Footy Classified 2025

Pretty awkward interaction between Beveridge and Morris.

Still looks like Bevo harbours some animosity over the presser from 3 years ago.


"So Luke, I know you think I'm a gutter journalist, but I just want to show you professional I am now, which is why I'm putting you on the spot on national television..."
 
"Other antagonists".

Cornes and Caro I assume.
Was such a strange interview. Channel 9 say Let's get Morris and Bevo to meet for the first time since the 22 presser blow up, promote the hell out of it and put popcorn emojis all over the socials. Then Bevo says it's not the time or place talk about why he actually blew up and bats it away with "maybe it will come out one day" and the rest of the panel just accept that and move on? What an absolutely pointless tease.
 
Can we just appreciate for a second that Nine aired a program hosted by Eddie McGuire, James Hird and Tom Morris. What the hell. Are they offering some kind of image-rehab service once per month? Who's hosting next, Ben Roberts-Smith?
Kerry Stokes owns BRS
 
Did Morris' liqour licence thing surface the next week? Don't underestimate the role the Greek Mafia played in that

It was like within 48 hours (if not 24).

Here's the thing for me: I get that the omnipresent nature of the football media will attract certain people (people who think their heads deserve to be on TV basically) and for the most part I live with it as a cost of doing business.

I can't recall it being like this pre-internet, my vague recollection is that Scott Palmer was the only person who got a spot on the (limited) footy shows at the time and he'd get like a five minute spot. Outside of that it was only ex-players and TV host type people who got a look in.

That seemed to change initially with Mike Sheahan (quite late in his career) and then further with the likes of Hutchy. But I can't imagine that getting your head on TV was a primary consideration for Rohan Connolly, Jake Niall, Ken Piesse, Geoff Poulter, Jon Anderson etc. when they were getting into the industry. Even for the likes of Robbo and Caroline Wilson (like Sheahan), they were well established in the football media and simply seemed to take advantage of the changing landscape.

I think most of us are willing to cop it, if it means that we get footy shows every day. But where it becomes a bridge too far is when they become the story. Can Morris and Beveridge bury the hatchet? Will the Clark/Ralph feud derail the Herald-Sun's 2025 campaign? Who GAF?

If a coach or player refuses to talk to a particular journalist, then it seems fairly simple: find someone they will talk to, or don't talk to them. I've managed ok for three years with the Morris/Beveridge feud remaining unresolved and I reckon I could go another few decades without too much bother.
 
I think most of us are willing to cop it, if it means that we get footy shows every day. But where it becomes a bridge too far is when they become the story. Can Morris and Beveridge bury the hatchet? Will the Clark/Ralph feud derail the Herald-Sun's 2025 campaign? Who GAF?
I know it is the most cliched answer, but clearly we do. I think you're absolutely right that a huge amount of it is driven by egos and that these guys have a hugely overinflated sense of themselves, but if it genuinely alienated people they'd stop doing it.
 
You could tell it really irked Bevo when Morris kept saying how he had 'forgiven' Beveridge for the spray, almost inferring that it was worthy of an apology. Felt like he got a bit visibly prickly as soon as he said that haha
 
It was like within 48 hours (if not 24).

Here's the thing for me: I get that the omnipresent nature of the football media will attract certain people (people who think their heads deserve to be on TV basically) and for the most part I live with it as a cost of doing business.

I can't recall it being like this pre-internet, my vague recollection is that Scott Palmer was the only person who got a spot on the (limited) footy shows at the time and he'd get like a five minute spot. Outside of that it was only ex-players and TV host type people who got a look in.

That seemed to change initially with Mike Sheahan (quite late in his career) and then further with the likes of Hutchy. But I can't imagine that getting your head on TV was a primary consideration for Rohan Connolly, Jake Niall, Ken Piesse, Geoff Poulter, Jon Anderson etc. when they were getting into the industry. Even for the likes of Robbo and Caroline Wilson (like Sheahan), they were well established in the football media and simply seemed to take advantage of the changing landscape.

I think most of us are willing to cop it, if it means that we get footy shows every day. But where it becomes a bridge too far is when they become the story. Can Morris and Beveridge bury the hatchet? Will the Clark/Ralph feud derail the Herald-Sun's 2025 campaign? Who GAF?

If a coach or player refuses to talk to a particular journalist, then it seems fairly simple: find someone they will talk to, or don't talk to them. I've managed ok for three years with the Morris/Beveridge feud remaining unresolved and I reckon I could go another few decades without too much bother.

I remember in the 90s Scot Palmer was the newsroom guy and Caro was a 'footy industry' journo. The Footy Show broke stories, but it was primarily about announcing the teams, discussing who would win and why and the rest was schoolboy humour.

Footy fans have been sucked into the trap that media personalities are the story. Between First Crack, Footy Furnace, AFL360, Footy Classified, Midweek Tackle, AFL Tonight and the Agenda Setters we are now treated to 30 or 40 different people all voicing their opinions on the same handful of topics over a 3-4 day period each week. I care if Harley Reid is getting a kick or not, and I care if he's leaving West Coast or not, but why do I care what 17 different ex players and 10 hack journos think? Rarely do any of these peanuts actually bring anything to the table except opinion, and half the time it's opinion on opinion. No different to regular journos quoting something someone said on X and calling that a story. It isn't, get a real job. The sad thing is that sometimes I see Kane Cornes show some vision and talk about something that no one else covered and I think that's interesting, then 2 minutes later he is trolling Tim Taranto again because he wants to be a pantomime villain.

