I am a little suprised at the media's carry on. Pretty obvious to give someone some space after they've been through a bit. And the media preach mental health and then carrry on when a guy wants to be left alone due to mental health.
I'm not.
We came out pretty strong early and pretty much told them if they chased the story they were pricks with no regards to people's mental health struggles. Jack put Scooter & Magoo in their places on their show, they didn't like it, but had to follow along.
So now the pile on starts.
I really don't understand how anyone rational can back the media here.
It was always a delicate situation. We were always massively guarded about Dusty stories for a reason. He's now coming back from whatever kept him away from the game and club he loves for 2 months. We tell the broadcaster *in advance* that Dusty won't be doing any media on his return match. Fox ignore what we tell them and try to grab him on the field to force him onto the camera. They fail. They then send down someone who they think can work his way to Dusty. They fail. Then they bleat about it.
As for giving Fox credit for not complaining to the AFL, how does anyone know they didn't? I would imagine the AFL were keeping close tabs on Dusty's return, talking to Richmond throughout. He's a massive AFL asset. Just as I would expect when Richmond told Fox there is no Dusty media for the weekend, they told all the media outlets they same thing. We wouldn't have made that statement to the media without at minimum looping in the AFL, if not consulting them first.