For a player who’s never played a game of senior AFL footy, North Melbourne rookie Majak Daw sure gets a lot of attention.
He’s the first Sudanese-born player listed by an AFL club, so you can understand there’s some public interest there.
But does he warrant the kind of attention the Herald Sun gave him today?
The paper’s front page had a picture of a shirtless Daw next to a headline that read: “A former teammate’s ex, partying, an unpaid debt … what went wrong with footy’s young gun.”
The associated story mentions that he owes a teammate a sum of money below $1000 and also had a relationship with the ex-girlfriend of a former teammate, issues which may or may not be causing angst among fellow players (the Herald Sun weren’t able to confirm they were).
So where did all this come from? Why did the nation’s most popular paper give all this attention to a rookie who’s yet to play a game?
Well, it all started when Daw had a night on the town instead of doing rehab on an injured knee at home. Later, coach Brad Scott confronted him about it and he lied, saying he wasn’t at a nightclub that night.
So Scott finds out the truth and Daw gets suspended for his lie. North Melbourne then release a press release stating he’s been suspended but refuse to reveal why.
That’s when things started to get out of hand. The media, unhappy about not being given the reason for the suspension, started to dig around (which was fine, that is their job). When they dug, though, they found more than they bargained for, and that’s how we got today’s front page.
Make no mistake, the story today was a beat-up. Do we really care who Daw is seeing or if he has a minor debt with a teammate? At the very least, do we care enough for this stuff to be on the front page?
No, we don’t. But it’s worth noting whether we care or not was not the Herald Sun’s justification.
Mark Robinson had a comment piece in the paper today which blamed North Melbourne for all the attention on Daw.
“A wordy press release that Majak Daw had been suspended, on which the club wouldn’t elaborate, made this bigger than it should’ve been,” he wrote.
“And it is North’s fault. […] The ‘we’re not telling but he’s done something wrong’ stance by the club set the wolves hunting.”
Still, many readers weren’t happy. Among them was another high-profile athlete, Andrew Bogut, who took to Twitter with his disappointment.
In response, Herald Sun journo Jon Ralph tweeted: “It’s never the fault of the player (lying), or club (butchered press release). It’s always the tabloid media!!!”
Ultimately, Ralph is right. All three parties must share the blame.
Daw shouldn’t have been out partying when he should’ve been at home doing rehab. He also shouldn’t have lied about it.
North, in hindsight, should’ve stated that lying to the coach was the reason for the suspension. Ironically, they were probably trying to protect their young player from the media by not saying anything and in an ideal world, that would work out. But they let their player down by not taking a more realistic approach.
The media, meanwhile, need to learn that while a club staying quiet does give you permission to dig a little deeper, it doesn’t mean you have permission to publish everything you find – especially when you publish information (the debt, the girlfriend) entirely unrelated to the story in question (Daw being suspended).
As for putting it on the front page, well, surely there’s more important things that belong there.
caitlin
Guest
I feel like Australian racism is Majak Daw overshadowing Majak Daw's outstanding performance. I'm a huge fan of him, despite not being a North Melbourne Fan, and think there should be more emphasis on his performance and on his fans. We all have players that we aren't fans of, but because of their colour and race would just be petty. Those few that are displaying such disgusting behaviour need to be educated, in a modern day main stream education. Where there are no "majority" cultures anymore. If they heard him speak on the phone they would have no idea of his nationality and would probably think he was a delightful "mate". If colour is such such a problem on the football field... listen to it on AM radio
Clayts
Guest
The Daw you mean?
ManInBlack
Guest
No funny. Carey lost captaincy and got kicked out of the club. So you're off the mark there anyway. In this instance, hooking up with the ex of a former player has never been cited by anyone involved at the club as an issue related to this suspension or as causing any concern at the club. Part of the furore over this story is that irrelevant/unrelated 'facts' have been reported - to try to sensationalise??
DANIEL
Guest
Its interesting that North now suspends players for hooking up with team mates girlfriends, at one stage, doing this sort of thing got you the captaincy, or at the very least make it in to the leadership group
The Cattery
Roar Guru
Mario Bortolotto - heh, heh - I had to re-read that to get it!!
stabpass
Guest
Would be better if he was the new Mario Bortolotto !!. Mark and goal of the year.
