Can you imagine the media outrage if this was a rugby league story

[Brutus]

Maybe the NRL should just bite the bullet and implement a 3 strikes policy in the hope of avoiding Maitua-like hysteria.

Even then I still think the RL-bashing media would go to town.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,25551381-5018851,00.html

Twelve AFL players test positive to illicit drugs last year

May 28, 2009

Twelve AFL players tested positive for illicit drugs last year, according to figures released by the League on Thursday.

Of that group two players failed two tests, which puts them among a group of seven who are on two strikes.

AFL players are named and can be subpoenaed for up to 18 games if they test positive three times to illicit drugs during a four-year period.

AFL football operations general manager Adrian Anderson said the League was encouraged by the results, as for the first since the AFL introduced its policy, the number of positive tests had fallen one per cent.

Anderson said while it was disappointing some players had still tested positive, the low number of AFL payers who did so would compare favourably to most work places.

Testers collected 1,220 samples between February 2008 and February 2009, and every player was tested at least once.

AAP

 

[Parra]

In Sydney it would be big news if it was league.

It's a league town.

Brutus, you keep making aussie rules comparisons like it matters outside of Victoria & SA. It doesn't.

 

[Brutus]

In Sydney it would be big news if it was league.

It's a league town.

Brutus, you keep making aussie rules comparisons like it matters outside of Victoria & SA. It doesn't.

You just do not get it. In fact you will never get it.

Watch this story get buried in the Melbourne media as quick as Dunning can scoff down a 20 piece feed.

There will be no hysteria, no follow up in the MELBOURNE MEDIA.

However if this was a RL story can you imagine the Sydney media scavengers going to work. They would demand players be named and would probably go back into the past in the hope of digging up some skeletons. NRL DRUG CRISIS!!!!! I can see the front page headline now.

You know how it is. Or maybe you don't.

 

[Tonearm Terrorwrist]

And that dickhead Patrick something or other tried to tell us AFL players are people to respect.

 

[Paullyboy]

The problem is the general public who dont have a foot in either camp so to speak never hear these stories - they just hear the one's about rugby league. I've noticed it a lot in my current job, most of the others here like sport but have a perception rugby league is the only one that does anything wrong.

 

[gottabegood]

It clearly endorses the following.

1. That Rugby League is the greatest game on earth to attract and survive the sleazy tactics of those involved in all the other codes.

2. That Rugby League is currently controlled by those without the best interest of the game.

 

[hineyrulz]

The AwFuL will even find a way to turn this into a positive, 2 down from last year or something. But if it we're league the whole culture would be questioned and everyone would be saying our players are out of control.

 

[_Johnsy]

maybe its time to email Bourbon Becky

 

[Evenflow]

You just do not get it. In fact you will never get it.

Watch this story get buried in the Melbourne media as quick as Dunning can scoff down a 20 piece feed.

There will be no hysteria, no follow up in the MELBOURNE MEDIA.

However if this was a RL story can you imagine the Sydney media scavengers going to work. They would demand players be named and would probably go back into the past in the hope of digging up some skeletons. NRL DRUG CRISIS!!!!! I can see the front page headline now.

You know how it is. Or maybe you don't.

You only have to go to the Herald Sun website and the story is on the front page. I'll also guarantee it's in the print version tomorrow so i'll let you know if it is.

Was just watching the channel 10 news down here in Mexico and they've had a story on it as well. I'll also bet there's plenty on it on the AFL version of the footy show tonight as well. Again i'll let you know either way.

 

[Parra]

You just do not get it. In fact you will never get it.

Watch this story get buried in the Melbourne media as quick as Dunning can scoff down a 20 piece feed.

There will be no hysteria, no follow up in the MELBOURNE MEDIA.

However if this was a RL story can you imagine the Sydney media scavengers going to work. They would demand players be named and would probably go back into the past in the hope of digging up some skeletons. NRL DRUG CRISIS!!!!! I can see the front page headline now.

You know how it is. Or maybe you don't.

I know how it is in Sydney. I don't read the Melbourne papers.

Comparing them with the Sydney press, and the number of people who follow league, is ridiculous based on population numbers and circulation numbers alone.

League stories are big news because they sell papers in the biggest market in the country. No other sport comes close.

 

[El Diablo]

be interesting to see if Ten news mention it

they already promoted one AFL story about Western Sydney and another about the NSW Origin team training with AFL players

be surprised if that Victorian mentions this. if he does i'm sure he'll try and put some positive spin on it

 

[dimitri]

And that dickhead Patrick something or other tried to tell us AFL players are people to respect.

exactly!

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[El Diablo]

Ten made it look like Campese was talking about AFL when they showed him saying "they're exciting to watch"

i saw that earlier on FSN news maybe and he was talking about the Storm, not AFL

showed a rather long story on kids playing AFL in Western Sydney and where they can recruit from

no mention of the drugs

 

[Brutus]

You only have to go to the Herald Sun website and the story is on the front page. I'll also guarantee it's in the print version tomorrow so i'll let you know if it is.

.

Yeah I've had a look at the Herald Sun site. Of the the 3 main HEADLINE feature stories with pics I see an AFL-themed one - it's titled CHASER v SAM

The AFL Drugs story is there but it certainly isn't a headline act.

Reni Maitua drugs story v 12 AFL players testing positive

I wonder which story will attact more space in the print version of the papers.

One can only guess.

 

[Brutus]

Not one little mention of AFL drugs in the Sydney Ch 10 sports news tonight. Yet they had little trouble showing us a puff piece about Western Sydney AFL.

Now which is of these is more newsworthy?

 

[LeagueXIII]

Parra what the media does is connect all these stories together and create a perception of RL. Even though there is enough evidence out there suggesting AFL is as bad if not worse ask the average Joe in Sydney or Melbourne which is the worse code based on perception. In Melbourne the media constantly mentions league's trouble and poor image.

It affects sponsors, the image of the game, women who influence their children's decision making, creates a black cloud over a sport.

 

[Brutus]

The time the Melbourne media ever bother to report in league is when there's a negative.

They all seem to know about the Greg Birds, Cronulla sex scandals down there.

 

[Parra]

I know that.

I also don't want to see these issues swept under the carpet.

I understand that some people would like to see equal weight given to 'scandals' in all the footy codes. But in Sydney, it is not going to happen. You start putting five pages of AFL in the papers , and the front and back pages, and no-one will buy them.

League sells. Scandal sells. Put them together and you are booming.

Same story featuring players from soccer, rugby or aussie rules - who cares?

 

[Brutus]

I notice there are no reader comments attached to that AFL drug story (on ethe Herald Sun site) either yet the story above has 140 comments.

I wonder why...

 

[Brutus]

I know that.


League sells. Scandal sells. Put them together and you are booming.

And in Melbourne you'd think the same would apply.

But it never happens unless there's a monumental stuff up like Cousins. Yet even with the Cousins drama, AFL as a code and culture was never put under the spotlight.

We've seen what happens to people in the Melbourne media who bag the AFL. Just ask that Grant Thomas fella from a Melbourne radio station who dared speak up against the AFL. He is no longer in a job.