Callan Ward's mum blasts AFL's big money

[LostDoggy]

B*tch, please.

[mjp]

Is she a single parent if so she probably has struggled and its a great feeling to see your child do well.

Let's just say that "It's complicated".

His Mum and Dad live around the corner from one-another.

[Ghost Dog]

Agree. After reading what Mrs. Ward said in the "Age" earlier this year I knew Ward was going and I also read about her family's total disdain for the Western Bulldogs too. You should have kept quiet mumma.

Really? where was that written?

He's history. anyway.
refered to as Ca$$an in all posts henceforth.

I'd be lying low if my Mother was in a major newspaper, trying to defend me.

Now Ca$$an Ward is not the issue; what do we get for him.

[LostDoggy]

No use her blaming anyone other than her own son. The AFL didn't make the decision for Callan ..... he made the choice himself.

Ultimately he valued money over leaving his family, team mates and club loyalty. Nothing else can be read into the situation.

[Grantysghost]

Really? where was that written?

He's history. anyway.
refered to as Ca$$an in all posts henceforth.

Now Ca$$an Ward is not the issue; what do we get for him.

I'm been using Callan Wad but both are acceptable

[Bulldog4life]

Really? where was that written?

He's history. anyway.
refered to as Ca$$an in all posts henceforth.

I'd be lying low if my Mother was in a major newspaper, trying to defend me.

Now Ca$$an Ward is not the issue; what do we get for him.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-new...#ixzz1XAGIP0tE

Callan Ward isn't short on advisers on his football future. But despite an ''offer too good to refuse'' from GWS, he may yet stick with the Bulldogs.

HERE'S a taste of what people think Callan Ward should do, and goodness knows there's been no shortage of folk - some of whom even know him - offering to help make the biggest decision of his young life …

Tired of fielding questions about whether her son is going to Greater Western Sydney, Kerri Ward recently ran his dilemma by her grade fives in their persuasive writing class. Many at the Williamstown school are Western Bulldogs fans, yet when they heard what was being offered, the classroom could have been a live audience at a TV game show - ''Take the money! Go!''

Ward met GWS officials for a second time early this week, and a five-year offer of lottery-win proportions was laid out; bells, whistles, carrots and all. People baulk at voicing figures with so many zeroes in them; it almost sounds dirty. Suffice to say, a recent claim that he would sacrifice as much as $2 million over five years to stay a Bulldog now appears quite conservative.

Advertisement: Story continues below To underscore the ''once-in-a-lifetime, call-now-or-miss-out'' nature of the game, the Giants asked for an answer within a fortnight. Come to the promised land now, my son, or the gates will forever be closed.

Callan Ward is 21, an extremely promising and popular young footballer of great courage and skill. Last weekend, he played his 50th game. He is also a modern rarity: reared in the inner-west surrounded by diehard Bulldogs (although he barracked for Essendon), a draft that might have sent him across the country delivered Ward to an AFL club he could walk to.

Now, he is a pawn in Andrew Demetriou's quest to storm a new frontier. Whatever it takes, GWS will work, and it will work fast. Untold riches, cutting-edge facilities, premierships - all this and more will be yours.

Less than four years ago, The Saturday Age met Ward in the modest Yarraville house he shared with his mum and two of his three sisters. Dad Greg lived nearby. Callan and his mate ''Jimma'' Hynes, friends since prep, were just in from school, having hopped off the train at Spotswood and walked home through Westgate Golf Course - because there were plenty of targets for Cal to kick his footy at along the way.

A few days later, all rejoiced when he became a Bulldog, not least Jimma, a Dogs member for a decade. Ward earned just under $50,000 in his first season.

His wage has risen sufficiently that a year ago he bought a house in Altona North, which he shares with teammates Christian Howard and Sam Reid. He has a dog and a second-hand Commodore, and is happier than he could have imagined.

And now, everywhere he turns, people tell him he could be even happier. And that GWS will make that happen.

They tell him it's now or never, that the start-up rules the AFL has put in place won't be around if he signs a two-year deal with the Dogs and keeps the option open of joining the Giants when the difficult baby steps will have been taken, and they are closer to delivering on the Demetriou dream. But by then, the big bucks will be used to keep Jonathan Patton, Dylan Shiel, Adam Treloar and others from going elsewhere, not to lure Callan Ward and Tom Scully into the fold.

''There's only one Kerry Packer, one Channel Nine deal,'' one observer said this week.

They tell him, too, that the riches won't just be evident in his bank balance. He'll soon experience the ultimate football happiness - premiership success. No. 1 draft picks, 17-year-olds traded for first-round selections, the underwriting of the league that the biggest untapped market, in the biggest city in the land will conquer all.

''Imagine being a player, 21 years old, going up to that club for a meeting, and they rattle off the numbers - what picks they've got, what types of players that will convert to - imagine what that team is going to look like in a matter of only three years,'' another close watcher says. ''You'd get back on the plane going, 'Oh my God, it's going to be unbelievable! And not only is it going to be unbelievable, but I'm going to be paid an unbelievable amount of money, too!' ''

Kerri Ward isn't angry that her only son has been put in an impossible position, torn between the club and people he loves, and the untold riches of GWS.

She knows he will have to make difficult decisions in life, perhaps none harder than this, and that it will shape his character.

''Whatever he does, he has to really look deep into himself and say, 'Bottom line, I have to make this decision - what do I want to do?'''

She knows he will be comfortable either way, better off than all but a blessed few 21-year-olds, should he follow his heart and stay with the Dogs. Yet she knows he would be happy if he went, too.

