Anyone objectively watching the sporting media this week will have seen the massively overblown reaction to injured Gold Coast Suns captain Gary Ablett Jr staying a couple of extra days in Melbourne after a recent Suns game at Docklands.
Talk about a complete waste of print space!! And to have to esteemed football people like Brownlow Medallist Shane Crawford and Swans Premiership coach Paul Roos jump on the bandwagon and rip into Ablett was just icing on the cake. Overall, the Melbourne AFL media is voracious, overwhelmingly conservative and full of Andrew Demetriou sycophants.
I have often wondered what it would like to grow up in the Riverina, say, and play very good footy, possibly play for the NSW/ACT Rams and then get drafted between numbers 1-5 to a Melbourne club. Talk about jumping from the frying pan into the fire!!
Living in Melbourne and having an AFL contract would be like living in a super-crowded goldfish bowl full of feral, stinking European Carp. EVERYTHING you do, on and off the park, is scrutinised to the nth degree. Headlines like “Carlton recruit Giovanni Andolini (he is a Carlton recruit, remember!!) spotted having a Long Black in Lygon St at 3.00pm” abound in a city totally obsessed with footy.
For Victorians, they are used to it AND/OR expect it. But if you are NOT a Vic, you can see what some players would rather be drafted by the Lions, Swans & Suns, perhaps to a somewhat lesser extent to Perth or Adelaide.
When Ablett’s calm and rational Manager Liam Pickering pointed out that Ablett agreed to stay over to fulfil a media commitment on Channel 10 that was originally slated for Karmichael Hunt, it showed up the wowsers and muppets in the Victorian media who took Ablett to task over a perceived “lack of leadership”. What a load of bollocks!!
Ablett has broken no rules, did not do a Moloney and get blotto, and yet he still cops it. Ablett 1, media zero.
In comparison, the Sydney media’s handling of the alleged Anthony Watts domestic abuse case and Todd Carney’s ongoing alcohol issues was unbiased, thorough, careful and truthful.
With Watts’ matter being Sub Judice, the papers have wisely left this one alone, knowing that public sentiment against alleged wife-bashers is enormously powerful.
Carney, who actually did not commit any illegal act (he did break Eastern Suburbs club rules, to be fair), has been stood down indefinitely. The bloke is sick, he has an illness, does not manage that illness well, and continues to booze on, so standing him down seems the only option.
Many of my friends on F/B have quite rightly asked “how many chances does this bloke get”. Easts have handled a dreadfully difficult situation very well, working with the Press rather than against them and trying to help Carney in particular. Carney has now exhausted his trust at the club, and it would be not at all surprising to see him jettisoned by Easts at season’s end.
There is a very strong anti-Michael Clarke bias in the Australian Sporting Press, and has been for years. The Press suddenly decided that they want to the Australian captain to be a copy of Stephen Waugh; tough, grizzled, mean, anything BUT a metrosexual, inclined to a cold beer whilst listening to Cold Chisel or John Williamson.
Clarke, a very fine cricketer, has somehow fallen foul of the Press because he appears to be very much his own man. The fact he picked up and became engaged to a model is his business, surely? Ms Bingle certainly has her own issues (probably NOT a smart move to go after a married man at the Brownlow Medal Night), but Clarke seems to be worn a huge amount of flak for falling in love with an extremely attractive Australian woman.
Michael Clarke is a good man. He has grown up a lot (having earthy people like Simon Katich take him on would have helped him as a man), and is clearly the best candidate for the Australian captaincy. He relates well to the young blokes whilst becoming more comfortable with the veterans.
Clarke is well-spoken, thoughtful, has an excellent cricket brain (helps coming from the best first-class province in World Cricket), and LOVES that Baggy Green cap more than most people would understand. In time, he will judged purely on results.
We are an ordinary side in World Cricket standings right now, and Clarke has been given the huge task of getting us back to No.1. Perhaps the Press can be objective for a change, and report on our captain with typical Australian toughness, honesty and above all else, balance.
