The Sydney rugby league media - a haven for personal agendas, hate and grudges

[Brutus]

Does this type of thing happen in any other media around Australia or are those of us living in Sydney the only sods that have to put up with it.

Has there been a tradition of this in Sydney or has it only been since Super League.

It seems this cycle will never be broken and we are stuck with it.

Although if a certain few were vanished from the media landscape we'd probably see the personal agenda-hate media vanish with it.

Who knows.

 

[bartman]

Would be interested to hear from Melbournians that follow AFL, whether their sport media is full of the same long-running personal grudges that end up influencing things under the surface and then playing out in public.

Super League was undoubted a very divisive time, given half of the sports media were on the payroll of one of the "sides" in what became a fight to control the game. The News Ltd involvement in the game could be the specific factor at play in how turgid our sports media in Sydney has become?

 

[Brutus]

Yeah, it would be interesting to hear from the Melbourne people on here about what goes on down there in their media.

 

[TheDalek079]

carney had to go to newcastle to get a tattoo because of the media always following him in Sydney.

 

[LESStar58]

You getting sniping between the Age and The Herald Sun down here but nothing as bad that I have seen in rugby league...

 

[Moffo]

Eddie mcchins has a grudge against everyone doesn't he?

 

[muzby]

i can't really advise if it's the same down here as it's 99% AFL in the papers, and i really don't follow that sport...

RL wise, you really don't hear much, except for a full page storm preview on friday & maybe a half page wrap up of the storm game after the match.. well, that's in the herald sun (DT equivalent..).. the age gives you bugger all RL..

 

[nrlnrl]

The approach is a sad reflection of society where people complain about not having enough time to do things, but are hooked on following other people's lives ( particularly negative aspects such as being drunk, being in trouble with the law or another favourite topic - their sex lives )

With modern technology, all people & especially those in the public eye ( sportsmen & women, tv stars, movie stars etc - I won't call them celebrities ) the goldfish bowl has become smaller, but people's appetites for dirt has increased.

 

[POPEYE]

Sydney is the only real city in Australia. Melbourne is basically a huge country town as is Brisbane.

Like all country towns there is a tendency to keep more to themselves than espouse the peculiarities of other population centres.

Sure, there are worldwide business houses based there but the general population see themselves as one entity in sport and in every other way.

It was fascinating to see how different Melbournians conduct themselves in my few trips there. Not in a bad way mind you. As a large congregation of people I much prefer Melbourne.

 

[undertaker]

Sydney is the only real city in Australia. Melbourne is basically a huge country town as is Brisbane.

Like all country towns there is a tendency to keep more to themselves than espouse the peculiarities of other population centres.

Sure, there are worldwide business houses based there but the general population see themselves as one entity in sport and in every other way.

It was fascinating to see how different Melbournians conduct themselves in my few trips there. Not in a bad way mind you. As a large congregation of people I much prefer Melbourne.

Having just come back from Melbourne last month, I concur 100% with your statement. Although Melbourne has a lot of people too, it feels more like a large countrytown rather than a city. The atmosphere is very different from Sydney. Infact,it felt like a larger version of Newcastle (which is where I was raised before moving to Sydney)

 

[Everlovin' Antichrist]

Melbourne sport's journos don't have time to get into spats with other journos. They're too busy trying to breathe whilst stuck up AFL's arse..

 

[sretsoor]

Society is like a piranha's with this stuff. Neglict the fact it's a non even but you put a big bold headline and some pictures and the frenzy begins. Takes the attention away from there own misery for a breif moment irrespective the damage it causes.

Will only ever stop when poeple actually read it for what it is - or not read it at all. Remember if the story doesnt sell, they will just move on to the next thing that will. Unfortuantely it's a gold mine at the moment so it will continue.

 

[Pierced Soul]

heard a bit of Greg Alexander on the radio last night and he said these feuds between rugby league media have been going on for a long time, its not a new thing jsut soemthing which occurs in league (i too would be interested whetehr this shit happens in other codes)

 

[juro]

On the rare occasions that I watch the nine news, I am staggered by what they consider to be important. At least half the news is pure tabloid garbage. How can we expect a better standard of journalism from papers like the daily telegraph?

