Bulldogs' major sponsor offers up bizarre defence of Mad Monday abuse
Paul Crawley
The Daily Telegraph
October 04, 2012 12:00AM
FOR the past five season Todd Greenberg has spent his every waking moment trying to drag Canterbury's damaged reputation out of the gutter - but by the time his major sponsor finished an interview on Radio 2GB yesterday, the Bulldogs were back in the dark ages.
In what might go down as the most bizarre defence of bad behaviour in the history of rugby league, Gary Johnston from Jaycar Electronics came up with an outrageous attempt to justify the sexist comments that were aimed at a Channel 9 female reporter at the Bulldogs' now infamous Mad Monday celebrations.
Gary Johnston (L) from Jaycar Electronics and Bulldogs CEO Todd Greenberg (R)
"If a woman walks into some bars in Sydney, she will be ogled, she will be treated as an object and that's the way it is. She doesn't have to walk into those bars," Johnston said near the end of an interview with Ben Fordham.
This all happened shortly after Greenberg handed in his report into the investigation that followed comments directed at Channel 9's Jayne Azzopardi on Monday.
But while Greenberg was refusing to talk about the specifics of his findings, the bloke who helps pays the bills was live on air and digging himself a hole.
Now remember, the comments screamed from an unidentified person through a window at the club's Belmore HQ on Monday included:
"THERE are some ladies here to stick their heads in your pants";
"Suck me off you dumb dog"; and
"I want to go and punch you in the face."
But asked by Fordham if he was defending the comments, Johnston basically said they were only in strife because of their profiles and this was all the fault of Channel 9.
"What they are saying was disgraceful but if two private people were in a pub at a urinal talking about the barmaid's dress or something like that, this would never get reported," he started.
"It is only an outrage because these people have got some sort of celebrity status. I'm not making an excuse for what they said, what they said was terrible. But they had just went through the day before an absolutely excruciating grand final. They were given the day off to relax and let their hair down and Channel 9 did not respect that.
"They were not invited there, they parked themselves across the road like a peeping tom and used a highly-sensitive microphone to record conversations which they were not privy to."
But when Fordham explained the comments actually came through an open window and were yelled towards the female journalist, Johnston continued his defence.
"OK Ben, let's analyse this,' he said. "First of all they have no video footage of anyone doing this so they didn't stand at the window and yell at this woman." He then added: "Nobody seems to be focusing on the fact that technically Channel 9 probably broke the law."
Johnston quoted the law: "I will read it to you. This is from the attorney-general website. You cannot install, use, maintain or cause to be used a listening device to overhear, record, monitor or listen to a private conversation."
Fordham explained that wasn't the case at all: "It wasn't a private conversation. They were yelling it out a window and at this female reporter. That is here your argument disappears. It was not a private conversation, they were yelling it out to try and intimidate someone who was just there doing their job."
Eventually, Fordham attempted to end the interview but Johnston pleaded: "Ben give me one more minute."
And then he ended the interview with this: "What they said was outrageous but they are only young blokes and in every pub in Sydney you can come across that language and it doesn't make it right, it just makes it the reality of what it is.
"If a woman walks into some bar in Sydney, she will be ogled, she will be treated as an object and that's the way it is. She doesn't have to walk into those bars."
Fordham finally interjected: "What? What? Gary, are you serious? You are saying when a woman walks into a bar, so if my wife and some of her colleagues were to go out tonight and have a drink, they can expect someone to say s ... me off you dumb dog?"
........and in the interests of balance for what has been a pretty good year for the Dogs after the invocation some years back of the "NO Dick Heads" policy by Greenberg.
Gentlemen Bulldogs fans put players to shame
Miranda Devine
Daily Telegraph
Tuesday, October 02, 2012 (7:46pm)
UP the Storm. F*ck the Bulldogs”, taunted some gloating Storm fans to a group of dejected Bulldogs supporters on Sunday night at ANZ stadium.
The Bulldogs fans, muscular young Lebanese-Australian men in blue and white jerseys, G-Star jeans and Nike TN sneakers, with ornately shaved hair styles and some sporting Arabic chin beards, might have looked menacing. But they behaved like perfect gentleman and ignored the provocation.
There was not a hint of any unrest among the sea of blue and white, crammed into the stadium, hailing from the most multicultural, most Muslim, and most criticised section of Sydney.
Bulldogs fans would have to be the most maligned rugby league followers on planet earth. But Sunday’s Grand Final was a credit to them.
They bore their disappointing loss with grace and good humour, which defied the aggro image that has afflicted them for years.
They may have been channelling the spirit of former Bulldogs hero Hazem El MAsri, who last week was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Western Sydney for his service as a leader of the Arabic community.
You don’t want to overplay El Masri’s influence, but role models are important. Which is why it was such a shame that the players let themselves, and their fans down, with some disgraceful remarks to a female Channel Nine reporter during Mad Monday celebrations at Belmore Oval.
Player resentment of a “gotcha culture”, inside and outside the media, ready to destroy their careers for off field misdemeanours, is understandable. But foul sexual slurs are no answer.
When Bulldogs management deals with the offending players, they might also consider ways to ease the pressure.
Keeping them holed up away from the media in contravention of NRL regulations after the game may have been an attempt to protect them from themselves. But clearly it wasn’t enough.
