@jirskyr said:I think the previous posts are over-reacting. Let us take a step back for a moment, take a breath and look past the issues with Benji's current form.
There are two things to consider:
1) This Friday's game is a home game, so our club is pushing for press coverage.
2) We are LAST on the table, so we should be happy for any positive press we receive.
If you actually read today's SMH, the Benji article covers almost two of the 5 pages they have devoted to league. Wednesday is a slow news day for league, so the articles they choose are often fluff pieces, which this one mostly is.
We thus note that Tigers are getting ~40% of today's footy coverage about a kid who hasn't even played first grade yet. It's not as if Benji called a press conference to talk about Brooks, he has no control over what the SMH choose to run with; his comments may have been only a small part of the overall interview.
The people who think Benji shouldn't make public comments should reconsider, because he is mobbed by the media whenever the opportunity presents itself. That is very important exposure for our club, who in the early days had almost nobody of public interest (how many interviews with Buckets O'Neill or Joel Caine?)
Benji is a diplomatic, well-practised speaker who never denigrates club or teammates. He has very high role model expectations thrust upon him and a high overall profile.
Certainly he is out of form, but it's not as if public silence will magically improve his performances on-field. It's also not as if the 20 minutes he gave to do thkis interview was at the expense of some important training or tactical preparation for the game.
Let's all relax and be happy we have players who the media cares to talk to, compared to say Parra or Penrith our cellar-dwelling mates.
Extremely well put!