Greg Growden on All Black "Motivation"

Greg Growden suggested today that the death of All Black coach Steve Hansen's father is "motivation" for the All Blacks to win on Saturday and equal SA's record for most consecutive test wins.

He said this in the same sentence as mentioning it is Kevin Mealmu's 100th test.

What are your opinions on this? Is this "extra motivation" to win? or does the death of a family member merely put winning and losing at sport from the coaches box into perspective?

I felt there was a lot of respectful silence on making this obvious, and in my opinion cheap point and I was disappointed that a highly respected specialist journalist would bring it up and further dismayed he made it in the context that he did.

In my mind it is a point best left unsaid, especially in terms of the potentialy emotional consequences of a loss having brought up such an issue; in what is after just a game.

Am I right? or am I just a blouse wearing overly sensitive jessie?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/rugby/news/article.cfm?c_id=80&objectid=10841222

Correction: It was Wynne Gray. My bad.

I dont know whether it actually gives "extra mtivation to win", but what it does do is impress upon you that this is you team mate (in this case coach) who is doing it tough and you go in and fight for your mate, look him in the eye and tell him your there for him, then go out and empty the tank for him...and if the outcome is a win, then all the better.

In my other post I used them both in the same sentence in that there will be 'emotions' aplenty which kind of sums it up.

What kind of emotions will differ for each player depending on how close they are to either mealamu or Hansen, but regardless, for everyone its a test as an All Black side on a record streak who are out for revenge at the same ground for the 3N loss last year...

I mean, what else does one need? Motivation's an internal mechanism. You can't 'motivate' another person directly. You can create an environment in which they are able to or choose to motivate themselves.

Each will use whatever works for them in the end, possibly regardless of what theyll actually admit to outwardly. For this test there are probably more 'sources' than there usually are perhaps...

For me it seems to point out there are somethings more important than Rugby.Family and life and death puts everything into perspective some things mean more.I hope Steve Hansen gets over the tragedy well .
There is no lack of motivation,a record equaling match,Mealamu`s 100th game,doing it for the Boss,or just treating it as one game at a time.
This time they have a SH ref Joubert,so we may get some flow hopefully an AB win.Then on to the AI`s

My bet is should NZ defeat Australia on the weekend, someone will point out that Scotland beat Australia, and hence that will be a bigger challenge...

Motivation is such a fickle thing. They do make a good point however about when the sequence becomes a problem. My feeling it is at the point when continuing the sequence becomes more important than blooding new players, which is a point they failed to make.