There seems to be an increase in awareness around footballers and their mental health, with a few players leaving the game altogether because it's just too much for them. The finger always gets pointed first at social media, and then at regular media. Obviously it can be a factor, people can get harrased and bullied online or in the main stream media but if you look at the people who are dropping out if the game, they're not under that pressure.
I think this is a horrible fallacy that is stopping the AFL from addressing the actual issue, which is the internal workings of football industry. It's become a very unhealthy work environment.
You've got young men being told what to eat, when to sleep, when they're allowed out, where they can go on holidays, where they have to live, who they have to take orders from and who they have to work with, with little means of changing that, and it's delivering crippling mental illness, and then they turn around and blame it on Twitter or people who yell things out at the football.
You've got young men who grew up celebrating every success. Winning football games is a rush. Making the combined squad is a rush. Getting drafted - they throw a massive party for them like it's a coronation.
Then the footy starts, it's hard work and they probably go at it with gusto but they spend a lot of time kicking around in the twos, they might have a debut and that's another big deal but after that, each win is just the 4 points not to be celebrated, each performance is dissected and their mistakes emailed to them in video files, it's just a boring slog. There's not much release, not that great enjoyment of the game, not even the ability to be creative with your football anymore.
And if you think about the gambling problems that were highlighted last week, it's an obvious way to go for a footballer. There's a rush with gambling. The tension build up and the release when you win. It's what they used to get before they joined the professional ranks of football and nothing is to be celebrated much past the song.
And I think about the Eagles and how they treated winning the 2006 Grand Final like it was the ultimate experience - but then it wasn't so they went on drug fuelled benders to make themselves feel the way they'd been told winning a grand final should feel.
In short, I think they need to have a look at the work environments of football clubs and stop this disdain they're developing for the outside world, because football should be a great occupation to have, where you leave it in good health and with full pockets.