Crows coach Don Pyke responds to false rumour he got into a fight with Josh Jenkins: ‘If it wasn’t as serious as it is, it’s laughable‘
For the second week in a row, Crows coach Don Pyke has had to address rumours swirling around his relationship with his players. And it’s fair to say he’s had enough of it.
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In AFL football, rumours sure do travel fast.
And in a week when Crows coach Don Pyke has been the subject of his fair share — namely that he and Josh Jenkins were in a punch-up and that his big forward was dropped for leaking stories to the media — he’s angrily responded to them.
Showing visible disgust when addressing the recent rumours during a press conference at the Crows’ West Lakes headquarters, Pyke said it was time for more rigorous sorting of fact from fiction.
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“I find the whole thing, to be honest, if it wasn’t as serious as I take it, it’s quite laughable,” he said of the rumour that he and Jenkins came to blows.
“At the moment, what we’re facing is the industry, and we’re seeing that with other people talking, is people want to run with absolute fiction, absolute fiction and just put that into the mainstream and say well, that’s what happened … the concept of Josh and I being involved in a physical altercation, is laughable.
“But I take it quite personally because it’s disrespectful to suggest me, as a coach, would get involved in something like that with one of my players.
“And when that gets thrown up, I go: ‘Where do we stop?’ Because we’re now at a point whereby we can just put anything we want out there and it sticks and it’s based on absolutely nothing.
“He’s said it, I said it, but people still want to think it’s fair game to put out things which are not fact.
“Someone wants to run with, we had a fight? I’m 80kg, he’s 100kg, I’m not sure how that’s going to work.
“If it wasn’t as serious as it is, it’s laughable, to be honest.”
Last week, Pyke was addressing rumours that he’d “lost his players”, and for a second week he’s had to respond to more rumour.
Pyke also described the report that Jenkins had been dropped because for leaking information to the media in simple terms: “complete fabrication”.
The senior coach said particularly at this point in any season, rumour mills went into overdrive with speculation about player trading, contracts and selection.
“It just kicks in and to be honest, there’s almost an onus on everyone to do their facts because unfortunately as we saw this week, (Jenkins and I) end up embroiled in something which is a non-story, which is completely fictional,” he said.
Pyke’s strong comments come in the same week that players boss Paul Marsh also addressed the issue, saying the traditional media had a responsibility to report accurately and not simply respond to innuendo on social media.
“Part of the problem is you see something on social media that someone with no credibility has put on, let’s take a rumour like the Pyke/Jenkins one, and what we’re seeing is the media report off the back of that and that’s where some of this stuff is getting credibility that it shouldn’t get,” Marsh told The Advertiser’s The Lowdown Podcast.
“I think there is a role for the media to treat that like it should be treated — which is garbage — and there are a few things we’re looking at so how do we build resilience with the players as well that they know it’s part of the issues they are going to be dealing with in this space.”