Why AFL clubs and the media need to take a good look at their motivations and their actions
WEST Coast club official’s over-reaction to cameraman shows how toxic relations have become between AFL clubs and the media.
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IN A a football world where there are too many journalists and too few stories to deliver to an expanding fan base addicted to a constant information fix, it is not surprising the relationship between clubs and journalists is now occasionally toxic.
A West Coast official pushing a cameraman who was filming Nic Naitanui in a public place from a respectful distance, and Eagles coach Adam Simpson endorsing it by saying: “I’ll back Peter Staples before anyone else, so I’m comfortable”, is a perfect example of where we are at.
So too is Bomber Brendon Goddard’s recent statement supporting players who tell lies to their adoring fan base. “At the end of the day it is much easier to say nothing, play dumb and reel off common cliches,” Goddard wrote, adding “The fallout from being honest just isn’t worth it”.
So if club officials and players are deliberately putting out fake news, and reporters are being physically restrained from reporting the real news, we are all screwed. Because the two-way distrust has led to a sick air of scepticism and a proliferation of conspiracy theories.
And quite often now, it gets personal. Walkley Award-winning journalist Caroline Wilson used the “lie” word this week, after her long-running argument with Carlton was played out on TV.
“I was angry... I thought the club had lied to me and certainly (Blues president) Mark LoGuidice had been less than honest,” Wilson said in defence of her story which Carlton denied was true.
Former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas’s explosive Twitter scepticism over Sydney’s reporting of injuries led to the Swans exploring the option of legal action. Sydney chief executive Andrew Ireland was quick to discredit the coach turned commentator saying: “People shouldn’t take any notice of anything he says, because he is so wrong about this he clearly has no credibility in anything else he says”.
And Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge did not hold back after self-confessed sceptic Damian Barrett’s recent AFL website article, which cast doubt on the Bulldogs’ explanation for Tom Boyd’s non-selection.
“For that individual to infer we were making up his injury and that there’s something else wrong, and why he would even go there, just shows what we are dealing with,” Beveridge said.
The Crows have been fighting a volatile information war with the media this season.
Establishing what did and did not happen at their infamous pre-season camp, and the reasons for their injury crisis, has been a game in itself.
The quest for the truth was not helped by the press conference held last month by coach Don Pyke and head of football Brett Burton, which only made us less clear.
And watching, first-hand, an Adelaide media man prompt chairman Rob Chapman with notes during a recent radio interview designed to establish the facts, was also bizarrely intriguing.
So good luck in your search for the truth.
Having lived on both sides of the fence, I wish I could tell you who to believe.
But in the current environment, I’m often as unsure as anyone.
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