Why the AFL is full of contradictions

As soon as Brendan Fevola’s dynamic interview with Craig Hutchison came to an end on Thursday night during The Footy Show, the likes of Sam Newman and Garry Lyon berated the ex-football superstar, insinuating that he is a bad role model and disgraceful.

Which isn’t too far off the mark.

However The Footy Show, or perhaps the football world, need to look at the grand scheme of things.

Lyon, after seeing Fevola’s second interview, stated that to him Fevola had presented nothing but a “string of contradictions.”

But I wonder if Lyon, Newman or anyone from the panel or the football society, for that matter, noticed the irony that followed the heated debate.

The very first ad break after the argument included a TAB Sportsbet commercial, which was endorsed by none other than The Footy Show’s Shane Crawford.

Does nobody else see the problem with this?

Yes, Fevola has been a bad role model by making bad choices and ruining his second, third and even fourth chances, but he’s not out there promoting or encouraging anyone to join him.

What we have with Crawford on a gambling commercial is something that the audience dismisses without thought or knowledge of what is happening.

For instance, if a father and son saw this ad, who would it have been more likely to affect?

The father would already know about gambling, but the child on the other hand, and in particular if they were lovers of football as many Australian boys are, would he not think that gambling was a good idea?

That it’s something he should partake in when he gets the chance?

I’m not here to have a go at Crawford, though, he has been a tremendous ambassador for the game during his time, but to me that makes his presence in this ad all the more appealing to children.

And that’s just the difference, whilst Fevola is not doing himself any favours, he is in no way promoting gambling or alcohol.

Crawford was not alone on Thursday night in terms of inappropriate advertising. The Footy Show introduced their new attraction, which is known as the Carlton Draught wheel. With Carlton Draught advertisements and Billy Brownless claiming how good the beer tastes, what kind of impression is this supposed to leave on kids and in particular young teenagers?

More importantly, how can Lyon or Newman have the nerve to barrage Fevola with criticism when he is facing personal demons and not trying to force the product onto others?

They did not take much notice of Fevola’s admittance to a suicide attempt, the panel just bypassed the idea of it and dismissed it and decided to discuss how stupid he is.

Newman was most adamant of Fevola being stupid rather than mentally affected by his addiction, claiming that Fevola should have no worries in his world.

But how can Newman or anyone else on the panel know what is really happening in his life, that could be causing depression or relapses? Truth is they don’t; the heart of the problem is that the issue is still being viewed as a football problem.

Campbell Brown, the newly recruited Gold Coast player who was a guest on the show, summed up the situation perfectly from the perspective of the player. Brown stated, “This isn’t about football; it’s about Brendan.”

Everyone will, he continued, “offer their opinion, but they’ve got no idea what they’re talking about because they don’t know the bloke and don’t know what he’s going through.”

“I think the media pressure that’s on him is half the problem,” Brown said.

Brown here is spot on. Instead of giving Fevola space they are only making it harder for him to overcome his personal issues; the media is only reporting on sports stars when they know people will talk.

Fevola is not helping himself by giving them something to talk about, but the media does not need to take everything out of proportion like the Crown Casino incident on Thursday.

Journalists had posted or printed articles long before they could hear what Fevola had to say they made unfair assumptions.

A prime example of unfair comments made about football players is through Peter Costello, who only around a month ago said that parents should ‘quake with fear’ over the idea of players visiting schools.

His theory was that “footballers are not chosen for their moral principles … so what are the clubs thinking when they send them to schools to give guidance on life skills?”

What Costello failed to see is that the public do not love athletes due to their moral principles, but rather because they follow their dreams.

They are living the life that many of us wish we were.

They took a shot at their dream and made it, which is what life is about, isn’t it?

Even though players like Fevola and in recent times Wayne Carey, Ben Cousins, Matthew Stokes and Justin Charles among others have allowed comments such as Costello’s to seem relevant, the good that players do off the field is not highlighted enough.

Just a few days ago ten Port Adelaide players shaved their heads and raised $10,000 for the “World’s Greatest Shave”. There has been many more dollars raised by the AFL Players Association in years gone by.

The AFLPA in the past nine years has donated $500,000 to a variety of charities, all the money was raised by players.

During the bushfire appeal, $1.2 million was raised by the football family.

As well as this, Jim Stynes, Michael Long and David Wirrpanda to name a few have played big roles in raising money for charities.

So perhaps the media should stop concentrating specifically on the bad behaviour of very few of the players and let the general public know that off the field the warriors of our game do contribute to the community in a big way.

Also it would be nice if some football personalities like The Footy Show’s panel helped support some players like Fevola who are facing personal demons, instead of trashing them, especially when they end up contradicting themselves by advertising alcohol and having a panelist promoting gambling.

The inability of the football community to support each other as a whole, and send the right message to the community at times, is only giving journalists and the media a-like ammo to claim the game is being put into disrepute.