I am not saying that there is a general conspiracy against us at all. I am saying that after the problems we have had recently, it is in the best interest of papers and radio to give unwarranted credence to unsubstantiated claims made by members of the public. This will stick with the club for the next couple of years because for that time they will be able to run with "Saints in crisis again" and the rest of the footy world will be able to shake their heads and tut-tut the Saints culture.plugger66 wrote:But what you said would go for every club not just ours. And why would a Saints scandel sell more papers than a Pies one? It wouldnt. We are in the news because we are making the news not because everyone and every thing has a vendetta against our club.The_Merchant wrote:Plugger, not all of the football media are professional journalists. Quite a few are ex-players with certain allegiances for or against certain clubs.
It is quite obvious that some ex-players as well as some journalists are not fans of our club.
Others are ex-players or supporters of our club so it works both ways.
G Healy is a saints fan and unashamedly so. D Brereton is outwardly anti-saints, D King is not a fan and takes any chance to stick the boots in, and S Quartermain is definitely not a fan. Half of SEN barrack for the saints.
Footy is a passionate game and if you have preconceived ideas about a club it can sometimes show in your reporting.
The other factor at play here is that it is of benefit to the media to continue to find dirt on StKilda. They are in the news for the wrong reasons, and the more people can dig up, the more papers they can sell. If you think that the media doesn't jump on the band wagon and sink the boots in when they can, have a look at how QANTAS is represented in the media.
A couple of years ago, a QANTAS plane had to turn back to land for a completely innocuous reason which warranted a three page spread, on the very same day, a Rex plane landed at Sydney airport with an engine on fire. An airport worker rang a Sydney newspaper to report that it had happened, the journalist asked if it was a QANTAS plane, when the employee replied that it was Rex, the journalist said he wasn't interested.
Journalists, editors and sports commentators have one job before all others, to sell newspapers and increase ratings. Saints scandal sells papers.
It does work against other clubs as well, there would be plenty of journalists who would lick their lips at being able to report on a Collingwood scandal and the Blues went trough it last year.
The media tends to get a bit of head of steam up when reporting about one club, and the Saints have made it easy for them recently, couple this with the perception of our culture, stemming from 20-30 years ago, when a lot of these journalists were still around, it makes the Saints an easy target.
We now need a couple of years without a major scandal and all will be forgotten and it will be some other clubs turn.
Cheers Plug