this is why
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...ory/6bfa6d0123a21ea191a77591fd4c1982#chapter4
MY FEUD WITH PETER STERLING
It’s impossible to be a sportswriter without upsetting people along the way.
I fell out with Sterlo back in 1983 at a time when I became aware Manly boss Ken Arthurson, armed with the biggest chequebook in the game, was trying to pinch the champion half-back from the Eels.
I spoke to Parramatta CEO Denis Fitzgerald and told him I was going to write the story.
He pleaded with me not to because he feared that if it went public, Arthurson would be even more determined to win the battle for his signature.
So we did a deal. Fitzgerald said he was confident Sterling would stay and promised me the story as soon as he signed.
I rang Fitzgerald two or three times a week. It was bordering on harassment.
Eventually he called to say Sterling had signed but said there was a problem.
His manager John White and Sterling wanted to keep the story for the next morning to publish it in the Daily Mirror, where he was being paid as a columnist.
I told Fitzgerald I was going to write it anyway. We had a deal and his obligations to the Mirror were not my problem.
So we broke the story on the back page of the Telegraph and did a double page inside. ‘Sterlo signs life deal after Arko’s secret bid to pinch him.’
At the time I can remember Sterlo was reading the morning sports news on 2WS.
He rang me on my home phone number at around 5.30am.
What he delivered was the best and most furious spray I’ve ever copped from a football player.
It cannot be repeated in this family newspaper.
We didn’t talk for more than a decade. Then we bumped into each other in Country Road at the Erina shopping centre and he challenged me outside for a fight.
Another time he slammed me on the Footy Show and I sued him.
Channel Nine settled out of court. I bought a little boat and called it STERLO.
