‘Man drinks water’ scoop

The Sunday Herald Sun has achieved the near impossible. It’s made Mook feel a little sorry for Ben Cousins.

Cousins has been extremely lucky to be given a second third chance to save his life and AFL career by Richmond Footy Club. His widely reported problems have mostly been of his own making and he’s now drinking at the last chance saloon. But at least he’s drinking mineral water.

It didn’t stop the Herald Sun from sticking the boot in with this online headline today though:

The Herald Sun could argue they’re ‘cleverly’ referring to the mineral water as a soft drink but really it seems Cousins is damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t.

Those two reporters full time on the case day and night from the Herald Sun got themselves a massive – and in no way boring – scoop. Mook looks forward to reading their reports on Cousins‘ every off-field move this year, no matter how mundane.

And it’s hypocritical of the Herald Sun to suggest it’s soft not to drink alcohol while campaigning to ‘Save Our City’ from drunken violence.

Hear no evil, report no evil

You’d think that if a reporter attended an AFL club’s Annual General Meeting and his newspaper was criticised by the club CEO it’d at least warrant a mention in his copy published next day, right?

The Herald Sun’s Damian Barrett must have missed the part where Collingwood CEO and Herald Sun columnist Eddie McGuire blamed the editor of the Herald Sun for contributing to the Magpies‘ decision not to draft Ben Cousins.

Barrett reported:

Asked during question time why the Magpies had baulked at recruiting Ben Cousins after a six-month investigation, McGuire said the fallen Eagle “wasn’t ready” for a comeback until late November/early December.

“We’ve learnt with due diligence from the pubs (the financial losses); we went into it wanting to recruit Ben Cousins, but he wasn’t ready,” McGuire said.

No mention of McGuire advising the Magpies‘ faithful that the Herald Sun’s editor told him they’d have put two reporters full time on the case day and night if Collingwood recruited Cousins [listen here to McGuire's reasons for not drafting Cousins, thanks to The Mayne Report's Stephen Mayne also attending and recording last week's AGM].

Interesting that the Herald Sun neglected to report comments about their editor.

Herald Sun’s polling problem

Proof that all those online polls are oh so important and definitely not a waste of everyone’s time.

Vote Now! via the Herald Sun website to choose who you think should be the next Melbourne Demons captain. Yes or No.

The ayes have it at the moment. Mook voted ‘No’. Jump onboard!

Brendan Fevola’s New York freebie now OK?

Carlton’s Brendan Fevola always provides good copy for the tabloids.

Yesterday’s Sunday Herald Sun featured the Blues spearhead talking about his October US holiday and revealing he’d used ex-Carlton president Richard Pratt’s New York apartment during his stay:

Mercurial Blue Brendan Fevola was given the keys to ex-Carlton president Richard Pratt’s multi-million-dollar New York apartment during a recent US holiday…for several days during a month-long holiday in the States in October.

But in September, Fevola told the Sunday Herald Sun he wouldn’t be visiting New York and would be heading to Cuba instead. The Herald Sun reported salary cap concerns had thwarted Fevola’s holiday plans:

Fevola’s three-week family holiday in October has also been re-jigged. It is understood he had hoped to use the Pratt family’s New York apartment. But salary cap concerns have thwarted the plan once again. “It was never booked in (New York) in the first place,” Fevola said.  “We’re not going to New York any more. We’re now off to Cuba.”

So why didn’t the Herald Sun ask whether the use of the apartment was within AFL salary cap rules since they made such a big deal of the issue two months ago?