Never actually seen this movie (Any Given Sunday) but I have an mp3 of one of Al Pacino's speech from the movie that may be relevant to our current situation at the moment. Maybe we should play this to the boys before round 1?

TONY D'AMATO (Sharks Coach, played by Al Pacino - speech to "Sharks" football team at the end of the film)

I don't know what to say really. Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives all comes down to today. Either we heal as a team or we are going to crumble. Inch by inch play by play till we're finished. We are in hell right now, gentlemen believe me .... and we can stay here and get the shit kicked out of us or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb out of hell. One inch, at a time.

Now I can't do it for you. I'm too old. I look around and I see these young faces and I think I mean I made every wrong choice a middle age man could make. I uh.... I pissed away all my money believe it or not. I chased off anyone who has ever loved me. And lately, I can't even stand the face I see in the mirror.

You know when you get old in life things get taken from you. That's, that's part of life. But, you only learn that when you start losing stuff. You find out that life is just a game of inches. So is football. Because in either game life or football the margin for error is so small. I mean one half step too late or to early you don't quite make it. One half second too slow or too fast and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They are in ever break of the game every minute, every second.

On this team, we fight for that inch On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us to pieces for that inch. We CLAW with our finger nails for that inch. Cause we know when we add up all those inches that's going to make the @#$%&! difference between WINNING and LOSING between LIVING and DYING.

I'll tell you this in any fight it is the guy who is willing to die who is going to win that inch. And I know if I am going to have any life anymore it is because, I am still willing to fight, and die for that inch because that is what LIVING is. The six inches in front of your face.

Now I can't make you do it. You gotta look at the guy next to you. Look into his eyes. Now I think you are going to see a guy who will go that inch with you. You are going to see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team because he knows when it comes down to it, you are gonna do the same thing for him.

That's a team, gentlemen and either we heal now, as a team, or we will die as individuals. That's football guys. That's all it is. Now, whattaya gonna do?

I've managed to find this on the web as an mp3, sounds a lot better than the transcript reads:

http://nlp-training.nlpweekly.com/training-sessions/nlpweekly_al_pacino_any_given_sunday.mp3

I liked it!

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Oompa loompa doompety dee
If you are wise you'll listen to me

Yeah, great movie.. Pacino is awesome in it..


Couldn't picture Denis making a speech like that before a game though..

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"Some people take delight in Carlton. " - Verbs

Denis would call hands in, "Quack, Quack, Quack....".

Great speech. The other great Al Pacino speech (not sports related) is that one he makes to the private school disciplinary committe in scent of a woman. goes something like:



Nothing to do with footy, but a great Al Pacino speech.

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"Who discovered we could get milk from cows, and what did he think he was doing at the time?" Billy Connolly

What about

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"We used to sit around and talk about how bad the game plan was." Anthony Koutoufides

"...to be perfectly honest in all the confusion I kinda forgot. So what you've gotta ask yourself is "Do I feel lucky"...well do ya ...PUNK!"

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“Every single element of the Club has to be the best in the league, meticulously and methodically, and only by doing this will we be elite and challenge for number 17.”
Greg Lee

Glad you liiked it. Reminds me of a time when I used to play footy. The senior coach was giving us his big pre-game speech before a big game and I had my headphones on. He noticed the head phones and asked me in front of the whole team "Is that on?"

Now the smart thing to do would have been to say no!

The sensible thing to do would have been to say no!

The safest thing to do would have been to say no!

... of course I said yes and he pretty much bit my head clean off in front of the whole team!



The worst thing about this was someone made up a rumour that I was listening to whales singing or making love.. so from that point on whenever someone saw me with the headphones they'd give me sh1t about the whales.

"Do everything we have practised at training and we WILL WIN!!!"

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

The funniest pre game speech was by a former North Melbourne player who teed up the officials out in the country to undo the doors, so when he gave this rip roaring speech and ran through the door like a man obsessed all the players would follow.

What failed to eventuate was the door not taken off the hinges and the coach breaks his collar bone.

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I'm Rick James B***ch, go and have sex with Charlie Murphy

Does anybody ever really get fired up by a speech?? I sat through many as a young man in dodgy bush changing rooms, car parks and tin sheds!! The bit at the end where you all 'grab a jumper' probably meant more to me than any inspirational speech.

The only one I ever heard that had an impact was one where a team-mates grandad who used to come and watch us train/play wasnt at the game one day. His grandson got up in the rooms and through tears told us about how his grandad had died from a heart attack the night before. Coach made him the Captain for the day! We played out of our skins. I broke some pillock's jaw in the 2nd qtr, got reported! Was running around on nitrous all afternoon. The same lad got up affter the game and thanked us all for winning for his grandad etc and said he was sure the grandad was looking down on us etc.

There we are, 22 blokes in some country football sheds, covered in scratches, blood, mud etc and I reckon 1/2 of us were crying.

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"Who discovered we could get milk from cows, and what did he think he was doing at the time?" Billy Connolly

Thats true. I mean why do you think I had my headphones on while the coach was giving his pre-game speech. He speech just wasnt doing it for me...

I'm sorry but that speech is nothing special, in fact I would say it is bordering on pathetic. It's a movie for starters and a speech written for a movie and only the naive would expect players to react to that crap, the way it was delivered was poor as well, it wasn't inspiring and anyone who's actually played sport to a reasonable level would have heard many many more motivating talks.

A coach would seriously have to have rocks in his head to talk that sort of crap before a round one match.

hey look everyone, it's C.G. C.G. has something to say!

everyone????



anyone?

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

1. Sorry you didnt like it.
2. Just want to clarify...I know it's a movie.
3. I've never played sport to a reasonable level so I wouldn't know. In fact a struggled to play all my sport just above the level of 'embarassing'. Can you give us an example of a more motivating talk?
4. I didn't literally expect Pagain to dish this out pre-game round one or at any other time.
5. I believe great speeches by great orators can make a difference. Great speeches by Martin Luther King Jr, Winston Churchill, Rooselvelt, etc have inspired people for years. Maybe you've been listening too much to George Dubya's speeches?
6. Forgetting the speech itself, the delivery or the fact that it is from a movie. The general message is that the team is down and out and that to get back we need to work as a team, fighting for every inch of ground for each other. I'd like to see that a little more of that in our team.

It sounds good in a movie though...

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Corinthians 9:6- 8

Any Given Sunday is an awesome film. Underrated Oliver Stone classic.

Jamie Foxx pre Oscar is cool too. Hell even James Woods is good as the dodgy team doctor.