The Dominion Post

I think it would be of worth to the club, to have a journalist who can setup a relationship with the owners, management, coach, players.

There are many questions.

Its just totally inadequate presently.

I just noticed that Gareth has a nice little pop at the Dominion Post on his blog...

http://garethsworld.com/blog/wellington-phoenix/the-newcastle-jets-are-supported-well-by-the-local-newspaper/

I agree completely and sometimes wonder if the Dom Post actually fully appreciate their role in this. Professional sport is part of the entertainment industry and, as such, sports reporting is not serious journalism. All this "reporting without fear or favour" crap we hear from the Dom Post sports desk is bollocks. They aren't reporting on Syria or the latest goings on at the Beehive, they are reporting on a local sports team and they have a vested interest in local sports teams doing well.

I'm not saying they should be "rah rah, go the Nix" all the time but they are far too negative as a rule. Who's interests does it serve if their reporting contributes to poor attendances at Nix games and, potentially, the Nix going under??

All this negativity, they need to try jumping on the Posi-Machine!

 Gareth Morgan ?@garethmorgannz

@boxcarfred you can be objective & supportive, that's the point. Worthington is a low level knocker, Jason Pine is infinitely more astute

lol

Totally agree on Morgan having a shot at the Doom Post. The negativity that the paper has towards the Nix has been going on from almost day one. There is a huge degree in difference in being objective and being negative for the sake of it. In many cases the DP will look for the worst slant to put on the story. "They  won but they didn't play like Barcelona" or after the fantastic come from behind win against Heart Worthlesston had to mention early in the piece that they won but Heart were seriously understrength. Sam needs to realise he is reporting on a local team playing in the A-League not ferkin Manchester United. You can almost guarantee that the DP will be negative...even in past years when we have been winning regularly the "Nix in crisis" angle is not far away.

There pursuit of Terry Seripisos sometimes went far beyond "looking for the truth" and descended into "witch hunt" IMO.  If I was a conspiracy theorist I would suspect that there are a bunch of anti football rugger heads in the sports department at the DP. I get much more enjoyment and football information out of the NZ Herald who have better and much more widespread coverage of football.

Why does this matter? because the media are the conduit through which public opinion is formed. If the vibe towards the Nix is constantly negative then that has a flow on impact on peoples decisions to go and watch. If you have headlines like "brave Nix go down fighting vs "Nix shit again" then that does make a difference to peoples perceptions.

As for Gareths comparisons with the Jets local newspaper. Sorry, but Australians do parochialism and positivety and support your own. We kiwis seem to relish angst and negativity...its part of our DNA. The Nix could win the A-League but there will still be people sniping at them.

I think trying to put a negative spin on Gareth being at the training session was completely out of line. If I were putting millions of dollars into something, I would like to see it in action as much as possible, even if I was just learning all about how it works. That's all Gareth is trying to do here.

The line of questioning was disgusting too, instead of asking 'if it was uncomfortable for the players' they should be asking 'what's it like having Gareth around?'. That way they aren't trying to put words in the player's mouths.

Henry Tait came to a Fever Friday breakfast before Christmas. Clearly Welnix are trying to infiltrate the group, to surpress all negative comment about any moves the owners make

A story line for you Mr Worthington.

He had the same jacket on that he did when at training yesterday..... Must be strapped for cash..... "Todd Corporation is doomed"

For as much stick as I have given Gareth about his foot n mouth comments, good on him for getting down to the park and seeing it for himself. While its seems clear the Ricki reports to the owners and not the GM, if you wanna know how your cattle are going, you got to head out to the field to watch them feed and roam.

Regardless what the project is, if he is a smart man, he will ask the right questions about the game (he professes to have a lack of knowledge of) and what's going on and that can only make him smarter in making future decisions/commentary.

As much as Gareth appears to the be the mouth piece, I do ask where David Dome sits in all of this. He is like a lame duck GM (or not charged with football responsibilities) Oh how I long for the days of Tony P.

^ This.

Honestly - if an owner or board director didn't come down and see the team in training or other team events, you'd have to question their reasons for being involved.

Do you think that Worthington is generating negative views on the team or just reflecting what the public feels?

I was back for a couple of weeks over xmas and speaking to people there the Yellow Fever view seems to me has stopped reflecting the general view of people in Wellington who either no longer care and are not going, or are completely fed up.  I did not speak to one person who was at all convinced by this "exciting project" that we are "building towards" (Ricky Herbert TM)

These people, were they football people fed up, the casual observer...? 

This is a football football form with complete bias to everything football much like you go to a naturalist colony and find a community into that.

