A cadet journalist from an unnamed metropolitan daily newspaper has been fired after repeated breaches of the media corporation’s style guide relating to rugby league reporting.
Gloria Lewis, a 20-year-old Perth-born, Sydney-based Melbourne Storm fan, was ordered to remove her belongings from the dingy cubicle she shared with four other cub reporters.
She was escorted out of the building into near-cyclonic conditions on Monday night after turning in an opinion piece described by her supervisor as “even-handed, bordering on positive and completely inappropriate for our rapidly decreasing readership”.
The supervisor, who spoke to us on the condition he remained anonymous and stressed that he hadn’t watched a game of rugby league since being moved to the sports desk from the social pages in 1995, said he first noticed trouble-making signs from Lewis in May.
He was concerned with what she filed in her match report from the 2012 State Of Origin opener in Melbourne.
“I just couldn’t believe what I was reading,” the supervisor fumed.
“The 750-word piece praised the atmosphere at Etihad Stadium, the dominant play of the New South Wales forward pack and the attacking skills of Jennings and Hayne out wide.”
“She then the resilience of the Queenslanders and the fact that it was one of the most intense State Of Origin games of the past decade,” he continued.
“She also wrote about the chronological ebb-and-flow of the contest in great detail, giving readers a real feel for how the game unfolded.”
“Less than one-fifth of her report focused on the Jennings sin binning and Inglis’ try decision by the video ref!”
“Why weren’t those two incidents – which comprised almost one whole minute of the 80 minute contest – the only things talked about?”
“It was a rookie error, so we pulled the story and let her know she had two chances left before she was out.”
The Roar understands Lewis was given a second written warning when her report on the possible expansion of the NRL into Perth revealed it would be best achieved at the expense of an inner-Sydney club.
The final strike came when her opinion piece on the departure of NRL CEO David Gallop presented both pros and cons for the leadership styles and achievements of Gallop and ARL Commission chairman John Grant.
“She didn’t even mention what sort of car Grant drives,” our source scoffed.
“What sort of rugby league journalist would overlook something so important?”
Lewis, though disappointed by her employer’s decision, remains philosophical.
“I brought it on myself really,” she told The Roar through tears while busily poring over the statistics from Sunday’s NSW Cup clash between the Newtown Jets and Windsor Wolves at Parkes.
“My obvious love and passion for the game of rugby league were always going to count against me.”
“When you take into account that, given my age, I’m also completely unencumbered by the politics of the Super League war – not to mention a woman – I think it’s best for everyone involved if I’m kept away from the greatest game of all for the rest of my life.”
Lewis has been immediately snapped up by the AFL’s media department, where her love of phrases like “courageous 66-point loss”, “inspirational warriors of the new frontier” and “impressive attendance of 8,972 dedicated fans” has seen her appointed as official match reporter for the Gold Coast Suns and GWS Giants.
Kat
Guest
Johnno, I find it hard to imagine that anyone who actually has inside knowledge of a newsroom would confuse "their" and "there", or misspell "lattes" as "lates/latties". After all, being a journo generally requires basic spelling ability. Oh, and before you ask - yes, I drink green tea (along with most other varieties of tea) but hate coffee, be it lattes or anything else. Although I'm not sure what one's preferred beverages have to do with anything...
Droppa
Guest
Sound like your an expert...not!
micka
Guest
Looks like Idris actually lost a tonne of weight too quickly.
micka
Guest
The final sentence was in there whether the article was primarily about it or not. You just made the mistake of it being the most interesting yet needlessly catty part Krissy boy. As if you weren't going to get a couple of little jabs back.
micka
Guest
As opposed to a game that has the entire end of each end of the field as a scoring zone? Once a score is made the same team just gets an arbitrary stab at scoring again in a completely different and non game related manner for no apparent reason, with two judges holding up flags for no reason to indicate whether it went through or not (despite the fact there is not another official at the other end who needs to also maintain the score card for verification). It's amazing how proud of their own ignorance the average RL supporter is.
Johnno
Guest
do you drink caffe latties and green tea Patrick Angel. I suspect you might.
