Pie Eater's, aka Greg Growden, new home.

[Pfitzy]

I thought there were rules around posting anything from Grumbles here? Like NOT FUCKING DOING IT. The fat idiot can't even ignore twitter trolls FFS. Carries on like he's a rugby journalist some days.

 

[BellyTwoBlues]

I thought there were rules around posting anything from Grumbles here? Like NOT FUCKING DOING IT. The fat idiot can't even ignore twitter trolls FFS. Carries on like he's a rugby journalist some days.

think a sense of humour is a pre-requisite Pfitzy when reading Growdo.

 

[Pfitzy]

More that you need a complete dissociation from reality.

I see your point, but its not funny. Its the same shit he peddled for years when he could have been actually reporting on the game.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Is he paid to write that shit?
I bailed in Feb

 

[TOCC]

I tend to like Grumbles contribution to the rugby union media clique, but i agree that his latest article wasn't funny.... It borderlined on propaganda whilst also taking some sly shots at others.

I like Grumbles because historically he hasn't been afraid to write what others have been to scared to say, other journalists are too far ingrained with the clubs, coaches and players to actually write anything remotely critical for fear of losing their unlimited access to players(Georgina Robinson and the Tahs/Wallabies, Jim Tuckers and the Reds).

But reading between the lines in his more recent articles and Growden seems incapable of writing anything but glowing praise about Cheika, perhaps Growden has been invited back into the fold with Cheika and is now on the propaganda train...

What happened to good old journalistic integrity..

 

[cyclopath]

think a sense of humour is a pre-requisite Pfitzy when reading Growdo.

Actually a frontal lobotomy is a more apt pre-requisite.

 

[boyo]

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than have a frontal lobotomy.

 

[Tex]

Growden blocked my twitter account after I accused him of being a bitchy gossip monger, or something along those lines.

I don't mind the banter and jokes along the lines of the 'Rugby not set pieces' thread. I don't know who else is fully committed to reviewing the steak sandwiches on offer in the Shute Shield?

But the unattributed gossip and chinese whispers he hawks are utter drivel.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Growden blocked my twitter account after I accused him of being a bitchy gossip monger, or something along those lines.

I don't mind the banter and jokes along the lines of the 'Rugby not set pieces' thread. I don't know who else is fully committed to reviewing the steak sandwiches on offer in the Shute Shield?

But the unattributed gossip and chinese whispers he hawks are utter drivel.

That's my issue with him, he's not a rugby writer any more and offers little insight these days. He's a gossip queen and that's about it.

 

[Slim 293]

His former colleagues over at the SMH aren't much better these days.........

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

His former colleagues over at the SMH aren't much better these days...

Yes, agreed. I lost an enormous amount of respect for the Fairfax rugby scribes over the Link/Patston/Beale saga. They came away looking distinctly low rent.

 

[Braveheart81]

Australian rugby is in a rosy state if the only thing that gets reported (and believed) is what is said at ARU press conferences.

I don't see how not naming sources was treated with such disdain when it came to issues within Australian Rugby whereas it's an accepted and essential practice in journalism.

I don't like a lot of what Growden writes but there's no doubt he's very well connected within the ARU and NSWRU and not at all surprising that he doesn't name the sources that give him information.

 

[Braveheart81]

Yes, agreed. I lost an enormous amount of respect for the Fairfax rugby scribes over the Link/Patston/Beale saga. They came away looking distinctly low rent.

Would it have been different if the coach was very unpopular with fans and the player was incredibly popular with fans across the country?

I tend to think so.

If the same thing had happened towards the end of Robbie Deans tenure and the player involved was someone who was very popular across the country, I think the reaction from fans would have been wildly different.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Would it have been different if the coach was very unpopular with fans and the player was incredibly popular with fans across the country?

I tend to think so.

If the same thing had happened towards the end of Robbie Deans tenure and the player involved was someone who was very popular across the country, I think the reaction from fans would have been wildly different.