To me, I don't expect the casual observer to give a shit about the Phoenix because the majority are rugby boof heads whom only hide for about 6 weeks of the year such is the length of their season. We then get the complete failure of that team called the black caps that are arguably weaker at their sport than we are at football on a global level that dominate the press because they are a bunch of bumbling fuck ups that even Eddie the eagle Edwards would be considered a sporting god next to these lot. Hell people are even stupid enough to turn to darts and find that 'sport' entertaining enough to get talkback hours (don't get me started on that WOFTAM game).

Regardless what the Phoenix do, it's not really going to register in the minds of the sporting public unless they win. Only then, the fickle fans that could not even tell you what colours the Phoenix wear, will profess to be died in the wool hardcore supporters from day one tune in, such is the nature of the NZ sporting public. They only ever support on a sunny day..

JD in da house!! Welcome back dude.

No, I don't think that Worthington is reflecting what the public feels. If he was doing that he wouldn't be writing about the Phoenix at all - which is a different problem.

Writing stories such as trying to put a negative spin on an owner turning up to training is just being a dick, and fits with an overall narrative at the Dom Post that has been there for years. The Phoenix aren't the only victims of this either, the Dom Post's descent into tabloid style journalism can be traced precisely to the appointment of Bernadette Courtney as Editor.

It sounds like most of the people you talked to don't read Yellow Fever, but they do read the Dom Post. So yes, the Dom Post (cause) is responsible for contributing to a more negative view of the Nix among the general public (effect).

Since when are the sports pages of a paper meant to be the place for hard-hitting investigative journalism anyway? It simply isn't necessary. If there's one place in a paper where unashamed parochial boosterism is OK, it's the sports section (unless we've all taken leave of our senses and actually think this shit's important now).

What he said

T-X, I hope you've managed to keep those rose tinted specs polished up while I've been away.  I agree with your observations on the dompost - I was reading it in about 10 minutes while I was home, what a joke of a rag it is!

Anyway, all of that is true but the people I'm talking about were my parents friends who have always watched or been season ticket holders and most if not all are no longer going. I'm from Miramar and we've always all watched games together at Centennial in the old national league, NZFC etc.  These are not football tragics but have had kids who have played so naturally they know a wee bit.

Whether or not Herbert has the wherewithal to turn things around there is a huge job to convince these types that the guy who has been at the helm when we've got into the position we are in is also the one to get us out.  There's a lot of ill feeling towards Ricky and while he's talking a lot about positive signs, moving forward, building for the future etc I don't think there are a lot of people who have seen anything like that when results and performances are demonstrably pretty terrible. 

JD - so glad you're back, it's been soooo boring around here.

Had to throw the rose tinted specs away I'm afraid. This season requires blind faith so I've taken to wearing a blindfold instead.

Agree with most of your post actually. There's no doubt the Nix have shed 4-5k casual-ish fans who they need to get back. Not sure it's fair to lay all of that at Herbert's door though.

Anyway, the only question for us is do we want to contribute to making things better, or making things worse?

Me, I'm climbing aboard the Posi-Machine!

Yep, I have actually moved on a little from the Ricki hate, I think that record is pretty much worn out and we all know exactly what his strengths and weaknesses are.  

I have a new target - David Dome.  I think he'd do pretty well right in front of the Posi-Machine...

 He was appointed as GM on March 28th 2012.  That's not four years.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/sport/8186998/Lets-have-a-bit-more-accountability-at-top

Interesting article from Bidwell. Don't think its unfair either. The Dom Post and the Phoenix had this battle a couple of years ago. Now, just like then, there is only one winner. The Dom. They have a much bigger microphone.

not according to his facebook/linkedin profile - he claims he's been CEO since 2008

I disagree with Bidwell too. I think Gareth was 100% correct to have a go at the Dom Post, and Gareth wasn't calling for them to become Phoenix supporters, he was imploring them to stop being Phoenix-bashers. 

Yeah, it's still interesting the liberties they will take though. For example, the Phoenix are now a "franchise in crisis" while the Pulse are a shining example of where we should be heading? Gimme a break. Let's not forget The Phoenix have qualified for the play-offs three years in a row, which is something the Pulse have still never done. The Phoenix could still end up doing that 4 years in a row, setting an A-League record.

The Phoenix are having one bad season, while also experiencing some minors growing pains under a new ownership group, that's all.

The trouble with these sports journos is they think they are reporting on the global financial crisis, not the local sports team.

I think the thing we need to remember about David Dome is that he's GM.  He's not the CEO frontman that Tony was and that was intentional from the ownership group. 

I think they have the intention that they are generally the front men and the GMs resposibility is to let them make statements and get on with the day to day running.  That's certainly how it would appear to a neutral observer.