The Rugby League media exposure regarding the Wests Tigers' signing of Adam Blair has been akin to reading a tabloid magazine. Not surprising given the fact that these days, most tabloid magazines present themselves as Newspapers... however, that’s a story for another day.
Can we lay off the Tigers please...???
All we are hearing through the league media is about the apparent resentment coming from Benji Marshall and other Wests players towards Tim Sheens. Why? Because Sheens has had to release a few players to make room under the Salary Cap for Adam Blair. Basically, the Storm second rower is coming so the club has cleared the decks for him and the playing group is filthy because of this. Really?
When did the Wests Tigers 1st grade squad become a sewing circle? Why is the media trying to create a soap opera where these players are behaving like private school girls? Where they start refusing to speak to the coach and management? Perhaps journalists think every working environment is as horrible and back stabbing as their own? Unlike corporate Australia - I am guessing footballers don't bitch and complain like a bunch of office receptionists. I bet they don't discuss what the others are wearing to training.
What they do is very different to this, what they do is take up the battle for themselves, as was the case for Andrew Fifita as reported in this article. The Tigers front rower, heading to Cronulla in 2012, was happy to share with a journalist that he went looking for Blair to exact some personal revenge during the Tigers' round 15 match against Melbourne. Says he sledged Blair a few times, letting him know that he didn’t appreciate the Melbourne forward taking his piece of the Salary Cap and forcing Fifita to move to the Shire.
Fantastic. This is a great angle and one worth pursuing. On-field battles are always more exciting than off-field dramas and much easier to prove. Which brings us to the the major problem. The Sydney media have no proof of any internal squabbling at Wests but this has not stopped them from reporting as much. Remember the rumour going around earlier in the season about one Tigers player sleeping with another's wife? Ridiculous.
We understand that many league journos have personal vendettas against a certain club or a certain coach and they use and abuse their positions to 'resolve' these differences, but it’s starting to get boring. Read any Danny Weidler 'articles' lately? He thrives on gossip. Read any News Limited press? The battles they have waged on the likes of Brian Smith, Wayne Bennett and more recently on the very fabric of human decency!!!...... well, you get the idea. Personal vendetta rather than honest reporting of the news. Sensationlism and soap opera rather than searching for the truth.
Get over your obsessions with tabloid journalism and please start reporting about football or if not, perhaps the truth is a good place to start - not the latest episode of some drama you have created in your very weak minds.
How did the Tigers respond to all of this? They flew up to Townsville and put 40 on the Cowboys. Why can’t you write about that? This recent attack on Tim Sheens and his club from the media has resulted in two things happening...a) one of the great NRL coaches being harassed at a press conference with questions that deserved no response and b)... Benji Marshall being forced to explain that "yes... me and sheensy fight sometimes", what a scoop this was for one Sydney metro paper... seriously. Is this all we have to write about?
Enough with the gossip, drama, secret boardroom leaks and personal vendettas... please. Give these professional athletes a little more credit, or did Lote Tuqiri and Robert Lui actually start whispering to each other about who Robbie Farah slept with last night... or why Chris Lawrence wore those pants with that top.... or did Liam Fulton actually sleep with Bryce Gibbs' wife and if so is she pregnant with his baby whilst her mother is being arrested for murder? Tune in next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment