Hunt dumped as Gold Coast Suns leader

The headline screams for attention. Karmichael Hunt, the rugby and rugby league defector, has failed to measure up. Surely it won’t be long before he scampers back, following in the footsteps of Israel Folau, some sort of AFL failure.

Code-hopper Karmichael Hunt is among three players who have been dumped under the Gold Coast Suns' new-look leadership structure for the 2013 AFL season.

The real story is somewhat different. Also affected in the Suns’ changing leadership strategy, David Swallow and Zac Smith have also been ‘dumped’. The Suns, recognising the preponderance of young talent on their list, are looking to develop the leadership of their wider list. It’s hardly that Hunt has been dumped

Why is there some sort of race to the bottom in the media? It’s not universal. You don’t see a Rohan Connolly story with a screaming headline, or an Emma Quayle, or a Jake Niall, or a Tim Lane opinion piece. (We don’t read the little paper: it only encourages Citizen Rupert.) And, interestingly, no-one was prepared to claim a by-line to the Hunt story.

Notwithstanding gun Bomber recruit Brendon Goddard joining the Bombers’ leadership group almost immediately he arrived at Windy Hill, we couldn’t help noticing that free-agency/trade/draft period recruits Chris Dawes and Shannon Byrnes have joined the Demons’ leadership group. Further highlighting the move, we noticed that Mitch Clark, last year’s Demon saviour, also joined that group in his first season with the club.

Forget tanking. Who was the genius who decided to create an expansion club-like list for an established club? How can three blokes who wouldn’t have been automatic inclusions in the leadership groups at their previous clubs be walk-up starts in the Demons’ leadership group?

It doesn’t matter if the Demons tanked because they shot themselves in the foot while thinking they were aiming at the stars.

Does someone carry the can for this? Who chose a Cale Morton at pick 4 five years ago: the same Cale Morton traded away a few months ago in exchange for pick 88? Who invested so much faith in Tom Scully, but failed to read that he’d opt for a fat pay packet? Is there too much hope and not enough hard-headed decision making? Are expectations — say, of Jack Watts — unrealistic? Scully too was touted — not just by the Demons, admittedly — as something pretty special, but his performances thus far haven’t matched the hype.

Longer term, we have to wonder whether Melbourne Football Club ever recovered from the defection of Ron Barassi, the sacking of Norm Smith and the loss of status attendant with sharing their MCG stronghold with Richmond in the 60s?

Aside from the yo-yo years of the Neale Daniher reign, the club that was the powerhouse of the competition through the 50s and early 60s has delivered bugger all and it doesn’t look like improving on that any time soon.

It’s no secret that some sections of the media have a different view of “news value’ than others. Frankly, it must be hard to fill space on a newspaper page, air time on radio or television, but there seem to be too many times when low-hanging fruit gets the nod.

One such example is today’s report in The Age detailing in two paragraphs that former Demon Liam Jurrah was busted in Perth Adelaide for drink driving. A further eleven paragraphs make this look like a story, but it’s not. The padding rehashes ‘news’ that’s so old it’s got worms crawling through it. And for what?

Given Jurrah’s well-publicised legal issues in Alice Springs and subsequent departure from the Demons, and later failure to be drafted, writing and printing this non-story isn’t going to do Jurrah himself any good, and it certainly adds nothing new to everybody else’s knowledge.

Of course the reason it was written and published is that Jurrah’s name draws attention. It’s all about getting eyes looking at advertising. And it’s a pretty poor state of affairs when a young man struggling with a multitude of issues is, to all intents and purposes, exposed to public ridicule for no valid reason.

We’d prefer you don’t click through and read the report, because that just encourages the journalist and this sort of ‘reporting’ shouldn’t be encouraged in any way.

The media preoccupation with Melbourne Football Club’s alleged ‘tanking’ is taking on all the hallmarks of a sadistic child pulling the wings and legs off a captured fly.

Enough!

The AFL is desperate to avoid a full-on confrontation with Melbourne Football Club over the Demons’ late-2009 impersonation of a football team. They’ve gone the tank!

That’s the only logical conclusion to draw from the AFL’s ultimatum that Cameron Schwab, Chris Connolly and Dean Bailey “show reason by the end of the month to interim AFL football operations manager Gillon McLachlan as to why they should not be charged.”

Adding to the impression, the AFL has provided the Melbourne Officials and former Melbourne coach with a hefty 800 pages of evidence.

Think about it. Normally, the policing authority gather evidence, charge the accused person and arraign them before a court where the evidence of their guilt is presented, the accused has right or reply and cross-examination and a judging authority decides their guilt or innocence.

This time though, the policing authority is providing the suspect with the evidence and asking for reasons not to proceed to charge and try them.

Is AussieRulesBlog the only footy fan who can recall a late-season game between Carlton and ???? which was widely regarded at the time as “the Bryce Gibbs Cup” since the losing team would get access to the prized number one draft pick. Finding the Melbourne three guilty would open a Pandora’s Box the AFL would rather remained firmly shut.