The inequity of the scenario annoys her, that no club could compete with a football version of Robert Redford's Indecent Proposal. The length of the commitment is troubling, too.

She worries that if he doesn't go, he'll live to regret it; that if he does, fans will turn on him. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. She has little time for the oft-spouted notion of ''setting yourself up for life'', as if a footballer's goal in life is to never work beyond the age of 32.

It staggers Kerri how many Bulldogs supporters love her son, and she knows that only compounds the load on his mind. ''I don't want him to stay because he thinks that's the right thing to do. I don't want him to think, 'I'm letting everybody down'. That wouldn't be fair.''

Others who know her son think he's just the sort of person who might say no. Who might think, how much money is enough? Who might believe the football club he is at can right itself, can yet deliver him the ultimate happiness. Who recognises that the weekly Wednesday parma nights with his old school mates are part of who he is.

And there are others who counter that Gary Ablett leaving Geelong legitimised taking the money and running, that there's no such thing as loyalty any more. And others still who believe Callan Ward is the sort of person who might say, ''Maybe it's time I brought it back''.

Kerri Ward was reading a story recently about Sunrise host Melissa Doyle's pay going up to $700,000 a year, and found herself thinking, ''Callan could be getting more than that''.

She knows this is crazy money, but when the game's governing body trumpets a TV rights deal like it's a medical breakthrough, would saying no really change the landscape? Would her grade fives be impressed, or would they just think, ''He's mad''.

When Callan and his twin sister Aysha were little, and the Wards would get together with Footscray-following friends, their dad would ask them, ''What do the Bulldogs do?'' And the kids would answer, ''The Bulldogs break your heart''.

How sad it is that by simply doing what everyone says he'd be a fool not to do, Callan Ward could do just that.



Disdain might be too strong of a word GD but they were Essendon supporters....that's enough for me.

[AndrewP6]

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-new...#ixzz1XAGIP0tE

Interesting, hadn't read that article.

All that (the parma nights, the club he 'loves', the mates) and it isn't enough. To me, that speaks volumes for the person he really is.

[LoveWillMinson]

So disappointed in Cal mums remarks about Dog Supporters! There might have only been 18,000 supporters but we were pretty loud when we love our players! Did u hear us chant Barry! Good Luck with type of support at GWS!

I am just hanging to see Liam Picken line up on him when we play GWS next year..Go Dogs!!

[azabob]

A teacher hey? And she is in charge of moulding our future minds......

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Firstly I am extremely disappointed that Callan has left, and I think in time he may regret it.
However really some of the comments here are just ludicrous and are frankly embarrassing to the authors.

People can harp on about how they would play for the club for pocket change if they had to (total bollocks!), and can make snide remarks about his mum or how playing him on the weekend was a dishonour to the club etc. That to me says volumes more about your tenuous grasp of reality/decency than Cal's decision to leave the club says about his character.

It seems some here have no problem bagging a player, or wishing that the club should turf them or trade them or that they should never play for the a club again, when it suits them, or whenever they think the player has outlive their usefulness. But heaven forbid a player should decide to make their own choice to go elsewhere, then they are the scum of the earth.

Grow up.

I understand being a passionate supporter/member, and being disappointed in losing someone who we would like to keep at the club. But being a paid up member it doesn't give anyone a license to act as a moron.

It's one thing to be disappointed in Callan's decision, but no one here is in full possession of all the facts. No one knows how difficult the decision was or wasn't for Cal to make, and evidently many of you here cannot empathise with a Mother's automatic action to defend her son.

As disappointed as I have been with the club of late in a number of areas, the decision to play him last weekend, was probably the most professional thing to do.
And to be honest, Cal's Mum is right, for only 18,000 odd to turn up to say goodbye to two heroes in Hudson and Hall, is a disgrace. And that says heaps more about the character of our supporters. Even Port managed to get over 22,000 to their game against Melbourne at home. If our supporters didn't turn up out of anger at the club playing Callan, well then they should be ashamed for cutting off their nose to spite their face and failing in their duty to farewell Hudson and Hall. They deserved better than that. So much for being passionate supporters.
Why are so many of you so keen to burn bridges?

[Remi Moses]

Absolute nonsense^^
1) fans were going to a game where two also rans played ( interstate team with no fans)
2) what is the point of playing someone who has decided to walk
( tail wagging the dog in selecting Ward)
3) the continual lies and cloak and dagger activity that have occurred
(he'd signed months ago)
4) mum coming out ( cringeworthy)bagging the system, yet his manager rattled on the draft picks and not just the money( total lies, Ching Ching Ching Ching)
5) I'd be less offended if tomorrow he'd stared down the camera and just blurted out that he left for the vast fortune. No doubt we'll get more drivel and added salt to the wound.
6) Personally I won't resort to churlish comments on his family, but what I will say is if Mum's going to talk about events of the 70's ( Bernie leaving) a) the club was basically insolvent
B) you know you're struggling as a defense when you raise issues that occurred nearly friggin 40 years ago!!!!
Sorry to rattle on folks

[Maddog37]

I think a big part os so many people lashing out is a result of a long, tough year and this is the last straw.

A feeling of helplessness that leads to anger which manifests in these type of threads.

[AndrewP6]

A teacher hey? And she is in charge of moulding our future minds......

They're overrated

[azabob]

They're overrated

What year do you teach?

[Ghost Dog]

Right. The moderators have had their work cut out, hosing down a few flames on the Ca$$an Ward threads!