I don't know that this is totally relevant, not to me at least. The insinuations and smearing of the names of two people other than the offender were beyond the pale for mine. GeeRob and others allowed themselves to further the agenda of the Beale camp or at least it looked that way from the outside. I see what you're saying, but what really gets my goat is that there were needless casualties of good people from that whole affair and that the Fairfax press apparently aided and abetted it. I would have felt the same had the coach been Robbie Deans, who by accounts is also a thoroughly decent man.

Anyway, I've said my piece.

 

[Braveheart81]

I completely get the criticism of Georgina Robinson but I am not entirely sure it is justified.

Fairfax had their writers in pretty clearly defined roles from where I was reading. Rupert Guinness was purely covering the public statements from the various press conferences and ARU media releases. Georgina Robinson was doing the investigative journalism role uncovering some of the background of the situation and yes, using unnamed sources. Andrew Webster, the SMH chief sports writer then wrote several editorials.

To take the stance that Robinson was out to smear McKenzie and Patston and support Beale purely on her own volition and not because a) she had information the newspaper believed to be true and b) the editors were providing instruction on what they wanted her to cover seems fairly fanciful.

It was an entirely unseemly series of events and Australian Rugby is worse for it. Hopefully things improve in 2015.

 

[I like to watch]

I don't think there were needless casualties.
Clearly the coach had issues with too many of the playing group to continue.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

That's my issue with him, he's not a rugby writer any more and offers little insight these days. He's a gossip queen and that's about it.

I'd question whether he was ever much of a rugby writer. He never played/coached/managed/gear stewarded the game and his analysis was paper thin - fed, I suspect, by what the captain or coach of the day told him was the problem/issue/cause/strength of a team or player. Back then there was no social media, few replays and no commentariat: it was pretty difficult to check anything analytical he did happen to write against what had actually happened by going to youtube, for instance.
I can remember that his columns at the beginning of the 80's were laced with gossip - so it was always part of his reportoire.
His final descent from a minor reporter of events into a gossip columnist probably began as people could analyse for themselves what were the problems/issues/strengths of the actual game by reference to replays: we all knew more than him and gradually became empowered with the means of testing our theories and analysing everyone else's. I'd venture that there'd be very few regulars on here that don't know more about every aspect of the game than the pie eater.
Thats my theory anyway.

 

[Aussie D]

I think a few people on this thread need to stop, take a deep breath and then move onto a new topic relating to Greg Growden. The whole Beale / Patston / McKenzie thing has been done to death. It is a new year, with new hope and as that annoying song from my daughter's favourite movie says "Let it go".

 

[formerflanker]

I think a few people on this thread need to stop, take a deep breath and then move onto a new topic relating to Greg Growden. The whole Beale / Patston / McKenzie thing has been done to death. It is a new year, with new hope and as that annoying song from my daughter's favourite movie says "Let it go".

Have her favourite Christmas presents thawed out yet?

 

[Ash]

I completely get the criticism of Georgina Robinson but I am not entirely sure it is justified.

Fairfax had their writers in pretty clearly defined roles from where I was reading. Rupert Guinness was purely covering the public statements from the various press conferences and ARU media releases. Georgina Robinson was doing the investigative journalism role uncovering some of the background of the situation and yes, using unnamed sources. Andrew Webster, the SMH chief sports writer then wrote several editorials.

To take the stance that Robinson was out to smear McKenzie and Patston and support Beale purely on her own volition and not because a) she had information the newspaper believed to be true and b) the editors were providing instruction on what they wanted her to cover seems fairly fanciful.

It was an entirely unseemly series of events and Australian Rugby is worse for it. Hopefully things improve in 2015.

That's rubbish about GeeRob. She was contacted by Patston and refused to take her calls, instead only reporting on Beale's side.

I'd hardly call what GeeRob did as "investigative journalism" insofar it apparently involved talking to Beale's manager and a select couple of Tahs players.

Guinness, GeeRob and Webster all wrote extremely one sided articles supporting a guy who was guilty and whilst smearing the other parties. I think it's fair when he said they went down in people's estimation.