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

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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

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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

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YKTR and Cheese have Taken a Step Forward for NRL Players, and the Establishment Should Be Worried

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YKTR and Cheese Have Taken a Step Forward for NRL Players, and the Establishment Should Be Worried

DYOR Dave

Untitled design - 2021-11-02T170052.489

 

This week, YKTR, the brand started by Isaac John, Corey Norman, and James Segeyaro, announced they had signed Storm star Brandon Smith as a content creator and brand ambassador. While it’s not unheard of for a player to put his face to a brand, his association with the media arm of YKTR will be causing a few headaches for Fox Sports and Nine, who must now face the reality that NRL media is moving beyond their monopolistic ownership.

You would think that on a slow news day, where transfer rumours are the hottest gossip going around, that this story deserved to be reported on by Fox or Nine. After all, they had almost hourly coverage of Brandon Smith following his recent controversy, and he was a favourite content machine of theirs during the season. Yet nothing has been reported from either news outlet, instead opting for their usual formulaic rollout of bland content that requires little effort to put together.

It’s almost like the ‘journalists’ prefer writing stories showing players in a negative light, rather than a positive light that isn’t shining out of their own rear ends. In fact, since their inception in 2017, YKTR have only been mentioned on the Fox website 3 times, two of which were in articles about Segeyaro and Norman’s misbehaviour. They even went so far as to quote Cameron Munster on YKTR’s The Scope podcast, but refer to it as “former NRL player Justin Horo’s podcast.”

Cheese flavoured vape's are a gap in the market

Cheese flavoured vape's are a gap in the market

 

Under brands owned by fellow players and peers, players will be able to conduct their personal life in a manner that better resembles a rugby league throbber, rather than having to conform to the ethics of an 1850’s priest in order to keep sponsorship deals and media contracts intact. It has become clear that players who don’t conform to the structures and traditions of old media will be at best ignored and at worst denigrated by the establishment of NRL media. In recent years, Nine and Fox have enjoyed an endless stream of ex-players lining up to work for them, while having exclusive and unlimited access to the current crop. Brandon Smith is the first of hopefully many who will branch out to help smaller media companies grow, and dilute the dominating influence of Fox and Nine.

The attitude of these companies is in direct opposition to the positive work done by the NRL that has resulted in more self-determination for the players. Over the last decade or so, the NRL has invested in and emphasised the importance of education, so that players will be better prepared for life outside of football. Partnerships like this that give players more autonomy over their careers and financials have been assisted by the

This isn’t me being some fanboy of YKTR, or a crypto nerd stoked about a player getting paid in Etherium. I’m a simple man. I like my tokens Fungible and my currency tangible. But the self-determination of players in an industry that is dominated by big organisations should be celebrated by the average dribbler, whether or not you think it’s a smart business decision.

 

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