Choosing one way to look at things can sometimes make you miss the actual truth.
As I finish off today's column news is breaking that Robbie Dunne has been found guilty and banned by the British Horseracing Authority following a seven-month campaign of bullying and harassment against fellow jockey, Bryony Frost.
It is an important decision and will hopefully go some way towards changing the misogynistic, and at times frightening culture that exists in male-dominated sports.
Unfortunately, it is not unique to horseracing, but it is a real testament to the inner strength shown by Frost when many of her male colleagues left her isolated to face horrendous and unfair treatment. Yet Brian Barker QC, the independent chair of the disciplinary panel, found Frost's evidence and demeanour to be "truthful, thoughtful and compelling".
What has happened to Bryony, and to all the other female athletes in a once overwhelmingly male environment, cannot be changed but how they are treated in the future can be.
I hope her racing colleagues alter the lens through which they saw and accepted her being bullied. This was not about Frost not wanting to hear bad language in the weighing room. The panel found that she was harassed by Dunne online and on the track as well.
I can imagine how frightening that was, especially when none of her colleagues were around to witness it. They only heard the ‘banter’ that occurred before and after races.
How much harassment did she have to endure before finally getting to the point of saying enough is enough?
And then she was branded “a dangerous c***”.
The biases that support a culture which damages a person’s reputation, just because they are a woman, cannot go unchallenged.
But I am not so sure this will happen. Not after jockey Alain Cawley spoke yesterday about Dunne being "hard done by" and comparing the language of the weighing room to "how many married people go home and swear at each other and have rows every night of the week".
Cawley’s comments may come back to haunt him and perhaps he will realise that it’s not what he heard that was the problem, it was what he believed.
The response of top trainer Gay Kelleway was a poignant contrast to Cawley, as she described suffering similar abuse for decades and spoke of others who were too scared to speak out due to the consequences.
Is the real reason so few women exist in male-dominated sports due to their capacity to do the job or is it more to do with the fact that the pursuit of doing what they love is no longer worth the personal cost? Will Frost continue to be victimised by suffering in silence when she walks into the weighing room? Will she be the victim of a cancel culture in addition to what she has already endured?
As a woman in sport, I can only commend and thank Bryony Frost for her courage.
In an inadvertent way, the essence of this important case had correlations with the column I was writing about how a blinkered view of statistics in football can make you miss the actual truth.
In an era where football can be over-analysed, I always enjoy the space when things happen that cannot be explained or defined, because they are the moments that make it the beautiful game, we all love so much.
Sometimes, choosing one way to look at things can make you miss the actual truth
Having been on both sides of the fence, as analyst and coach, one of the most important things that must exist in the team unit is alignment when it comes to what things mean.
Many years ago, a Cork City player asked for stats on his crosses. He was effective for us in a match, getting down the channel and putting balls into the box so his confidence was sky high on Monday morning.
Clinically, his stats read: “Successful crosses: 33 per cent 4/12 – Unsuccessful crosses: 66 per cent 8/12.”
I told him we’d go through his clips after training. But there was also an opportunity in the moment, particularly as some players can over-analyse their performances and get hooked on what they didn’t get right.
In the team meeting, I played a clip of one of his crossing opportunities in the game. He got into an excellent high and wide position on the left as we instigated a planned press and won back the ball. The switch of play worked well and our midfielder was able to release him down the channel.
As their full back came to press him, he crossed the ball so it cannoned off the defender and we got a corner. We scored from the corner and were 1-0 up.
His stats said ‘Unsuccessful Cross’. I remember asking the players what they thought: successful or unsuccessful? A great debate ensued!
Statistically, it wasn’t successful but from a Cork City perspective, it was a very successful cross, particularly in a season where we scored more than a third of our goals from set plays.
We played another clip. This time he made a great run with the ball, beat the defender and crossed into the box. The delivery was inch-perfect to the area we had targeted. Our striker had made his run to the front post, as planned to pull their best defender in the air to that area, but our attacking midfielder had not got to where he needed to be, to get on the end of a brilliant ball.
Statistically, an ‘Unsuccessful Cross’. And for the team, it was an unsuccessful cross, but for the player who whipped it in, it was a successful cross.
Sometimes, choosing one way to look at things can make you miss the actual truth.
