By STEVE MASCORD
EVEN if Leeds win the World Club Challenge in Melbourne, it’s possible it won’t cause as much uproar in the English media as the comments of the Rhinos chief executive Gary Hetherington.
In case you missed it, Hetherington had a bit of a pop at the fourth estate in Monday’s League Weekly, in a the second instalment of a two-part interview with, well, me.
“There is a load of speculation and a lot of it comes from really piss-poor journalists in my opinion … journalists who should know better, who should have a grasp of the facts rather than just a fantasy,” he said, in relation to rumoured changes in the Super League competition structure.
“We’ve got a real problem in the game because we don’t appear to have any journalists in any of the media with understanding and it’s them who are peddling a lot of the rubbish that is talked about.
“It’s the misinformation provided by journalists that’s a real problem for our game and it’s because they don’t do their homework and don’t get to know the facts.”
In Australia, in my experience, slagging off the media is one sure way to win friends and influence people. Fans would pile on like you’d just scored the winning try in a World Cup final to anyone in power who made the comments Gary did. The only reason more officials and players don’t do it is they actually fear the media; they fear merciless “get squares” from an aggressive and sometimes ruthless ‘MSM’ (that’s mainstream media if you don’t follow American politics).
I don’t think the British rugby league media would even consider getting square with Gary Hetherington.
But many of my colleagues seem genuinely aggrieved at his comments – and what’s even more surprising is that more than half of fans feel aggrieved for them.
On Monday night, the lads at Proper Sport conducted a Twitter survey: “Was Gary Hetherington right to call journalists piss-poor?”. Sixty per cent of respondents said “no”.
As someone who has spent the majority of my career covering rugby league in Sydney, having public sympathy as a journalist is so weird that it makes me feel genuinely uneasy! Please, stop it…
OK, no more dancing around the subject: what do I think? I think the affair reflects several aspects of being a smallish sport … and the attitudes will have to change – ironically – if the very changes Gary was addressing actually take place.
Officials cop generalised, no-name, no-pack-no-pack-drill insults every day. When we say the game “lacks leadership”, you could name half a dozen people who could justifiably be deeply offended.
If you say the game is poorly marketed, then you can name an even smaller group who could get on their high horses and whinge that they are being vilified and retire hurt .. hurt feelings, that is.
They don’t. They just show up to work the next day and get on with it.
I personally don’t mind being called piss poor. Whatever. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I’ll sit down and write another column. I regard not being called piss poor by name as a very fortunate piece of luck.
And while we’re at it, Wigan owner Ian Lenagan has every right to speculate that Super League will be played on the moon in five years if he wishes. It makes good copy, puts the NRL under a bit of pressure and encourages interest in the competition. Not only is the flow of ideas healthy, but so is the argument about whether there should be a flow of ideas.
If Super League IS to be played on a specially-built stadium on the Sea Of Tranquility – or even New Jersey – then we are all going to have to get a bit tougher and meaner and a lot less cozy with each other.
Fire a few ill-tempered barbs over the fence and expect them back – that’s how it works. Some day soon, someone like Gary is going to name exactly who he regards as piss-poor – not just throw a general insult in the general direction of a group of people.
And if the persons named are defamed, they will sue. And if not, they will suck it up and get on with doing their jobs. That’s how things work when a sporting community is dragged, kicking, screaming and spitting insults, into the epoch when it being an industry.
