Do we really need press conferences?

Are you going to sit there and tell me you never enjoyed those wonderful whining press conferences from Eddie Jones? I personally enjoyed Bennetts's last conference - he answered the questions with just the right amount of information i.e. they got exactly what they deserved. My own particular favourite is our commenators desire to pop a mike in the face of one of our athletes - preferably as they have just fallen across the finish line of a marathon- and ask 'what does it feel like' to lose? Or the famous studio interviews with our athletes at Olympic Games when some great event is happening live e.g. the 1500 metres at Seoul.Which we all missed watching live(probably one of the greatest fields in history) because our TV was intent on interviewing one our team whom we can't remember for some event they shoul;d never have competed in! We have some of the poorest sport journos in the world and we have only ourselves to blame. Coaches press conferences - use your time more productively.

If coaches were allowed to offer their frank opinions of referrees ,then a press conference would be more lively and interesting than the game itself. T he trouble is Spiro, many TV journalists are no such thing really .It must irk men like Bennett to have to pander to certain journalists that ask contrived questions , just for the sake of asking them , when he knows they are not at all interested in his opinion , but rather their real agenda is hoping an emotionally drained man, will make a slip of the tongue that can be reported as a sensational incident..

This video of Wayne Bennett having words extracted from his mouth as if they were teeth is a classic example of the uselessness of press conferences. I am a long time, veteran perhaps, writers on sports. I have never been to a press conference that has yielded anything I could use in a column. The reason for this is two-fold: first, coaches arev reluctant to say anything interesting or useful that might be used against them, or their team: second, any journalist who has worked out an interesting angle on a match is NOT going to give it away by asking a question on it in front of his competitors. What you do is go up to the coach AFTER the press conference and ask him quietly for a response. Or better have the courage to write your opinion without having it confirmed by the coach. I sometimes go to press conferences for colour incidents. At the press conference after England played NZ at Twickenham some years ago, in a match that Jonah Lomu had scored the winning try with a typically bullocking run, there was an enormous commotion from outside the media room. Clive Woodward looked up and remarked: 'That's Jonah getting out of the showers.' A great line that some of us used in our match reports. But in general I won't go because I don't want to sit through the ordeal that the journalists had to go through with Wayne Bennett, which is typical of most press conferences in most sports. Phil Kearns, who was angry that I'd mentioned his nickname 'Lightning' (because lightning never strikes twice) in connection with his lineout throwing, once came up to me and complained that I never went to press conferences. My reply flummoxed him. 'I don't rate myself with Bill O'Reilly,' I said, 'but I go by his response when asked the same question. The great man said this: "They pay me to write what I think, not what Allan Border thinks."' Quite right. Press conferences are for journalists who can't work out what happened by themselves. The coaches are right not to play this game for these journalists.

That's great viewing - still waters run deep...