Heritier Lumumba about to launch a broadside at the club

[droversdog65]

Wow, just . . . wow.

[Raw Hammer]

Unfortunately for Harry, his only real meaningful 'adult' experience is within the confines of a football club, the blokiest, most ignorant, uneducated sector in all of society. He is using this experience as the template for all of Australia.

I understand where he's coming from (I have to put up with casual racism myself, but I've always taken it in my stride), but sometimes I think he's trying to start a war with people who are just too dumb to understand where he's coming from.

[John LEWIN]

I think a lot of people know exactly where he is coming from and maybe one day nobody will have to put up with it.

[think positive]

[think positive]

[HAL]

What would be the nurturing environment they need ?

[think positive]

[think positive]

[HAL]

Do you have any idea what I am talking about?

[K]

[MatthewBoydFanClub]

All good points TP. You're obviously a top netball coach. I'm guessing here you didn't learn coaching from a text book. You got that way by raising a family and learning about human behaviour by what motivates or demotivates human beings. By applying those principles to coaching you get players to want to play for you, even under adverse temperatures, when as you say, you point to the opposition who have to play under the same conditions.

You can't predict human behaviour. You can have the best systems and processes in the world (I'd like to believe we have the best at Collingwood), yet some players will overreact to what is being said and walk, or go to the media. Rather than shoot the messenger I think we should all learn from the experience and work together to make ourselves better. Lumumba was a wonderful player at Collingwood who dedicated himself to succeeding as an AFL footballer and helping us win the 2010 flag. Any behavioural issues he raises his post Collingwood career are minuscule compared to the contribution he made when he was at the club and that's the way I think we should take his comments.

[think positive]

Ok I can accept that, anf yes I'd hope we have the very best, or the club has wasted a lot of money

[John LEWIN]

TP my post was deliberately ambiguous. I am not a critic of Heritier. It was intended to be thought provoking as part of the interactive process we engage in here.

Who is telling the "truth", varnished or otherwise? Psychopathology can have two meanings, on one hand, that which is a state of mind, on the other, a way of thinking which is used to ascribe a state of mind to an individual. No doubt Nick's posters who hold contrary views to mine could create one for me full of vituperative adjectives.

In my view, there is a consistent line running through many of the posts we have read. The unvarnished "truth" is that what is commonly ascribed by those posts to Heritier Lumumba's state of mind is the mentality of a bitter and twisted lost soul who suffers from an inferiority complex and is thus, sadly, mentally damaged and deserving of pity. This insidious projection is relied upon to overcome or mitigate the problematic nature of the experiences which Heritier has recounted.

"Poor Harry he's making too much fuss because his brain is not working properly and he needs to face up to it"! Well maybe try this instead: "Poor me I'm not comfortable with what I'm hearing so I'll pretend I'm not really hearing it and in fact it's actually not true, someones making far too much fuss over nothing because they are unhinged and they ought to know better"!

What I hope this makes obvious is that by focussing on Heritier's alleged state of mind ( whatever it may be) the behaviour he recounts is deflected from the discussion. So the "truth" suddenly appears in all it's unvarnished glory and it has nothing to do with Collingwood and everything to do with Heritier. Because this is all in his mind. So we can overcome our discomfort by nobly expressing our concern for Heritier and his mental illness. We can place Heritier in a virtual psychiatric prison.

The truth, without the need for the quotation marks, is that nobody posting on this thread can have any basis whatsoever to ascribe any state of mind at all to Heritier Lumumba beyond self serving and usually insulting speculation. On the evidence, he seems perfectly normal. Certainly no less and possibly more so than some of us. Maybe some of us are feeling at a loss and bitter about the disclosures of Heritier's time at the club.?

One day someone will write more history around this and other difficulties the club has faced on the subject of race. This thread could well figure as part of the research base from which it is drawn. We can look back over what has been posted and some of it may not come out too well in the wash.


I remember when a former President of the club, responding to the Nicky Winmar incident said: "aboriginal people are welcome in the Collingwood Football Club as long as they behave like white people". Responding to Heritier with accusations of mental incapacity looks remarkably similar, "he's not like us we are normal he isn't" Words (ours in particular) are important and won't be denied as Eddie knows only too well.

[watt price tully]

This is my last and final post on this matter until my next post. I say this without fear of contradiction.

Can I say I love "Blue Juice" on 3PBS on Sunday mornings, pm & the show that follows. Brilliant.

H is
H isn't
Some do it their way
Some do it differently

Good day and good night.

[Cuthbert Collingwood]

I came to this thread looking for answers, and thank you to Rudeboy and think positive for your in depth and analytical posts, I now have them