Wilson’s blindness

Today’s vigorous attack on North Melbourne President James Brayshaw, penned by Caroline Wilson, misses the mark on so many levels.

Let’s start by calling a spade a spade and acknowledging that Wilson’s job is to write opinion pieces and to create controversy. That’s what she has done.

She contrasts Brayshaw with the Barcodes’ Eddie McGuire and Melbourne’s Jim Stynes, writing that the comparisons are unfair, but continuing nevertheless. The problem is that by avoiding comparison and contrast of the respective contexts, she ends up comparing apples with oranges and mangoes.

So, let’s do what Wilson failed to do.

McGuire heads up a financial, marketing and sponsorship behemoth at the Barcodes. Sure, Presidents in the past went close to sending the club to the wall, but without denigrating McGuire’s achievements, even Wilson could run this club successfully. The 40k crowd at Docklands on Saturday night seemed to have more than a fair share of Barcodes, for instance. On-field success has made the normally vocal Barcode army howl with expectation.

Stynes’ Demons have many, many connections to wealthy establishment Melbourne. It’s not accidental that they have wiped out the club’s debt. Stynes’ force of personality was certainly a factor, but no amount of personality would satisfy the banks. A goodly number of Demons supporters have pretty deep pockets (and the long arms to reach the cash!).

By contrast, Brayshaw’s North Melbourne has neither the organisational size, nor the marketing muscle to be able to make the grand gestures so beloved of Eddie Everywhere. Nor does North have the connections to affluent Melbourne that Stynes has been able to tap. North’s background has always been solidly working class.

So, clearly, comparisons of the three are fraught exercises, and we haven’t even touched on the issue of personal style.

The obvious fact that both Brayshaw and McGuire work in the media doesn’t make for any automatic alikeness. It is disingenuous of Wilson to imply that it does.

AussieRulesBlog doesn’t set out to defend Brayshaw. He’s done a pretty effective job of that for himself, so he hardly needs our help.

On the other hand, pundits like Wilson, Mike Sheahan and the annoying Patrick Smith get to pontificate on everyone in football from the AFL Commission chairman to the lowliest bootstudder at the bottom club, all without the danger of actually having to do the job themselves.

We wonder how well Wilson would do as President of the Kangaroos? Or Sheahan as coach of the Bulldogs? Or Smith as anything that required a logically-constructed argument?