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Message: [QUOTE="Morkel, post: 2780761, member: 8215"] This here is the core of why I agree that 2016 was a joke of a season. The biggest difference between the NRL and AFL is the media. The AFL controls the media. Sure there are leaks, but journos know that if they want info, they need to tow the line. It's the complete opposite with the NRL. The media controls the NRL, absolutely. Being a Broncos fan, a club constantly demonised in the media, has probably exposed us to the worst of it - we've seen the NRL cave in again and again. Referees dropped, not for poor performances (indeed, they had the gall to referee to the actual rules) but because commentators "didn't like the rules". Players suspended for far less inocuous events than were perpetrated by players of other clubs, seemingly as punishment for being the beneficiaries of the aforementioned rules. Or because a media blitz caused a crackdown in Week X, while other team's players, who did the exact same thing in weeks W and Y, got off scott free. Oh, and remember, Bennett himself was crucified in the media for suggesting Golden Point was a farce - subsequently he was booted from the Board (and replaced by the Roosters coach, big surprise), even though ultimately the NRL agreed with him and scrapped GP for the finals series of this very season. It seems to me that it's been worse since the Independent Commission came in. Ironically, because the IC is at least partially doing its job. The old dinosaurs that used to sit up the back of meetings, or pulled the strings of their puppets from afar, all of a sudden lost a great deal of power. The media is their new way of forcing control upon the game. Instead of pressure being applied by powerbrokers, politics, and mutually scratched backs, it now comes in the form of manufactured "public" outrage. Front and centre in all this are two of our old friends, Rothfield and Greenberg. Two people who rarely get mentioned in the same sentence. Rothfield has no feel for the game. At all. He is not even a journalist, he is a tabloid grub who just so happens to have very powerful friends. As such, he is both a master manipulator, and the perfect puppet. Don't underestimate how much pull the DT's "top" journo has had in the Shark's favourable treatment, and why he's been so quiet since this Hayson shit got out. And then we have Greenturd. Lauded as the Next Big Thing because his deception and slipperiness reminded everyone of how slick the AFL get through their PR business. He's been exposed as dirty not one, not two, but on three separate occasions, but nothing sticks. The game's bias towards certain teams, and even more blatantly, certain players comes as no surprise when you remember Todd is at the helm, and you get the impression that if he can get away with shit that's become public, he's sure as hell going to be able to pull off some nasty stuff behind closed doors. Like any good manipulator, he says all the right things in public - see his polished performance on the Footy Show about players and clubs needing to take responsibility for their actions. Or player safety being paramount. But behind the scenes, he'll let anything go, so long as it fulfills a favourable agenda. Like allowing said misbehaving players to play right up until the GF (but banning them for rep duties). Or overseeing a textbook shoulder charge be overlooked for the sake of keeping one of a team's most important player on the field for the finals series. I tell you what, it's amazing, with all the dramas going on with the NRL, it's amazing a certain Todd Greenberg seems to be immune to any of the criticism. Almost as if he receives a free pass from the media. Tell me again, who is the Daily Telegraph's top journo, and what team does he support??? Mutually scratched backs indeed. [/QUOTE]

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