Round #16 - Be like Bont
The Bont
The most important person in a club is the one with the ball in their hand.
As the footy world celebrated the universally admired Marcus Bontempelli playing his 250th game against the Sydney Swans at the SCG, a video surfaced.
It was a young ‘Bont’ playing for his junior club, Eltham. I'm not sure what age he was, but it was kids’ footy. The bodies were yet to reach the maturity where the early developers have the advantage, if only for a few years.
A tallish, skinny kid takes an overhead mark that few could at that age, coming from the side to mark in front of the pack, taking the ball with one grab, nonchalantly.
It was like the ball had landed into a basket of feathers.
But the next piece of footage, well, I am not sure I have seen anything quite like it for a player of his age, such that I watched it time and time again, and each time, I wasn’t quite sure what I was seeing.
It was like watching Shane Warne bowling the ‘Ball of the Century’ to Mike Gatting, Warnie’s first ball in England at Lord's. No matter how many times you watch it, you know what happened, but you cannot be sure what happened. I have seen Mike Gatting try to explain it, but it seems he is still somewhat at a loss over three decades later.
The vision of young Bont shows a loose ball with two opposition players, and Bont starts spinning away from a contest that doesn’t yet exist, but soon will, but it never does. In the middle of his spin, Bont reaches down with his right hand for the ball, and in a flash, it is nestled safely in his right hand against his body, the other hand deemed not necessary, and with the spin still rolling on, Bont is in space, turning onto his now famous left foot, the two opposition players almost colliding as they grab at fresh air. All of this happens at a speed that shouldn’t be possible for a footballer of this age.
It might be the old recruiter in me that not only found myself replaying this few seconds of footage, but then in conversation with Hawthorn President Andy Gowers the next morning on a Friday morning bike ride.
Andy knows me as a recruiter because many, many years ago, I tried to recruit him as a skinny centre-half-forward at Xavier College when I was Recruiting Manager of the Melbourne Football Club. We reflected on this time when he joined me ‘In the Arena’ on our Podcast. Fair to say, his decision to play with the Hawks proved wise; just a few years later, he was a Hawthorn Premiership player. Andy is a great footy man, doing fantastic work with the Hawks.
His response after I sent him a link to the footage:
”The spinning pick up into space!! Amazing”.
Bont has spent his career making contests vanish and finding himself with a crazy amount of space in an era where all coaching and opposition team strategies are focused on squeezing both time and space, yet Bont finds plenty of both.
He is a maker of space.
Be like Bont
Bont the maker is the metaphor I’d like to draw on from a leadership perspective.
As leaders, we are makers.
Makers of Sense: Giving definition to a future that doesn’t exist, a compelling story, often in the face of complexity and ambiguity, the very conditions that are the reason we need leadership in the first place. It is the forever effort to ensure the right work gets done, at the right time, by the right people.
Makers of Meaning: Crafting an ‘us story’ so clear and compelling that it will harness your team’s energy. An understanding of what we are trying to collectively do, and how the contribution of every team member matters. People will understand who we are, why we do it, and what their role is in it.
Makers of Place: Embedding a sense of belonging. The words “you belong here” may well be the most important ever spoken in your team or organisation. We will not always agree, but we will stay aligned on the stuff that matters.
Makers of Progress: Are we moving towards, or away from, what we are collectively seeking to achieve? It is never linear, which often means showing progress when individuals and teams have yet to see it in themselves.
Makers of Numbers: There are always numbers, a scoreboard, a profit, or a deal to be done. What are the critical numbers for you? Too often, we focus on the ‘outcome’ numbers rather than measuring the behaviours that create the outcomes. Get this right, and as the legendary NFL coach Bill Walsh would say, “The score takes care of itself”.
To achieve this, be like Bont; be a Maker of Space, a preparedness to do the work, a practice of reflection that will become the whetstone that sharpens your inner voice, and enables you to answer as an ongoing challenge, the core leadership question:
“What does the role expect of me?”
And there is only one answer to this question:
“Create the conditions that enable this group to perform at its best”.
The most important person in a club is the one with the ball in their hand.
As leaders, we are also makers of space for others.
This means giving the ball over, knowing that decisions are best made at the level of the organisation where there is the most information, knowledge and understanding, and in most cases, that is not you, and even if it is, still give it.
This is positive space. With this mindset, we learn about others and ourselves, building trust and growing leaders and teams. It is leadership begetting leaders.
This space fills with positivity.
But there is another kind of space. It is the space that is created by two of the enemies of trust, fear and laziness. By not confronting what you know needs to be confronted, or allowing ‘what seems to matter’ to overwhelm ‘what truly matters’, a space will also open up.
This space fills with negativity.
With this in mind, I think of legendary Hockey coach Ric Charlesworth’s take:
”There is always conflict out there, you just might not know it. If you do not deal with it, it will appear at the worst possible moment.”
In my experience, leaders often struggle with the candour required to address friction and conflict. But you have no choice. If you are not up for this conversation, you are not up for leadership.
The evolution of the Bulldogs under Premiership Coach Luke Beveridge, now in his eleventh season and recently locked in for another couple of years, has been about making space, with Bont leading the way.
Both are creating the good kind of space, putting both the real and metaphoric ball in different players’ hands.
Two players have stood out. Ed Richards is now statistically one of the best players in the game, having shown tremendous growth in his eighth season and becoming a bona fide star.
At the other end of the experience scale, Joel Freijah, aged nineteen and in game number 28, drafted in the mid-40s in 2023, kicked four goals on Friday night and was a difference-maker at key times in the game. He has drawn comparisons with Bont, but not for long; his body of work will soon make those comparisons unnecessary and tedious, if they are not already.
Bont, the space maker, as a playmaker, has captured footy from the moment he stepped onto the AFL field, but it’s Bont as captain and leader, the sense maker, meaning maker, and place maker, as well as the progress maker evidenced by the high-quality win against the Swans, which might well have an even greater impact at this stage of his career. The numbers maker, well, the ‘score will take care of itself’.
So, when in doubt...
Be like Bont.
Play on!
My work builds on the belief that leadership is the defining characteristic of every great organisation or team.
You cannot outperform your leadership.
Our offering is designed for leaders who know that personal leadership effectiveness drives team and organisational performance and that there must be a better, more efficient and effective way to learn leadership.
Feel free to connect, or make contact
