How wayward Wighton found his voice

HARNESSING lightning the great trick of coaching.

Talent is everywhere. It is found in every pub that sells beer on tap, the great wasteland of talent that failed to be harnessed. Nothing sees a coach unemployed quicker than falling in love with talent waiting to be fulfilled. It is the fast track to the poorhouse.

Two Christmases ago, Canberra coach Ricky Stuart called Jack Wighton into his is office wondering if he was ever going to harness the talent inside.

Wighton was big and rawboned and dangerous. Something he knew all too well.

A month earlier Wighton was in Galambany Circle Court, an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander court that provides a culturally sensitive sentencing option, waiting to hear the outcome of assault charges after a drunken night out. Wighton was at a crossroads, that much was clear.

Like many, he was a man of talent. Like many, Stuart was trying to harness that talent and not always making a tremendous success of it.

Wighton was out drinking and a dumb idea soon made for a bad night.

By the time he got to court Wighton knew he was at a delicate time in his career. On this particular day the Aboriginal Elders inside the courtroom left most of the talking to Wighton but it became clear to him, even as he spoke, that they knew he was at a crossroads and that they believed his future direction now was entirely up to him. By letting him do most of the talking, they were telling him that. A two-month jail term was suspended and Wighton was let go to make his choice.