A young man gets in trouble – so what? – a certain percentage of young men always do, whether they are footy players, students or bricklayers. Most will learn from the experience of demotion, suspension or even police action, and go on to lead fine, upstanding lives. But the media (particularly the Sydney media) will not believe that any of these young men should be given a fair go or a chance to reform. Its all for the sake of the dollar. The journalists have no interest in performing a public service, just using scandal to sell their product.

Let me add that I am not an NRL supporter, but the bias against NRL is obvious

There’s an interesting article on Craig Gower in the Sun-Herald today. Gower’s behaviour was far worse than that of most players, and he seemed incapable of reform while he was in Sydney – he just lurched from one scandal to the next. Yet, once he got away from the Sydney media he was able to turn his life around. And the difference? Lack of media attention in France gave him the breathing space to sort himself out.

So when a AFL player commits an atrocity and it doesn’t appear in the Sydney media or it is treated very low key, then it gets up NRL supporters noses as the game of rugby league is treated differently. We are constantly told that AFL & RU are better than us but when the misdemeanours happen in those codes, Ch 7 and 10 in particulalr go missing.

this is exactly what I have been saying all along…

I KNOW IT (HK) WAS IN THE PAPER MATE…BUT ONLY A LITTLE BIT. YOU’RE THE ONE SAYING IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN BIGGER NEWS WHILE I SAY A LITTLE SPLASH IS ALL IT NEEDS BECAUSE IT REALLY IS’NT THAT BIGGER NEWS IN AUSTRALIA. YOU SUGGEST ABOVE THAT IT SHOULD EB ON A LEVEL WITH THE ROOSTERS AND TIGERS PLAYER ISSUES…WHICH IS BS.

I DONT REALLY CARE WHEN EXACTLY YOU POST WAS BUDDY, IT WAS CLOSE TO THE FUNERAL AND IN POOR TASTE.

I THINK ITS QUIET TIME FOR YOU..YOU REALLY ARE MAKING AN ASS OF YOURSELF.

Redb

Your ‘supposed’ national game remark reminds me of the ‘supposed’ national TV news programs coming out of Sydney in the morning and at other times. Ch 10 may simply be out of touch with what is happening outside of Sydney, not that would be unusual.

NRL player incidents do not get that much airplay in Melbourne beyond a news report as I keep saying it is the reverse with AFL players in Melbourne media. NRL players have similiar issues with the Sydney press.

It really is that simple.

Here’s an example: How much have you heard about Nathan Bock and the Adelaide crows this week. Did they show the footage of the press conference yesterday with Bock and the Crows CEO on any Sydney TV station evening news? I bet the answer is no. In Adelaide his retunr is big news, in Melbourne it featured on news broadcasts. Fox Sports News probably covered it becuase they are 24 hours and need the content.

The fish bowl exists in each city dependning on the number one sport and the media just play to their audience.

Redb

Redb

Read my comments re the tragedy of the Mackay incident to RedB.It is aimed at mgt repeat mgt for heaven sake.I lost a cousin at 19 years of age in a traffic accident,I understand the effects on family and friends in such incidents.People were asking questions on the day of his funeral.My comments came the day after the funeral BTW.
I therefore find it extremely offensive for you to suggest I am “happy” to mention the MacKay incident.

If the chicken incident was not directed at me,so be it.I am telling you in a general statement that it was offensive not from my viewpoint but my daughters’ and apparently women. Your views anyway differ on that subject with obviously a lot of women.Each to his own moral viewpoint or trying to rationalise it.

The story about the 4th 5th Z grade Fijian player involved in a public Hong Kong brawl,which involved a number of people,seemed fit to make it in a small column in the Sun Herald.If no one is remotely interested ,then they are in fact dumbasses for bringing it to light.Why did the Sun Herald bother to print it? Wouldn’t be due to the fact it was in the union section of the paper and involved a union (small though it was)event.Which seems to have some modicum of interest to union followers.
If it had not appeared i wouldn’t be still banging my head against a brick wall with you.

If you think that the Sydney media(print and electronic) reports info that only Australians are either interested in remotely or extremely ,I am not here.
You try to rationalise your argument by making completely ignorant assumptions about me,as to my apparently narrow media view.
Regularly watching CNN/ BBC/NBC/ABC/Sky UK/Fox/CBS gives me a fair coverage of what is going on ,added to a number of overseas trips I have made( business/pleasure/football tour).Sorry champ,but you are grasping at straws with that one.
My view on rl players has never waivered on the matter of anti social activities or visiting nightclubs mid season in the wee hours ,they pay with the resulting publicity.I have no timefor idiots. Where you get the “poor ‘treatment comment from ,when I am talking balance amazes me.
High moral ground LOL.I am hardly in a postion to “cast the first stone”.

Redb

Then why do you complain about the treatment dished out to NRL players in Sydney. It is similiar to AFL players in Melbourne, I dont think you have a justifiable premise to suggest that NRL players are singled out, as the highest profile sports players in Sydney it’s obvious what would happen when they stuff up.

Redb

Using the Mackay incident the way you suggested I did,is pure and utter crap and offensive to me.The young guy who tragically died was a former junior Rooster and his father a Rooster great.
.I am aiming wholely at the team’s mgt.A couple of others in the media have done likewise such as the quote above.

“Nor did I did I state that rl players are not responsible for anti social behaviour.
Please mate you have not convinced me one iota.”

