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Todd Carney's tears and pledge for future
* By Andrew Webster
* From: The Daily Telegraph
* January 22, 2010 12:00AM
Todd Carney
Home truths ... Todd Carney. Source: The Daily Telegraph
SHOULD the Roosters rebuild this season, if they make it past Ground Zero and keep climbing, they will ascribe it to many things.
Maybe a new coach in Brian Smith. Perhaps a new attitude in the gym. Most likely a resolute promise across the entire club to ensure the horrors of last year never, ever happen again.
But should this new dawn materialise, some are likely to suggest the watershed moment came in the club's Moore Park offices days into the new year. The emotional session in which tears were shed and Todd Carney was delivered the brutal truth.
EXCLUSIVE: BRAITH ANASTA BLOGS LIVE ON ROOSTERS WOES
After the incident at Airlie Beach, in which Carney allegedly set alight a mate's bottom in a New Year's prank gone awry, the troubled footballer met with coach Smith, then captain Braith Anasta and senior players Anthony Minichiello and Nate Myles.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
Related Coverage
* Roosters: No booze Myles gets act together
* Penrith: Fittler back in Panther's den
* Live online: Braith Anasta live blog
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
To a man, they delivered home truths Carney has probably heard before but never in this way.
"You're one of the best blokes I've met. You're a champion," Anasta said. "On the piss, you're an idiot."
Myles, who is battling his own demons and hasn't had a drink for 12 weeks, promised Carney he would stand alongside him all year. When others were drinking themselves to a standstill, they'd be propping up the bar drinking water. "I wanted to tell him it's not that hard," Myles says.
Anasta recalled: "It was emotional - very emotional. We didn't point the finger, we didn't judge him, we didn't criticise him. He was honest, and we were honest with him.
"Ultimately, he knows he has to be hard on himself and stay off the alcohol. His actions affect our team. He took ownership of that. We didn't tear strips off him. It's not about that. It's about us sticking tight."
Asked if that level of honesty could be found last year, Anasta replies: "Definitely not. I don't think a lot of us were honest last year. We saw what was happening, but we didn't feel comfortable telling each other what's right and what's wrong."
Honesty is the theme that pervades the Roosters, and while they will be judged on what happens during the cut and thrust of the season, they are starting to see some light.
Watch them for two days as The Daily Telegraph did this week, and there is evidence everywhere you look. In the streamlined appearance of forwards such as Myles - who will move from the front row to lock this year because he's shed so many kilos - and Anthony Cherrington.
"This is the best I've felt in the last two, three years," offers Cherrington, who was read the riot act by a Sydney magistrate last year for assaulting his former girlfriend. "I feel like I'm at a new club."
It's there in the steely resolve of halfback Mitchell Pearce, who will tell you: "This is a massive year for me personally. I want to have a big one. I need to have a big one. I was driving into training this morning and I was actually getting nervous about the season ahead."
They're encouraging signs for a club that went through hell, lurching from one off-field crisis to another, claiming the wooden spoon and sacking a favourite son in coach Brad Fittler. The glamour club was broken.
"I don't know if it was broken," Smith says. "But there were a lot of people who were feeling broken. A lot of people were hurting badly."
Anasta adds: "To be brutally honest, we haven't talked about last year. But I know everyone in the whole place, right up to [chairman] Nick [Politis], has felt a lot of pain. It hurts. No one wants to go through what we have. We want to make sure it never happens again."
Anasta noticed the change at a barbecue last weekend to celebrate his 28th birthday. He was the only one from the club enjoying a beer.
His teammates probably had Cherry Mescia on their mind - the hardened, slightly eccentric former Western Suburbs hooker who is part of Smith's newly formed high-performance unit.
Smith's decision to replace long-time Roosters conditioner Ron Palmer incensed some, but Mescia's rebuilt gym - which has been daubed in the Roosters' tricolours - has become revered floorspace.
"From day one, it's felt like a new club," Pearce says. "I've felt I've learnt more in this pre-season than I have in my career to date. The professionalism has definitely gone up. It's been a pleasure to come to training every day."
Smith sat Pearce down when he first arrived and infused him with a sense of confidence. The 20-year-old has had plenty of voices in his head during his three seasons of first grade, including Fittler and Matt Johns.
"As a young player, it's very easy to get confused by all of that," Smith says. "I pointed out to him the logic. If he's going to run our attack, it's a massive responsibility. But it's a great opportunity also."
Pearce and Carney were the last to walk off McKay Fields at Centennial Park on Tuesday, after doing kicking drills with former Souths coach Jason Taylor - another individual looking for a second chance.
Carney's final drill was catching spiralling bombs as he looked up into the midday sun. Smith intends to use him at fullback, with Minichiello likely to play on the wing.
"F ... it!" he screamed after grassing one attempt. In November, Carney fronted Smith after being turfed from an eastern suburbs hotel. Video evidence showed he'd done little wrong, but it was enough for him to pledge to the coach he would be giving away alcohol on January 1.
The incident in Airlie six hours into the New Year left Smith in a tough position. He'd sacked hooker Jake Friend, but was now being asked to retain another soul who had attracted trouble before playing a match.
"I told him that he's enjoyed my support over a couple of incidents that have occurred so far," Smith says. "But if anything happens from here on in, that was about alcohol, he was on his own."
Carney doesn't want to talk about any of that, but he will talk about the coach. "At first, everyone doesn't know what to expect from him, with the different publicity he's copped," Carney says. "From day one, I knew I was going to like him. He's supported me since I got here. And his office door is always open."
