If things aren't going well in your life (like your AFL team wants to trade you and no other clubs want to pick you up), you can try blaming others but at some point you might need to "have a look in your own backyard". (Then you eat lots of meat, and end up winning a premiership.)

Things I learnt, beyond the importance of taking personal accountability for your own performance (in footy or life):

- "If I'm more selfless in this team, and we do better, it's better for all of us", E.g. no one cares about your stats when you're playing in a bottom 4 team. No one is going to stop you in the street to say 'well done'. But once you're a premiership player, different story.

- Related point: how changing little habits around the club can have a big impact on performance on field. E.g. turning up on time for meetings, showing gratitude to support staff, keeping changing rooms tidy etc. leads to being less selfish on the field, which leads to better performance.

- Dealing with negative comments on social media - a good sense check is, do people say these negative things to me in real life? No. Therefore you can probably ignore the comments.