 

[El Diablo]

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-sport-that-transcends-race-class...and-humility/

The difference between the scandals in the AFL and NRL often reflects the difference in style between Melbourne and Sydney. In Victoria scandals are downplayed, in Sydney they are amplified. Victorians rally around the AFL for the good of the game, and argue that player scandals shouldn’t detract from what’s happening on the park. In Sydney the games can often seem secondary to the scandals as the media and public throw themselves into discussion over whether league can ever recover from the latest player drama or administrative c**k-up.

 

[Hooch]

AFL is an establishment game in Melbourne and is protected species even when they're f**king schoolgirls, the NRL tries hard but at heart its the bogans game and is treated as such.

 

[Canard]

Plenty of Bogans associated with AFL just move to Melbourne and you will find out.

AFL press coverage is something to be admired.

They have guys, not employed by the AFL in both the Herald Sun and on SEN (Sports Radio) who actively promote and DEFEND the game against people complaining about umpires, players behavouir etc.

There is a letter Column in the Saturday Herald which has guys write in and say, the umpire got it wrong on Fri night, and the Herald journo actually defends the decisions etc. Same situation happens on talkback on SEN.

Can you IMAGINE either the Age (which is half decent) or the TeleCouriermail doing this?

 

[Connie Kreski]

I wouldn't hold up the Melbourne press as a shining becaon of objectivity, and as others have pointed out, when it comes to sport at least it has to be the most insular large city in the world.

But I've never read anything in the Melbourne press as pathetic as the point-scoring and agenda-running you get from Rothfield et al. And Gould's alarmist drivel about AFL last week was just chidlish and strategic - for Gus.

And then there's the gotcha! mentality, which is also strong down south. Off-field stuff gets extrapolated into sweeping statements about culture, irrelevant spats and misdemeanours get blown up as if they're child murder. But in Sydney it has a sense of a rabid desire to drag the quality if debate or analysis down. One thing you can say about Melbourne's parochialism, they are all invested in seeing their code prosper. At its worst it's tiresome lies. But at its best it means the relationships between league, club, public and press are constructive.

What depresses me isn't any of that though. It's just how dumb League coverage is in our papers. You'd swear practically everbody who writes on the game didn't finish year ten...or is still fifteen.

 

[Knightmare]

Sydney is the only real city in Australia. Melbourne is basically a huge country town as is Brisbane.

Like all country towns there is a tendency to keep more to themselves than espouse the peculiarities of other population centres.

Sure, there are worldwide business houses based there but the general population see themselves as one entity in sport and in every other way.

It was fascinating to see how different Melbournians conduct themselves in my few trips there. Not in a bad way mind you. As a large congregation of people I much prefer Melbourne.

Interesting, but I have to say I disagree. From my travels, Melbourne has the feel of a Scandanavian or European town (Copenhagen, Stockholm, Vienna etc.) Sydney is more like an American city (probably NYC or Chicago) while Brisbane is like Denver, Kansas City or one of those smaller American capitals. I can imagine finding Canberra in a small country like Belgium or Luxembourg, while Perth feels like being in another country where the people speak with an Australian accent. I can't work out what part of the world it feels like, though.

In regards to the Sydney/ Melbourne thing, Melbourne is basically the CBD and then residential suburbs surrounding it. Sydney has the CBD then a a whole lot of regions and mini CBD's (North Sydney, Chatswood, Hurstville, Bankstown, Ryde, Parramatta, Penrith) surrounding it, which is probably what gives Melbourne and even Brisbane more a feeling of unity, even though Brisbane is more spread out than Sydney.

 

[Perth Red]

we only have one newspaper in perth so not much chance! Generally i would say the AFL covg (and there is alot of it!) is 90% positive and 10% negative of what I have seen. of course it tends to have a WA bias as you would expect but even issues you think they would be blowing up about, like the two Perth clubs subsidising the failing Melbourne clubs through ticket levies, generally gets little negative press.

On the above I liken Perth to Singapore, Hong Kong or Shanghai in many ways. Kind of out there on its own doing its own thing and not worrying about what the rest of the world is getting up to.