Todd Carney's tears and pledge for future
* By Andrew Webster
* From: The Daily Telegraph
* January 22, 2010 12:00AM
Todd Carney
Home truths ... Todd Carney. Source: The Daily Telegraph
SHOULD the Roosters rebuild this season, if they make it past Ground Zero and keep climbing, they will ascribe it to many things.
Maybe a new coach in Brian Smith. Perhaps a new attitude in the gym. Most likely a resolute promise across the entire club to ensure the horrors of last year never, ever happen again.
But should this new dawn materialise, some are likely to suggest the watershed moment came in the club's Moore Park offices days into the new year. The emotional session in which tears were shed and Todd Carney was delivered the brutal truth.
EXCLUSIVE: BRAITH ANASTA BLOGS LIVE ON ROOSTERS WOES
After the incident at Airlie Beach, in which Carney allegedly set alight a mate's bottom in a New Year's prank gone awry, the troubled footballer met with coach Smith, then captain Braith Anasta and senior players Anthony Minichiello and Nate Myles.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
Related Coverage
* Roosters: No booze Myles gets act together
* Penrith: Fittler back in Panther's den
* Live online: Braith Anasta live blog
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
To a man, they delivered home truths Carney has probably heard before but never in this way.
"You're one of the best blokes I've met. You're a champion," Anasta said. "On the piss, you're an idiot."
Myles, who is battling his own demons and hasn't had a drink for 12 weeks, promised Carney he would stand alongside him all year. When others were drinking themselves to a standstill, they'd be propping up the bar drinking water. "I wanted to tell him it's not that hard," Myles says.
Anasta recalled: "It was emotional - very emotional. We didn't point the finger, we didn't judge him, we didn't criticise him. He was honest, and we were honest with him.
"Ultimately, he knows he has to be hard on himself and stay off the alcohol. His actions affect our team. He took ownership of that. We didn't tear strips off him. It's not about that. It's about us sticking tight."
Asked if that level of honesty could be found last year, Anasta replies: "Definitely not. I don't think a lot of us were honest last year. We saw what was happening, but we didn't feel comfortable telling each other what's right and what's wrong."
Honesty is the theme that pervades the Roosters, and while they will be judged on what happens during the cut and thrust of the season, they are starting to see some light.
Watch them for two days as The Daily Telegraph did this week, and there is evidence everywhere you look. In the streamlined appearance of forwards such as Myles - who will move from the front row to lock this year because he's shed so many kilos - and Anthony Cherrington.
"This is the best I've felt in the last two, three years," offers Cherrington, who was read the riot act by a Sydney magistrate last year for assaulting his former girlfriend. "I feel like I'm at a new club."
It's there in the steely resolve of halfback Mitchell Pearce, who will tell you: "This is a massive year for me personally. I want to have a big one. I need to have a big one. I was driving into training this morning and I was actually getting nervous about the season ahead."
They're encouraging signs for a club that went through hell, lurching from one off-field crisis to another, claiming the wooden spoon and sacking a favourite son in coach Brad Fittler. The glamour club was broken.
"I don't know if it was broken," Smith says. "But there were a lot of people who were feeling broken. A lot of people were hurting badly."
Anasta adds: "To be brutally honest, we haven't talked about last year. But I know everyone in the whole place, right up to [chairman] Nick [Politis], has felt a lot of pain. It hurts. No one wants to go through what we have. We want to make sure it never happens again."
Anasta noticed the change at a barbecue last weekend to celebrate his 28th birthday. He was the only one from the club enjoying a beer.
His teammates probably had Cherry Mescia on their mind - the hardened, slightly eccentric former Western Suburbs hooker who is part of Smith's newly formed high-performance unit.
Smith's decision to replace long-time Roosters conditioner Ron Palmer incensed some, but Mescia's rebuilt gym - which has been daubed in the Roosters' tricolours - has become revered floorspace.
"From day one, it's felt like a new club," Pearce says. "I've felt I've learnt more in this pre-season than I have in my career to date. The professionalism has definitely gone up. It's been a pleasure to come to training every day."
Smith sat Pearce down when he first arrived and infused him with a sense of confidence. The 20-year-old has had plenty of voices in his head during his three seasons of first grade, including Fittler and Matt Johns.
"As a young player, it's very easy to get confused by all of that," Smith says. "I pointed out to him the logic. If he's going to run our attack, it's a massive responsibility. But it's a great opportunity also."
Pearce and Carney were the last to walk off McKay Fields at Centennial Park on Tuesday, after doing kicking drills with former Souths coach Jason Taylor - another individual looking for a second chance.
Carney's final drill was catching spiralling bombs as he looked up into the midday sun. Smith intends to use him at fullback, with Minichiello likely to play on the wing.
"F ... it!" he screamed after grassing one attempt. In November, Carney fronted Smith after being turfed from an eastern suburbs hotel. Video evidence showed he'd done little wrong, but it was enough for him to pledge to the coach he would be giving away alcohol on January 1.
The incident in Airlie six hours into the New Year left Smith in a tough position. He'd sacked hooker Jake Friend, but was now being asked to retain another soul who had attracted trouble before playing a match.
"I told him that he's enjoyed my support over a couple of incidents that have occurred so far," Smith says. "But if anything happens from here on in, that was about alcohol, he was on his own."
Carney doesn't want to talk about any of that, but he will talk about the coach. "At first, everyone doesn't know what to expect from him, with the different publicity he's copped," Carney says. "From day one, I knew I was going to like him. He's supported me since I got here. And his office door is always open."
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