I never said you did, and wasn’t trying to convince you otherwise.

“It appears based on your logic, the media should not report overseas sport such as union/rl/or soccer,as it has(cynically) nothing to do with the Australian sports reading public.Or is it only publish the results(good) not the bad.Anti social activities by players and supporters in a world which has shrunk due to communications should not be exempt.”

I didn’t say that at all. All I am saying is its only natural that a Fijian bloke at an Amateur event in HK playing a cut down version of our 4th most popular code doesnt get much air time in Australia – thats all….nothing more nothing less.
In the general news how many reports do you see about Fijian blokes getting in trouble in Asian countries? I cant remember ever seeing one because it doesnt matter to 99% of the Australian population…GET IT? its not a private school union media cover up, its just not big news. For you to draw some link between it and and the roosters and tigers players ignoring club policy amazes me FULLSTOP.

The chicken comment was more of a general statement than directed at you… and my point re global warming etc is pretty simple but given you find it hard I will say it this way.. don’t we have more important things to worry about? there is no way that chicken ‘scandal’ should have been such a big deal.

As Red hints at above, you clearly read a small section of press and form you irrational world wide opinion based on what little you see/read. Google the Fijian blokes name and you’ll see its big press where it matters…in Fiji.

And yes, whats even more strange/sad, is that you are fine to get on your soap box and take the moral high ground re: dead chickens, some bloke getting in a fight in HK and the poor treatment of the RL players by the press. Yet you are happy to use McKays death, on the day of his funeral as ammo on a sports banter site. poor form buddy.

Your problem is you only see things from a Sydney perspective. Just because the North Melb chicken video did not get wide play in Sydney does not mean anything to the rest of Australia. There was that much coverage on it by both Melb papers (front and back page) over several days, radio and TV (Footy Show) I like many others were throughly sick of it.

To even suggest the story was shoved under the rug is ignorant, the opposite was the case. AFL players are hounded by the media in Melbourne. I seem to remember the Sydney press had a field day on Ben Cousins never missing an opportunity to label each headline with “fallen AFL star”.

That your trying to compare the tradegy of Mackay for a cheap comparison is a disgrace. The NRL gets a lot of free press courtesy of its owners but it swings both ways as far good and bad news stories they are trying to sell newspapers.

Redb

BTW the recent tragedy involving a Brumbies player.The union authorities and the media have not queried why players were at a nightclub(regardless of their good behaviour) at 4-ooam despite it being the end of the Sth African section.The comp is still in progress.If it had been an NRL team,the media would have queried why the team’s mgt had players out at that time.
I thought we were discussing sport not the GFC. or g;lobal warming.

Crosscoder – I actually agree that RL gets a tougher wrap than RU, but I think we can all agree that its petty much self inflicted.

My point to you was you cant use the HK incident as ammo in this debate as its not even remotely anything to do with the Australian sports reading public – other than the small splash it made on a few publications.

And dont get me started on the chicken…Worst economy since the 20′s, Global Warming but half the country is more worried about a couple of bloke making a video of a rubber rooster bonking one of ingham’s best.

Andrew’s article hit the correct tone.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/character-building-a-worthy-exercise/2009/04/10/1239223048244.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

NRL players more so than most, as Finch notes, have themselves to blame. But are they the only ones to blame? Players from a rival code – on an officially sanctioned night on the tiles – were leaving a nightclub in South Africa at 4am when tragedy struck Shawn Mackay, who subsequently died from the injuries he received when he was hit by a security car on the streets of Durban. The fulminatory organs of the press and television went silent on this one. Imagine the hue and cry had he been an NRL player?

Melbourne would have stopped for a fallen AFL player, its citizens wearing even more black than usual. A cricketer would have been in line for a state funeral.

Apparently, they are beyond reproach. But is their culture any better than that of a rugby league club? Players at North Melbourne made a video of a club mascot fornicating with a dead chicken. Sure, the players involved copped a paltry fine but, doubtless, it will be laughed off within the change room as a tasteless joke gone wrong.

Meanwhile, according to Christian Ryan’s powerful biography of Kim Hughes, Golden Boy, the former Australian captain’s party trick was to piss on teammates in the shower.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

Good on him for saying it.

The AFL hierarchy rarely gets inovolved in discussing problems in other codes.

However, on Offsiders the other day, Hawthorn president (and perennial loud mouth), Jeff Kennett, did make comments about the NRL that were inaccurate and injudicious.

But that’s the thing about ex-Politicians – you just can’t shut them up!!

I dont ever recall AD suggesting the AFL does not have off-field problems, ever. The AFL has had plenty and is usually pretty quiet when the NRL gets into strife becuase it knows it is only needs 1 dumb player out of 660 to be in the same boat.

The NRL tends to get caught in alledged rape cases on a regular basis (there have been a few in the AFL in the past 3-5 years) thus earns it reputation a little more. You are also dealing with a Sydney media known to spend much more time in the gutter and the NRl is closer to home.

Most of the posters pleading as to why the AFL does not get the same treatment simply aren;t looking in the Melbourne papers, this latest chicken scandal is all over them. Bit of a joke really, yes its offensive to some, but its being done to death. boys will be boys.

Anyone know any good chicken jokes? Nandos already have a radio Ad suggesting North Melbourne treat chickens better like they do.

Redb