Midfield09 and others—
Excellent points! If the intent of pushing oneself is arrogance, then all is lost—including the fun. If pushing oneself is to raise the level of the teammates and the team along with each player, then everyone has learned a valuable lesson.
I actually see the jealously more often from the players who do not put in effort and thing the players who do are "lucky" or "treated better" and can't see that most players who excel have worked really hard and sacrificed a great deal.
But team chemistry is vital in team sports and that relationship is one of the key lessons of sport.