I look at it a bit like going to the footy. I don't take a radio to listen to the commentary and I rarely check the stats on my phone unless I am specifically looking for something and the game still goes on. There's so much noise around footy now that adds no value. Bevo overreacted but he wasn't wrong. Tom Morris is a little ambulance chaser just looking to make a name for himself. When he was out of the media landscape literally nothing happened. Sun still rose and set, birds still sang.

If I was Adam Simpson for example, I would have started press conferences last year with a preface that if you are going to ask the same inane questions like 'are you getting fired?' 'do you think you should be the coach?' etc. then see yourself out. Want to talk about selections, tactics, performances on the day have at it.
 
I remember in the 90s Scot Palmer was the newsroom guy and Caro was a 'footy industry' journo. The Footy Show broke stories, but it was primarily about announcing the teams, discussing who would win and why and the rest was schoolboy humour.

Footy fans have been sucked into the trap that media personalities are the story. Between First Crack, Footy Furnace, AFL360, Footy Classified, Midweek Tackle, AFL Tonight and the Agenda Setters we are now treated to 30 or 40 different people all voicing their opinions on the same handful of topics over a 3-4 day period each week. I care if Harley Reid is getting a kick or not, and I care if he's leaving West Coast or not, but why do I care what 17 different ex players and 10 hack journos think? Rarely do any of these peanuts actually bring anything to the table except opinion, and half the time it's opinion on opinion. No different to regular journos quoting something someone said on X and calling that a story. It isn't, get a real job. The sad thing is that sometimes I see Kane Cornes show some vision and talk about something that no one else covered and I think that's interesting, then 2 minutes later he is trolling Tim Taranto again because he wants to be a pantomime villain.

I look at it a bit like going to the footy. I don't take a radio to listen to the commentary and I rarely check the stats on my phone unless I am specifically looking for something and the game still goes on. There's so much noise around footy now that adds no value. Bevo overreacted but he wasn't wrong. Tom Morris is a little ambulance chaser just looking to make a name for himself. When he was out of the media landscape literally nothing happened. Sun still rose and set, birds still sang.

If I was Adam Simpson for example, I would have started press conferences last year with a preface that if you are going to ask the same inane questions like 'are you getting fired?' 'do you think you should be the coach?' etc. then see yourself out. Want to talk about selections, tactics, performances on the day have at it.

Yep, nail on the head. Well put.

With Cornes, if you put aside the theatrics and stuff he does clearly to generate a response, I reckon he's actually one of the more astute commentators going around.
 
Yep, nail on the head. Well put.

With Cornes, if you put aside the theatrics and stuff he does clearly to generate a response, I reckon he's actually one of the more astute commentators going around.

The other issue is they are all in on it. Media figures are happy to pot shot each other across networks but they don't really want scrutiny on their reporting.

Sam McClure was adamant WC wouldn't pick Harley Reid, authoritative even, and as soon as they did it was because they 'weren't savvy enough' to turn pick 1 into multiple picks. Just admit it, you don't know what you are talking about. Everyone knew that clubs were interested in trading up to pick 1 and everyone knows there is a risk in drafting interstate players. It's not insight. You backed a horse and it lost. Smug prick is still there every Monday talking like his opinion is gospel. The only difference between the likes of McClure, Tom Morris etc. and your average BigFooty punter is that most of us aren't journalists. We all talk shit but aren't paid to do it on national TV and don't claim to have sources inside footy clubs. If I say categorically that Oscar Allen will not be at West Coast next year does anyone care? No, of course not. I hope he stays but I don't have any inside info. But if you do that as a journo that somehow carries weight, even if then he does the opposite of what you said. Bizarre. Bit like horse racing actually. People who actually know how to pick winners tend to keep quiet. People who get 1 out of 10 favourites are up and about.
 
The other issue is they are all in on it. Media figures are happy to pot shot each other across networks but they don't really want scrutiny on their reporting.

Sam McClure was adamant WC wouldn't pick Harley Reid, authoritative even, and as soon as they did it was because they 'weren't savvy enough' to turn pick 1 into multiple picks. Just admit it, you don't know what you are talking about. Everyone knew that clubs were interested in trading up to pick 1 and everyone knows there is a risk in drafting interstate players. It's not insight. You backed a horse and it lost. Smug prick is still there every Monday talking like his opinion is gospel. The only difference between the likes of McClure, Tom Morris etc. and your average BigFooty punter is that most of us aren't journalists. We all talk shit but aren't paid to do it on national TV and don't claim to have sources inside footy clubs. If I say categorically that Oscar Allen will not be at West Coast next year does anyone care? No, of course not. I hope he stays but I don't have any inside info. But if you do that as a journo that somehow carries weight, even if then he does the opposite of what you said. Bizarre. Bit like horse racing actually. People who actually know how to pick winners tend to keep quiet. People who get 1 out of 10 favourites are up and about.

I've often wondered what's stopping footy clubs from feeding the 'in the know' newsbreaker types utter garbage to make them look like clowns. What does someone like Luke Beveredge (or the Western Bulldogs for that matter) actually lose by having a fractured relationship with Tom Morris?
 

Footy Classified 2025


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