Wests Tigers skipper Robbie Farah has received a harsh lesson in the use and abuse of the media, and ended up needing professional help and being at loggerheads with the man who is supposed to help him through tough times club boss Grant Mayer.
Frankly, both coach Mick Potter and team captain Farah would be justified in feeling betrayed and entitled to ask why Mayer is still rolling into work, collecting a pay cheque. If Farah chose to, he could help jettison Mayer from his position.
Then there are the questionable actions of Gorden Tallis, rugby leagues most forthright critic. In this columns opinion, Tallis was nearly honourable compared to what Farahs own club did.
Lets start with Tallis. What he did was wrong from a journalists point of view. But Tallis will always be able to say that he doesnt operate under the rules of a journalist.
Advertisement
He is a hired gun with contracts and says the only thing he is interested in is the truth. Thats how Ive always found Tallis. But he needs to consider two important points:
1. How would he feel if a player such as Farah flipped on him and started blurting out private conversations? How would that affect him professionally and personally? Tallis and I had an off-the-record chat this week and thats how it will remain at least from my end but there wont be too many NRL players who will stop for a chin wag with Gorden. But you know what? He may not care.
2. The whole basis of Tallis attack on Farah, and what his many supporters have brought up, is that Gorden was cornered. It was being alleged that Tallis was undermining Potter as coach. Tallis says he only dumped Farah in it because he was being questioned about the source of his story. But what has been ignored is that Tallis started his attack on Farah long before he was cornered. He dumped Farahs name out there on Triple M on Friday night.
There was no need for him to do it ... but given he is a man of truth, he went ahead. This started off a chain reaction which left Farah in a state that he has described to mates as a shattered mess. It was so bad that on Tuesday Farah went missing. His family, friends and agent could not reach him and were extremely concerned for his well-being. Farah needed professional help and was advised he should not be at training on Wednesday. This was not up for negotiation; it was medical advice.
Now Tallis has promised he has finished defending his comments, which were based on a 15-month-old conversation which Farah says he cant remember, at least not with the same clarity as Tallis can.
Im certain Tallis is not making up that Farah was disgruntled. Most players would be when their team has lost a stack of games and a star player in this instance, Benji Marshall is being squeezed out.
What I find hard to swallow is that Tallis revelation was made to appear relevant to what is going on at the Tigers now, when the comments were made more than a year ago.
As Tallis comments were gaining momentum on Friday night, a fuming Farah contacted his boss, Mayer. He made a strong request for Mayer to come out and back him and the other players in the media. Mayer did nothing. But that was as a blessing compared to what was about to be delivered.
On Saturday Farah came out in praise of the embattled Potter in an all-in media conference. Five minutes into the six-minute media conference, Farah heaped praise on the coach.
Those comments were edited out before Farah was quoted on the Tigers website. I learned about it and phoned the Tigers media department, speaking with their two most senior operators. I was told the comments were left out due to time restrictions and because Farah had already made reference to how well Potter was going earlier in the media conference. He was repeating himself, was the line. That is incorrect. I then pressed them about Mayers involvement.
They protected their boss and said he had nothing to do with it. Its as if Mayer has expanded his portfolio of CEO to include a role as head of the Tigers Thought Police. It seems he wanted to ensure some of the comments were not there.
Worse than that, he privately praised Farah for the comments he made in the media conference until he began commending Potter.
Mayer then told the captain of the club those comments would never be seen on the clubs website. Whats worse is those comments from Mayer suggest he did not want the captain of his club to be seen to be praising the coach. It does not get much worse than that for a club boss.
This backs up other information that the Tigers players have been told not to come out in strong support of the coach. And it is in this atmosphere that Farah is getting the blame as the architect of Potters demise.
It was not Farah who leaked a story to News Ltd that Potter was going to be sacked. Farah and the players know who it was. So does this columnist.
What also has not received enough exposure is that Farah told Mayer he did not want to be part of the Brian Smith review into Potter for this exact reason: that it would be seen as a player-led sacking.
Farah has told Potter he should know the review was put in place as a means to exit him from the club. The Tigers captain was the final person Smith talked to because he was away with the Origin side.
When it came time to talk to Smith, Farah made the point that he was reluctant and that this should be a management issue.
Anything Farah contributed had already been covered off and on by all of those who had talked before him.
The clubs manoeuvring suggests it has a ready-made replacement for Potter. The man Mayer had been grooming is David Kidwell, one of Potters assistants.
There has been speculation that Potters other assistant, Todd Payten, was a candidate but he has been told to look elsewhere for a job.
Read more:
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/robbie-...mick-potter-20140802-zzuqq.html#ixzz39HyBkm9w
Interesting article
