JTSports
Waterboy
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2018
- Messages
- 45
- Reaction score
- 96
I'm going to try not to ramble, but here it goes.
About a week ago from today, the story about the Sharks' potential salary cap breach was published by Buzz Rothfield on the DT and quickly spread to social media. On the eve of Finals footy, the integrity of the NRL was questioned ONCE AGAIN as another potential CHEATING SCANDAL made national headlines. That rang the alarm bells to a lot of spectators, and I saw a lot of people ranting on social media about how corrupt the NRL is, and how they aren't going to watch the Finals series with a top 4 team potentially cheating again. A legitimate issue for the NRL. Keep in mind, these 'league-specialist' journos like Kent and Rothfield need the NRL to be popular in order for them to generate clicks and make money for their employer. If people think a top 4 team is cheating, they aren't likely to watch the games. Look at the NBA for instance, the viewing numbers are significantly lower because of the way that Golden State has paid overs in the luxury tax. People think it's rigged, so they stop watching. The same thing can easily happen in the NRL.
With that in mind, if everybody was focused on the Sharks' scandal leading into the Finals, the NRL and the RL media would be in a bad spot. They needed a team that was completely unrelated to the Finals to come out and do something so that they could blow it out of proportion and divert everybody's attention away from another potential cheating scandal, and onto something less related to the actual footy. I believe that the media sent people out to various Mad Monday camps in an attempt to create a story like this, as we've seen photos of both Manly's camp and the Dogs' camp and this story is the outcome.
The reality of the situation is that footy players are just blokes who use their athleticism to put money on the table for their families. Their contract obligations include playing games, attending charity/fan events, turning up to training and adhering to the law (not getting involved in abuse charges, drug charges etc.). If a player adheres to all of that, they're holding up their end of the contract.
The season had finished, the boys got loose and did some stupid/funny shit. They didn't go out before a game and do this, they didn't do it mid-season, THE PLAYER DIDN'T record it and post it everywhere. The MEDIA WENT TO THEM, got to leverage points around the venue and in a very stalker-like manner, took photos of these blokes nude in a private function and posted it on social media. Now if the players bashed someone, verbally abused someone or went onto a main street in the city I could understand. But they didn't. They had fun in their own section, did some weird shit and called it a night, the media are the ones who turned it into something more.
Watch this story about Adam Elliott:
He's one of the Bulldogs who does A LOT for both his own community, the Sydney community, and the youth. It'd be great to see this on the front page, but we won't. Because the media aren't interested in stories that spread positivity. Only the opposite.
We had Fifita get on a podcast over the past few weeks and have foul-mouthed rants about NRL personalities and journalists, where's the Sharks' fine? Fifita publicly supported a one-punch killer IN AN NRL GAME and threatened a junior RL referee. We've had MUCH WORSE with half as much media attention.
If the Women's Rugby League team did the same, hired out a bar and had photos taken of them from a dodgy vantage-point across the street while they were nude, the photographer/journo wouldn't even have his job. This fake outrage in 2018 is amusing, no real man who has been apart of a bender would ever get angry because another group of mates did the same. We should have a laugh and move on, yes it got messy but it wasn't malicious. Just a couple of lads having some fun to relax after a tough season.
About a week ago from today, the story about the Sharks' potential salary cap breach was published by Buzz Rothfield on the DT and quickly spread to social media. On the eve of Finals footy, the integrity of the NRL was questioned ONCE AGAIN as another potential CHEATING SCANDAL made national headlines. That rang the alarm bells to a lot of spectators, and I saw a lot of people ranting on social media about how corrupt the NRL is, and how they aren't going to watch the Finals series with a top 4 team potentially cheating again. A legitimate issue for the NRL. Keep in mind, these 'league-specialist' journos like Kent and Rothfield need the NRL to be popular in order for them to generate clicks and make money for their employer. If people think a top 4 team is cheating, they aren't likely to watch the games. Look at the NBA for instance, the viewing numbers are significantly lower because of the way that Golden State has paid overs in the luxury tax. People think it's rigged, so they stop watching. The same thing can easily happen in the NRL.
With that in mind, if everybody was focused on the Sharks' scandal leading into the Finals, the NRL and the RL media would be in a bad spot. They needed a team that was completely unrelated to the Finals to come out and do something so that they could blow it out of proportion and divert everybody's attention away from another potential cheating scandal, and onto something less related to the actual footy. I believe that the media sent people out to various Mad Monday camps in an attempt to create a story like this, as we've seen photos of both Manly's camp and the Dogs' camp and this story is the outcome.
The reality of the situation is that footy players are just blokes who use their athleticism to put money on the table for their families. Their contract obligations include playing games, attending charity/fan events, turning up to training and adhering to the law (not getting involved in abuse charges, drug charges etc.). If a player adheres to all of that, they're holding up their end of the contract.
The season had finished, the boys got loose and did some stupid/funny shit. They didn't go out before a game and do this, they didn't do it mid-season, THE PLAYER DIDN'T record it and post it everywhere. The MEDIA WENT TO THEM, got to leverage points around the venue and in a very stalker-like manner, took photos of these blokes nude in a private function and posted it on social media. Now if the players bashed someone, verbally abused someone or went onto a main street in the city I could understand. But they didn't. They had fun in their own section, did some weird shit and called it a night, the media are the ones who turned it into something more.
Watch this story about Adam Elliott:
He's one of the Bulldogs who does A LOT for both his own community, the Sydney community, and the youth. It'd be great to see this on the front page, but we won't. Because the media aren't interested in stories that spread positivity. Only the opposite.
We had Fifita get on a podcast over the past few weeks and have foul-mouthed rants about NRL personalities and journalists, where's the Sharks' fine? Fifita publicly supported a one-punch killer IN AN NRL GAME and threatened a junior RL referee. We've had MUCH WORSE with half as much media attention.
If the Women's Rugby League team did the same, hired out a bar and had photos taken of them from a dodgy vantage-point across the street while they were nude, the photographer/journo wouldn't even have his job. This fake outrage in 2018 is amusing, no real man who has been apart of a bender would ever get angry because another group of mates did the same. We should have a laugh and move on, yes it got messy but it wasn't malicious. Just a couple of lads having some fun to relax after a tough season.
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