opinion
Q&A: Football writer Braden Quartermaine speaks to former Peel Thunder coach Cam Shepherd about shock deaths

The deaths of former Fremantle forwards Harley Balic and Shane Yarran mean Peel Thunder have lost two players from their inaugural 2016 premiership team. Braden Quartermaine spoke to former Thunder coach Cam Shepherd to try to make sense of the senseless. BQ: How hard did the news of Harley Balic’s death hit you? CS: It hurts. We built a good relationship in 2016 particularly, because he went through a few tribulations with his wrist and getting ready to play and then he played and played really well and just enjoyed footy at that stage. Twenty-five is very young. Shane Yarran was a part of that premiership team as well, is that hard to comprehend five years later that you’ve lost two of them? Very difficult. It just goes to show about mental health and how important it is that we address it. Do you see footy as purely a reflection of the society around it, or it there something about footy - whether it be pressure, expectation, moving away from home – that can make young men more vulnerable? I’m not a specialist in that field, so it’s a hard question for me to answer. I do know about the challenges and the expectations, not only by yourself, but by family and friends and others, that are thrown at people at such a young age. This is a real challenge and then you get some stories like we’ve seen which are pretty gut-wrenching. Harley had been away from the game for some time and he made some choices at the time he obviously thought were in his best interests. I don’t know enough about his circumstances to comment closely. I just feel for his family. How well is football dealing with these issues, is there anything different or anything more than can be done? You only think retrospectively when something happens, like what happened with Shane and now with Harley, could we have done more? I know that the amount of time and effort that’s spent in the mental/psych area is more than ever. I know that football clubs put the individual’s health first and foremost and they’re very keen for that message to get through. Whenever you have a tragedy, you think could you do more? But I know that in that space right now there is a lot of time and effort put in to try to make sure that we can do everything to support young people. In your playing days do you think footballers had mental health and depression issues to the extent we see today? I think there is far more awareness of it now. I think in our days there was a degree of ‘toughen up, you’ll get through’. Whereas now there is far more awareness and all football clubs have an understanding that this is out there in the world, let alone football. This is out there as an issue and it needs to be addressed with care. Have you got any thoughts on the draft or the draft age? I think the draft age puts immense pressure on kids who aren’t ready for it. And despite all the efforts that all the recruiters do to profile their players, you tell me an 18-year-old who’s ready for that challenge. We ask our kids at 18 or 19 to be mature and really a lot of them are coming out of under-age competitions. They haven’t been through a mature program. So I think there’s a good discussion to be had there, Braden. I would probably look at drafting the best young 18-year-olds and maybe having a first-round draft pick of them. But I think there’s a very good discussion to be had to increase the draft age by one or two years and give those kids straight out of school the opportunity to mature. A lot of times the top-end talent manages to have impact and do well early in their careers and you don’t want to hold them back. But what are we doing with the boys who are drafted 30-plus? What are your memories of Harley Balic in that premiership year as a player and a person? He was an open book as a person. He’d open up and want to be cared for. He always strived to do his best and his teammates warmed to him greatly. He always had a smile on his face and wanted to do his best. He was a highly talented young man and pretty intelligent too. We loved him in that first year when he played the back end of the year and the premiership and he was a valuable member. And beyond that you always hope that they have a good career and a good life. And unfortunately it’s been cut short. I suppose Shane Yarran was a different case as a local boy who had a complicated background? Yeah. I saw Shane one or two weeks before his unfortunate passing and when I saw him he had a brave face. I thought he was going OK and I was shattered to hear what had happened. These stories are probably higher-profile because they’ve played football, but they’re out there and we want to protect our young guys and care for them so these things don’t happen. If you or someone you know needs help, phone SANE Australia Helpline on 1800 18 SANE (7263) Young people seeking support can phone beyondblue on 1300 22 4636 or go to headspace.org.au Lifeline: 13 11 14

opinionQ&A: Football writer Braden Quartermaine speaks to former Peel Thunder coach Cam Shepherd about shock deaths

The No. 1 source of news for every West Australian

opinion
Q&A: Football writer Braden Quartermaine speaks to former Peel Thunder coach Cam Shepherd about shock deaths