Don't be fan.
When I say this I don't mean not to follow a team and support them or anything like that. I am talking about if you are a staff member or player.
If you are a coach of a lower grade side and an NRL player comes down to play or train in your team or if your side plays oppose against the NRL team for example, you can't be a fan. You have a job to do and you have to be professional about it. There is nothing more embarrassing than the coach giggling like a little school girl at a Justin Bieber concert because he just got to talk to someone he likes to watch play footy. It will earn you zero respect from the players and you will never be able to coach them. You will just be another back slapper telling them everything they are doing is great.
It is ok to be excited. But you have to do your job.
Same goes if you are a player. For some young bloke who gets to go into an NRL squad early in their career they could be playing with some of the boys they grew up watching on T.V as a kid, thinking they were superman. It is surreal but the ones who are successful get over this the quickest and start to learn that they are just human like everyone else. They put it in perspective and then do the work to try and earn their respect through hard work and putting into practice what the senior guys are teaching them. These guys are still highly respectful of the senior players, I am not saying that they are on the same level, far from it. What I am saying is you can't sit around daydreaming at your idol thinking if you should ask for an autograph or not.
I say this because there is also the other problem where the young bloke struts in thinking he has done something and shows no respect to the senior players who have earned the right to be where they are. These ones are the ones causing the trouble in our game. They are arrogant and try and get respect in the wrong areas. Through talking shit and bluffing, partying like peanuts, and never living up to their full potential.
This goes for all staff.
In my field strength coaches kill me that put up a photo on social media the first time an athlete with half a profile comes to the gym they work at. It is the quickest way to never see them again in my opinion. Show some class and keep it to yourself. These blokes are coming to do some work and improve themselves, they may not want anyone else to know what they are doing so keep it private.
I have a few people who come and see me at times but I don't tell anyone and I keep it just between us. I don't even tell my other clients. They get a private session in the gym with me and they know that will be it.
So basically you can be happy and excited where you are but put it in perspective.