November 29 2021

Journalists Who’ve Spent the Last Two Months Stalking Brandon Smith & Speculating Wildly on his Future Outraged he Took Back Control of the Narrative

hsadmin Unqualified Opinion Brandon Smith, Roosters, storm, YKTR

Journalists Who’ve Spent the Last Two Months Stalking Brandon Smith & Speculating Wildly on his Future Outraged he Took Back Control of the Narrative

DYOR Dave

Brandon Smith has caused outrage and anger in the Rugby League journalistic community, as he has made the rare move of taking control of the narrative surrounding his own contract negotiations.

Journo’s at Fox Sports and Channel Nine were “shocked and disappointed” Brandon Smith spoke so openly on YKTR’s podcast ‘The Ice Project’ (whilst elegantly sporting a Punters and Dribblers black corduroy cap) about touring different NRL clubs and dining with Supercoaches as he weighs up the biggest decision of his professional career.

Rugby League news, especially off-season stories, are traditionally sourced either through sifting through the bins of NRL players, reading questionable whatsapp threads or just making shit up.

The predictable coverage by the mainstream media of Smith’s interview on the Ice Project perfectly illustrates the need for players to tell their own stories rather than let random old dudes who don’t know what a podcast is dictate public opinion of them.

Leading the charge as always is the ‘Mayo Man’ himself Buzz Rothfield, who called Smith’s comments “highly disrespectful to his club.” The comments of Mr Mayo shouldn’t be of much concern to Smith. Buzz is doing well if he gets through an entire episode of NRL360 without nodding off or saying something contextually irrelevant before getting laughed at by Kenty and Hoops for 10 minutes.

What is interesting is how many players start to follow the lead of Smith when it comes to controlling their own narrative. It will also be interesting to see how the clubs feel about his candour. Whilst the majority of people appreciate The Cheese’s honesty, how the clubs react still remains to be seen.

There seems to be plenty of people reacting off of one or two grabs from the interview. If that’s you, do yourself a favour and listen to it in its entirety here: youtu.be/SCW6JkY608Q

He comes off as a funny and genuine dude who’s just happy being himself and talking about his journey whilst taking the speculation out of the hands of the journos.

Currently in damage control, Fox Sports is reportedly working on 4 weeks worth of articles about how the North Sydney Bears plan to rejoin the NRL.

Fancy yourself as a bit of a writer? Got some unqualified opinion and unwavering bias you’d like to share with the world? Send it through to dyor@hellosport.com.au to be featured on the site

Check out the latest Hello Sport Podcast with Tom and Jake Trbojevic

November 19 2021

Break Out the Chinos and Linen – Merivale have Announced their Menus for the SCG and SFS

hsadmin Unqualified Opinion cricket, Moore Park, New food, New Stadium, Roosters, SFS, Summer, Tottis

Break Out the Chinos and Linen – Merivale have Announced their Menus for the SCG and SFS

DYOR Dave

With the summer of cricket right around the corner, and the new stadium nearing completion, Sydneysiders will finally be able to eat the overpriced food they love while watching the sports they pretend to like. No longer will people have to choose between a long lunch at Mr Wong’s and an afternoon of cricket, with the two cultural traditions able to be experienced all at once.

The hospitality conglomerate run Justin Hemmes has recently signed on to provide food and drinks at the two Moore park stadiums for the next six years, and they’ve just announced the lineup for this summer, much to the delight of Swans fans who own more pairs of RM Williams’ than they do guernseys.

Vinnies Pizza, Jimmy’s Falafel’s, Queen Chow Dumplings, El Loco Mexican and Paddington’s The Chicken Shop will feature across the SCG this summer, while a French bistro will be serving red wine and steak frites to the upper echelons of the SCG society, the members. It is currently unclear whether or not the red wine will be served in a plastic glass with a vacuum-sealed plastic lid.

This new partnership has been recognised as a significant step forward for stadium hospitality services, with Hemmes saying “The aim has been to provide restaurant quality food in a stadium environment while making sure it’s affordable and accessible.” Never before in Australia has quality food been served in stadiums, nor has any stadium food ever been affordable, let alone accessible, with overwhelming queues at every break of play.

Disrespecting the memory of Sir Don, a famous meat pie operator

It is expected that the addition of these outlets to the stadium will more than double the average attendances for Roosters games, as the NRL club had been dramatically losing fans to Totti’s reservations and lines outside Coogee Pavilion. Membership numbers have already seen a rise, with unconfirmed reports that a new membership package will soon be launched, providing fans with a $50 Merivale voucher (enough for one cocktail) as well as a signed Champagne cork from Hemmes himself.

Executives at Merivale are relishing the opportunity to employ and probably underpay more than 1000 new staff, who will no doubt enjoy dealing with fans’ expectations of high-class food at low-class speeds and prices. Their first assignment will assumably be cleaning out the grease traps that haven’t been emptied in decades, which are rumoured to be the true source of that distinctive stadium-food taste.

For the traditionalists out there, much-loved staples like $5 meat pies, chips and hot dogs will still be available, as will standard drinks like bottled water and Coke, which still cost $4.50 for some absurd reason. So if you’re craving a bit of old-fashioned mystery meat, you won’t be disappointed.

Fancy yourself as a bit of a writer? Got some unqualified opinion and unwavering bias you’d like to share with the world? Send it through to dyor@hellosport.com.au to be featured on the site

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