Col Quinn
Guest
Thought this article was a scream! We need a few more of the like to lighten off the code wars
Jaceman
Guest
NRL thrives on controversy so its here to stay..there is no such thing as a bad headline
The Cattery
Roar Guru
Meesta spare a thought for the average AFL footballer aspiring to this standard of athleticism: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/puppy-fat-or-a-saggy-dogs-story/story-e6frexni-1225702277122
Li'l Sebastian
Guest
Nice work. The journo in question clearly should have been spending her time writing a 4-page scandalous expose' on the NSW Cup player who got caught farting in a pub the other day.
Meesta Cool
Guest
AFL, there's that acronym again, I just looked it up on Wickypaedia, It describes AFL as "a strange tribal sport played by teams of gawd knows how many players, with about seventeen officials that spend all day blowing their whistles for apparently nothing at all".. It further goes on to say "Points are given for kicking the ball 10 metres high (Or more or Less) through goal posts where no one has a chance of stopping the ball, further scores can be given to a team missing the goal completely and going through another set of sticks or even by a defender kicking the ball into his own goal, When a ball goes through either the goals or the other posts, an official behind the goals does a sort of traditional ritual flag dance, which his mate at the other end copies, The final score needs a calculator to work out", in all it seems like a good game to watch, if you could understand why they don't pay knock ons and offside!!. Maybe the moderator could put a block on any article or comment that contains this AFL acronym!. just in case us real people get infected by this viirus!
Mac
Guest
You just made my day Johnno
Coasty
Guest
Very interesting Cameron. I did post a comment many weeks ago on a western club forum " an Irishman told me that Lewis would play at centre ". I haven't bothered with that heavy pseudonym site since. Following on that we have seen some 'Irishman" posting an article on this site.Recently there was an article under Steve Mascord's name talking about the perils of reporters & their nemesis the editor & sub-editors. I answered that article with a story of the sacking in the 1930s of my grandfather, called the "Printer' who was in charge of a string of country newspapers. Now we have another article about journalists' impartiality, integrity & what may happen when they print something. All I can ask is - Was Gloria a blonde, because that will make her a blonde Irish reporter ! As I recall my father telling me once that the fella on TV, Johnny (Lewis) the fight trainer was one of our mob, being an Irish-Australian. My dads family had lived around Marrickville/Newtown/Dulwich Hill after the Depression and no doubt there was social involvement with the Lewis's at Church or the pub. Of course we're Aussies first. Anyway, we can't tell the authenticity of the articles although we sure are suspicious & very doubtful as to being having a lend of. I believe that many of these stories & even some of the pseudonym answering, are doing this on behalf of & paid for by vested interests who want to publicise their product being football. They may also be using all the responses as straw polls for market research.
Patrick Angel
Roar Guru
Johnno, a man who has never set foot in a modern newroom.
Australian Rules
Guest
Cam, lighten up...that comment doesn't belong under this article. Keep it up Kris.
Australian Rules
Guest
My brain just exploded into a thosand pieces...
oikee
Guest
Hey Johnno, nice post mate, i have to still give it up to the them, the journos,. If they were not doing their jobs we would not comment. Imagine a world in which Ricky Stuart was King. ? No comment. ?? I wont judge you Johnno. Your ok mate.
matt h
Guest
Some people really can;t take a joke. the last two lines about the AFL were actually spot on, but I am just having a wild guess here that the point of the article might have been the preceding 20 paragraphs. There is a serious undertone here however, independent journalism may have always been a bit of an illusion, but now the main dailies don't even pretend...
oikee
Guest
Kris, you my friend i would happily buy a beer any time your in Queensland. I have never smiled so much and your aticles are beyond reproach. Keep up the good work. It is tongue in cheek stuff, no harm done. To be honest, i think i would have sacked her, imagine not sinking the boot into league when you get a chance like that, silly girl. :)
Meesta Cool
Guest
Just keep writing this stuff Kris, I am sure tat I am not the only one who enjoys it.. The game as it stands needs to be laughed at!. can someone please tell me what the Initials "AFL" stand for. hehehe