An Open Letter to Jason Akermanis

Dear Jason,

Firstly, let me congratulate you on your upcoming achievement of 300 games, and thank you for your brilliant contributions to my club, the Brisbane Lions. You’ve done some amazing things on the field, including a Brownlow medal, two best-and-fairests and a near-Norm Smith medal in ‘03, and of course three premierships. No one else has been able to get people on the edge of their seats as the ball rolls over the boundary line in the forward pocket – there was always a chance you might do something amazing with it first. It’s a shame that now I find myself defending you even to my own kids, as they argue to have you scribbled out of old team pictures.

You see Aker, what you still fail to realise is that when you trash a club, you trash it’s fans. As a Victorian based Brisbane Lions member, I stood up for you repeatedly over the years. When other fans called you names, which was often, I made sure I cheered louder. There isn’t a player I ever had to do that for more than you, but I did it gladly because I stuck up for my team from the top to the bottom, as any fan would. You’ve shown no regard for Brisbane fans in the past few years, and your latest outburst in the Herald Sun heaps more disrespect on the people that fought hardest for you.

While I felt betrayed when you first split with the Lions, I tried to continue on with some class. Your contribution to our club shouldn’t just be erased any more than Wayne Carey’s should be erased from North’s. I was happy to just leave you to continue on at the Western Bulldogs, who have always been my “second team” anyway since I live in the area. But you won’t let that happen as you continue to bring up the past, always attempting to have the last word, even though the conversation has moved on without you.

I don’t know what has happened between you and your former teammates and I don’t imagine I ever will. If what you said about Justin Leppitsch and Mal Michael is true then that certainly reflects poorly on them. It seems difficult to believe there wouldn’t be more to the story, so I’ll reserve judgement. Your decision to take the matter into the public almost eight years after the fact is another matter. Continuing to launch potshots at your former teamates is petty and tasteless, as I can’t think of a single instance where they have publicly spoken negatively about you. Was this what you were talking about when you said that “maybe they are the selfish ones”? Who could blame them for finally speaking up, but they still chose to do it with class, leaving any of their own dirty laundry out of the public arena.

And Vossy doesn’t deserve to coach? Will you give that same advice about Nathan Buckley? You have access to the man with the Bucks man crush, between The Footy Show and writing for the same paper. Do Eddie a favour and let him know, maybe write a column about it. It was several years ago that you told us all that you could coach better than Leigh Matthews, the most successful coach of recent time.

You’ve been in the media long enough now to have worked out that the “myths” about you come from the persona you present. Somewhere along the line, your “speaking your mind” attitude doesn’t mesh with the “I’m just misunderstood” defense. But you never see the bigger picture, do you? You’ve always thrown out opinions on other people’s business, from drugs in sport to players’ private lives. Plenty of people will be happy to see you slip up at some stage, including those in the media that you might think are your friends.

So you’ll never be a credible coach or leader at a football club. You may be able to hand out some advice to teammates, and so you should after 300 games, but no one will ever be mad enough to trust you with the keys. Because you’re a clown. You amuse us. You might give an insightful answer, people might nod and ponder it for a moment, but I bet when they asked it they were expecting a laugh.

That’s what your media career has been built on, since people first noticed you when you made a few witty jabs at Bruce McAvaney while being interviewed after your Brownlow win. Since then, it seems to have consumed you. Now you’re known for shock value and grandstanding more than anything else. You don’t have the skills to continue in the media. More often than not you lack command of the English language, with words spewing out faster than your brain can manage to make sense of them. Remember when you criticised Leigh Matthews on your blog, then made the feeble excuse that it was your brother who wrote it, not you? Whoever wrote that, it was a mess, the kind of unclear garbage that seems to come from you in every media appearance. When the shock value is gone, then you will be too: the best case for you would be to end up another Sam Newman, who also played 300 games. His legacy is as a clown more than as a player. Will you follow that path, too?

Regrets are for fools? Maybe, but you can still be a fool without them.

Tags: brisbane, jason akermanis, justin leppitsch, leigh matthews, lions, michael voss