Recently the NRL, thanks to Mitchell Pearce, and the A-League, thanks to certain fans, have suffered from some very negative press coverage from the Australian media. In Pearce’s case, the media coverage has been international and damning.

Looking domestically it is clear to me that the NRL needs to learn to control its message and how it is perceived by the public. For inspiration, they must look no further than the AFL.

The Daily Telegraph’s recent coverage of the NRL included numerous stories of NRL clubs in debt. There were stories of Nick Politis threatening to leave the SFS if it is torn down. Throughout the off-season there have been stories of poor viewing figures and attendances. Late last year there was a reported leadership crisis with Dave Smith at the helm.

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I then ventured over to the Herald Sun and their coverage of the AFL. Every story was about the upcoming season bar one, the new players and the clubs hopes of winning a flag. The one negative story was about the two hosts of the AFL footy show Billy Brownless and Gary Lyon not getting along.

So then I looked deeper and found an article about ‘soccer’ from an avid AFL man in Tom Elliot where he goes on the attack against the A-League and its fans. However, halfway through it morphs into am attack piece against soccer the sport. He claimed that the recent controversy in the A-League was because there were too many 0-0 draws.

So does the AFL receive better treatment from the media? And if so, why?

I then found an article from Bruce Guthrie of The Age entitled ‘If elite sport had a spin bin, AFL would be in league of its own’. Guthrie then goes in to explain the AFL’s response to a story that he published about drug trafficking at a certain unnamed club. He claimed hours after the story was published he had received calls from former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou where he said they had “beaten up” the story. He later received a call from ABC’s Media Watch who had received a tip from a “third party” had briefed them on the story and how it was a beat up.

It goes to show that the AFL will go to the effort to control the news and its message. I have spoken to a number of friends who live in or are from Melbourne who also believe that the AFL does a very good job at controlling the message that is put out in the media, whether it be via its own media arm or through the papers.

That said, it’s worth noting AFL Media is an independent arm, and journalists there are briefed to report about the sport holistically and truthfully.



So is it time the NRL took this hard line approach that the AFL uses? The constant stream of negativity that seems to flow from the Daily Telegraph, in particular Buzz Rothfield and Rebecca Wilson, has to be damaging to the game and its ability to attract new fans.

For the good of the game, maybe it is time for the NRL to control its own message, like the AFL does successfully.