches Lads And Their Dads
The Age
Monday September 11, 2000
Premiership coach Kevin Sheedy got together with 100 boys and their dads for a blokey chat at Xavier College yesterday.
It was a relaxed affair. Just a bunch of guys sitting around in a hall, drinking coffee or cordial out of plastic cups and talking football, haircuts, maths, heroes and life.
The wide-ranging conversation highlighted Sheedy's knack of being anything but straightforward or predictable.
Using football as the lure he kept the boys, mostly between 10 and 14, hanging on every word - how to succeed, how to accept defeat and how to relate to others. His messages, aimed at the boys, were also soaked up by the fathers.
Sheedy stressed the importance of having heroes. As a young lad growing up in the 1950s, his idols were athlete Betty Cuthbert and Australian cricket captain Richie Benaud.
``I remember looking at this golden-haired girl of 17 years of age and thinking `How the hell is she going to win a gold medal'," Sheedy said.
``But she did. Fours years later she missed the Olympics because of a leg injury. But at the 1964 Olympics in Japan she won gold again. Eight years after her first gold medal."
Father-and-son relationships was another topic to which Sheedy devoted some time. He reminisced about his father Tom and the family holidays they went on. He dredged up their disagreements about hair styles. He spoke with sadness about his father's death.
His advice for a successful father-son relationship was summed up in one word: communication.
``If you've got a common thread where you can touch base, use it," he said. ``Go down that bridge-building exercise. It's very, very handy."
© 2000 The Age
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