Week #01 - The Courage to Be Himself
I have always loved the details of football and still do.
It might be the idiosyncratic demeanour, mannerisms or behaviour of a player, expressions of individuality inside a team ethos. They bring personality to the team by drawing attention to themselves, all whilst strengthening the culture, often a fine line, with the possibility of it all going terribly wrong at any moment.
All the great teams have at least one player like this. They get under the skin of the opposition players and their supporters. You love them if they’re yours, but rile you when they wear the colours of any other team. As you read this, a player will be coming to mind.
And the player may well be James Sicily, the Hawthorn Football Club skipper.
Their opening round win against the Swans bore witness to all James Sicily brings.
My drawing captures the moment he seals the game, celebrated with the ‘naughty boy’ vibe he brings to the football field.
He plays with cool-headed audacity, controlled chaos, and wonderful skill, but perhaps unlike any player I have ever seen. You cannot define or pigeonhole him, and without knowing him at all, I reckon that's how he would want it.
He crosses lines, or invents his own, I am not sure which, but wherever he treads on the football field, something is bound to happen. This makes him so difficult to plan against, even though he is hidden in plain sight, given that you cannot take your eyes off him.
He also plays with great courage, and it is heart-in-your-mouth stuff. But his real courage, only apparent when he stepped up as captain a few years back, is the courage to be himself, embracing his differences in a world that favours and forces conformity.
The belief and the confidence to stay true, to make your leadership an expression of who you are, is the true definition of authentic leadership. It is fine in theory but so difficult in practice when all eyes are on you.
Sometimes in football, as in life, the greatest strength is found in simply being who you are, and the recruitment of Tom Barrass and Josh Battle has given Hawthorn's defensive unit greater stability, but perhaps as importantly, it's freed Sicily to be even more himself.
James Sicily is representative of an elite sporting club that has dared to be different. They're building differently, coaching differently, playing differently.
And in that difference lies their strength.
There is a different kind of football alchemy happening at Hawthorn, and it is the club’s leadership that has the courage to create it.
Play on!
Cameron Schwab
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