Surely a chief rugby correspondent would review the final copy before it goes to the presses?
That's exactly what a sub-editor's job is so that journo's can go find the next story while the paper gets put together late into the night.
BUT, IN FAIR BALANCE, I HAVE A CONFESSION
I've met Grumbles a few times now, and you know what - he was a nice bloke.
First time was at a Wallabies training session prior to the Sydney Bled last year. I walked up and introduced myself. He said
"Oh yeah, Matt @ G&GR, you're the guy who bagged me out a coupla years ago!" (referring to this
http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/the-many-faces-of-greg/ and other posts paying him out)
He laughed it off though and we had a good old chin wag till after the session ended, covering a bunch of stuff including how he thought we must have had a source inside the Tahs as this post apparently was so on the money
http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/my-week-chris-hickey/ (Growden thinks Hickey is an idiot) and he showed me his note book where he and the other journo's had been playing Dingo Bingo
http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/dingo-bingo/
I met him a coupla more times up here on the EOYT, and while going to the press conferences and interviewing a few players, it struck me just how fuck boring so much of his job must be:
the same players and coaches saying the same old cliches in order to avoid saying anything, and then you've got to make a story out of it that is in some way interesting. If you write anything honest or controversial, those players/coaches get the shits and say even less to you next time.
I guess now from personal experience I have a better appreciation for why he deliberately stirs the pot - he's shit bored otherwise. And if you're writing for the SMH, your bread's buttered to stir it in a pro NSW direction. Doesn't mean I agree with it, or what he writes, I just understand better where it comes from.
This alongside my "naive" and irrational zeal for Deans will no doubt put me on a few hitlists, but fuck it, I live life on the edge