King Robbo
Guest
Would be great if he was the new Mario Balotelli. Sport needs characters.
amazonfan
Guest
"Jon Ralph tweeted: “It’s never the fault of the player (lying), or club (butchered press release). It’s always the tabloid media!!!”" Actually, Jon, it IS the fault of the tabloid media. Nobody forced you to run with the story. That you did so was entirely your own decision, and that it isn't news and yet you still ran with it; well, you deserve all the blame. As for Robinson: “A wordy press release that Majak Daw had been suspended, on which the club wouldn’t elaborate, made this bigger than it should’ve been,” he wrote. “And it is North’s fault. […] The ‘we’re not telling but he’s done something wrong’ stance by the club set the wolves hunting.” The only mistake North made was issuing a press release in the first place. They should have just kept it in house, as they have no obligation to inform the media of anything. By writing a story about a non-news item, Robinson made it bigger than it is. He should at least have the decency to take responsibility. But then, we're talking about Mark Robinson here, so I can't say I'm surprised.
amazonfan
Guest
Probably not, however he's not much of a target.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
I don't disagree with anything you've said, and when you see this bloke moving around, at 195 cm, and see his physique, it's natural for anyone involved in footy to think to themselves: are there more of these sorts of blokes from where he came? And the obvious answer is a resounding yes.
The_Wookie
Roar Guru
Theres actually plenty of bad stuff written about AFL players and clubs - particularly at the start of last year with the St Kilda shenangians. The year before that it was the Carlton booze cruise thing. Over the years we've had trial by media in the Fevola, Lovett Murray, Didak, Shaw,and Carey issues. Ablett comes up every time theres a hall of fame nomination, there was the richard pratt and his carlton association thing. Players beating up other players. The Cousins saga, Port and Adelaide players getting into fights, the Edwards/Mcleod fallout. North and Ports financial woes. Scandals at GWS.Any number of editorials and opinion pieces on the poor culture and habits of the AFL footballer. Its all there for the reading. Theres two major newspapers that cover the AFL in minute detail in melbourne. Plus The West australian and Advertiser in Perth and Adelaide. If you arent seeing bad stuff along with the good then you have some serious comprehension issues.
Rough Conduct
Guest
Haha, the AFL volunteer PR officers move in swiftly to shut down any dissidence.
Australian Rules
Guest
That's undoubtedly true Titus. He plays in the 2nd tier competition (VFL) and gets more media than any other player in that comp. The reason is the African factor.
Daniels
Guest
Think you are understating Majak Daws reputation a little, he is a 20 year old who was on the cusp of making the senior team. I admit having such a story on the front is taking it out of proportion (and i am going to just say. doing what he did would of seen him make the leadership group at north melbourne a few years ago).
ManInBlack
Guest
He's not actually the only player of African heritage, currently Fremantle has Tendai Mzungu (of East African descent) and Gold Coast has Joel Wilkinson (Nigerian descent), and there may be others but that's beside the point. I think these guys are mostly Australian born. Majak Daw though is important as a 'new arrival', and the Sudanese demographic has had some negative publicity - so, is Daw more important for the AFL? or more important for multi-culturalism and as a potential role model for the Sudanese community? I've gained the impression is more of the latter than the former. For the AFL though - his particular brand of build and athleticism is very alluring. He hasn't yet reached the top level, but, there have been numerous sensational glimpses from his time in the VFL. He's still got a bit to do to warrant a game and that's the key here - he's a young kid from a relatively unique background (in the AFL environment) and he has big enough challenges ahead without this sort of distraction. And that was pretty well why the invitation to meet with the Queen was answered with a "Thanks, but no thanks".
King of the Gorgonites
Roar Guru
???
Gucci
Guest
I love it. Any story is better than no story, and I love reading trashing stories published by trashy papers. And there's nothing better than seeing a popular figure go down, much like the St Kilda saga last year. I can't be the only one like this out there can I?
Titus
Guest
We see in Football, based on the players at the top level, that Footballers of African heritage are exciting, skillful, flamboyant players, see Drogba, Balotelli, Adebayor etc and this has a run on affect to any footballer of African heritage. Everyone is quick to place unrealistic expectations on a player because they are black, often before they have ever accomplished anything. You need look no further than players like Kofi Danning and Bernie Ibisi. I have no idea who this guy is or how good he is but I would imagine that a similar thing is happening here but possiblymagnified as he is the only player of African heritage playing AFL/top level, and some people might be hoping this could be the beginning of the African players bringing the same excitement to AFL that they do to Football.
Jeff Dowsing
Roar Pro
Reality is, at this time of year the actual worthwhile AFL news happening only fills about 20% of the football editorial space available. So we get boring tripe like 'x player is training really well and is set for a big year' and a big pretty picture with their shirt off. I wouldn't wipe my ar$e with the Herald Sun - I'm surprised Heath Shaw & Alan Didak weren't referenced somewhere, somehow. But by the same token, surely Arocca & Brayshaw have been around AFL clubland long enough, and the media, to know what would happen next after such an ambiguous release. They could have just kept it all inhouse and no one would know. A cynic might suggest it was a ploy to get attention... any attention. They should have just got a straight shooter like Brad Scott to handle it from the start.
Redb
Roar Guru
Sounds a bit like he's suffering from victim psychosis.