Clubs forget media is a two-way street
Caroline Wilson | March 1, 2009
A better balance needs to be struck between player privacy and the public's right to know.
SHORTLY before the ball was bounced three nights ago in front of 37,000 fans at a round two NAB Cup clash, Channel Ten commentator Robert Walls suggested double standards were at play where Ben Cousins was concerned.
Walls said Cousins and Richmond could not have it both ways — complaining on the one hand about media intrusion while allowing a documentary film crew to intrude into a football team's preparation on the other.
It is true the Tigers had lodged a complaint with the AFL Players Association earlier in the week over last Sunday's report in the Sunday Herald-Sun revealing shots of Cousins' new home — the story led page three of the news section — and reporting it had spied a shirtless Cousins wandering around his new bayside abode.
It is also true Richmond officials saw the documentary team in the rooms and knew immediately it had erred in allowing it into the inner sanctum. They were even more annoyed after the game when the team started interviewing the concussed footballer after he had knocked back the football media, although the Tigers did point out that they felt Channel Ten's cameras had also bordered on unreasonable where Cousins' pre-game warm-up was concerned.
Cousins and his inevitable baggage were always going to be a challenge for any club. Every week or so, Richmond captain Chris Newman and his leadership team is questioned regarding any impact, good or bad, on the players.
It is a pity he was unfit to be interviewed the other night because the more elusive the sacked West Coast player appears, the more the scrutiny on him. He should front up at the next possible opportunity. Hopefully, he is not concerning himself with risking lowering the price of his documentary.
But any tension between Richmond and certain media outlets is a mere ripple in comparison with Hawthorn these days. That club is one of several that now undergoes a methodical risk analysis exercise before allowing any player to participate in a one-on-one newspaper interview.
The fact the past two premiers, Geelong and Hawthorn, emerged victorious in respective September climates in which few players were made available has only underlined to those clubs that closing ranks was justified.
Particularly Hawthorn. Earlier this month, the club released a jaw-dropping document entitled "The Hawthorn Media Policy" that disgusted several journalists to such an extent that the AFL became involved.
Some of the pearlers in the laborious tome included 24 hours' notice to interview Hawthorn personnel — notwithstanding the reason for wanting the interview might not have even occurred at that time — and up to four days' notice should any reporter want to attend Hawthorn chairman Jeff Kennett's pre-match address.
Apparently Kennett — the former Victorian Premier — required long-term notice of every individual journalist who might be present in the function room to hear his speech. Seriously. The document was negative and combative and showed not an inkling of understanding of the workings of daily journalism.
The club has privately back-pedalled and promised a rewrite, but none has yet been forthcoming. Football clubs were right to question the legitimacy of publishing private and dubiously obtained medical records, but that does not excuse this manner of paranoia.
North Melbourne opens its doors to the media every Tuesday and every player is available. Perhaps Hawthorn would say the Kangaroos need the publicity. In fact, the club received boosted sponsorship funds from Mazda because of it and the only time the club was criticised for bad handling was when it went back on its own policy and shielded the misbehaving Shannon Grant.
Footballers at some clubs are in danger of becoming so boxed in to their rarefied environments that they will have no hope of functioning in society once they are retired. Not every journalist resorts to a hidden tape recorder or visits disoriented footballers at home unannounced and not all media purchase stolen medical documents.
Running away from the media never helped Ben Cousins and should a Hawthorn player run into serious trouble this season, no media policy will protect him.
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