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The Roar bids farewell to Managing Editor, Daniel Jeffrey

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22nd June, 2021
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After more than four years at the helm, The Roar today bids farewell to its longest-tenured editor in Daniel Jeffrey.

Daniel – or ‘Jeffers’ as he’s better known – became Roar editor in February 2017.

He had massive shoes to fill after the departure of Patrick Effeney, who, like Tristan Rayner and the Zavos brothers before him, took The Roar from a blog for Spiro Zavos to a website that reaches more than a million Australians every month.

Despite many big changes over the years, Jeffers has always stayed true to the website’s core values and ensured it has remained a community for robust sporting discussion.

Through the extreme challenges COVID put forth last year, it was his tireless effort that kept things ticking.

Anyone who uses and enjoys The Roar today owes him a massive ‘thank you’ for the work he’s done over the last four years, but especially for his Herculean efforts in 2020.

If you ever met or spoke to Jeffers, you’d know how much he cares about the site and the people who use it.

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He was always happy to take a phone call after hours from a young writer or blogger who wanted some advice or just to double check they were doing everything correctly.

He was always happy to back writers who weren’t afraid to put forth something controversial (so long as they were prepared to back up their arguments with evidence!)

Crucially, he was always on the lookout for promising writers and interns, setting them up for more opportunities with the site and for careers in journalism after writing for The Roar.

While The Roar is a place for all sports, it’s no secret that rugby – thanks to the site’s history – is where our community is most engaged. Jeffers, as a result, put his allegiances with Wests Tigers and the Sydney Swans to one side and immersed himself in everything rugby.

(Let’s face it, he hasn’t missed much with the Tigers in that time anyway.)

He’s become an astute watcher of the game thanks in no small part to education from the likes of expert writers Nick Bishop, Geoff Parkes and Brett McKay.

The sign of a good editor is catering to your audience and knowing what will work before it even goes live. Jeffers was always two steps ahead on that front and his organisation and planning for events will be sorely missed.

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He steered the ship for Melbourne Cups, grand finals, State of Origins, World Cups and, of course, Wallabies Tests. He was at his happiest when the website was humming on high traffic days – a sign that you, our readers, were loving the content.

We’ll always remember how calm he was even during those high stress events, which helped put us all at ease.

Thanks to Jeffers’ service and hard work, we have a structure in place to carry on his legacy. Many of the ideas he implemented will continue and The Roar will go on thanks to its most important asset. You.

We wish him all the best for whatever the future holds and hope that we continue to see him around, even if it’s just in the comments section for some banter.

Jeffers, it’s been an absolute blast working alongside you and we’ll miss you more than you can imagine.

If you thought the list of people you needed to thank was long, we can guarantee the list of people who want to thank you is much, much longer.

All the best,
Benjamin Conkey and Stirling Coates.

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