Anglesea coach Paul Carson writes in a powerful column how he has had local players in tears talking about their personal issues

EARLIER this year, I was watching a story on 60 Minutes about a 25-year-old local footballer who took his own life after a secret battle with depression.

As part of the episode, one statistic really hit home — something like one in 10 men aged between 18 and 30 battle depression.

I automatically think about footy and my role as coach at Anglesea. That stat means I’ve got four blokes on my list of 40 that are potentially battling mental illness. That makes it real for me.

Already in my time at Anglesea, I’ve had guys in tears talking to me about a number of issues, whether it’s work or girlfriend troubles or whatever — there’s always something going on with someone in their lives that you don’t know about.

You’re so much more than a coach for a lot of players.

You’re a mate to some of them, you’re a mentor to some — some of them look up to you whether you like it or not — and you’re a father figure for some as well.

Regardless of what I thought I signed up for, I feel a responsibility for my players in being someone they can talk to about anything.

You’d like to think you have a good enough rapport with the players for them to be confident enough to come to you and say, ‘I’ve got some issues’, or vice versa, to be able to identify, ‘There’s something not quite right with this bloke’.

Football should be an outlet or release for players, but when it stops becoming that outlet, you’re hopeful you can pick up on it and be there to help if needed.

I reckon most clubs have policies or people in place to deal with player welfare; I know Anglesea has a player welfare officer in place for these types of things.

But in saying that, unless the players have confidence and a strong enough relationship with you or that welfare officer, I don’t know that they’d just come and open up to you.

A lot of times it’s not a matter of them approaching you.

It might just be in general conversation you sense something, you ask a few more questions perhaps and you’ve almost got to get it out of them a little bit — 18 to 30-year-old males aren’t generally known for being open and honest in conversation or good communicators for that matter.

It’s very hard for them to have an open and honest conversation face-to-face, so it’s almost up to us as coaches to get it out of them, without invading their privacy to a degree.

I would love to think, at my football club, players could approach me — I would hope so and I would want them to. If they didn’t know they could, I hope they read this now and know they can.

And not to say I’m a professional and know how to deal with it, but it’s a start and I’d be able to talk to them and at least talking about things would help.

And not just me at Anglesea; I’d like to think most coaches are approachable and fairly sensitive to this and be there for their players, more than as a coach.

It’s definitely a real issue and something we need to keep an eye on at local level.