AFL | Crikey

GLENN DYER |

Glenn Dyer’s TV ratings: what next for seven after My Kitchen Rules plates up?

Channel Seven has been winning the ratings war, even up against The Voice, but with its main viewer-winner My Kitchen Rules ending, will it keep its edge?

JOURNALISM|

The players are victims in sports drug witch hunt

The deck is stacked against athletes, who damage their bodies and minds irrevocably for the chance to play at the top level for a few years, writes Dr James Connor.

Tips and rumours

Has Bob Carr deleted Facebook page? … Ian Macdonald scandal spreads to car rally … can Crikey’s Cinderella go to Rupert Murdoch’s ball?

CATHY ALEXANDER | FEDERAL|

Essential: ban all sports betting, says a public fed up with drugs

Dire warnings on drugs in sport have been taken up by the public, with Essential Research finding high levels of concerns about drugs (and betting) in sports. But fans won’t necessarily be turning off their TVs …

ANDREW CROOK | FEDERAL|

Bombshell sports probe: drugs and corruption to ‘disgust’ fans

Sports fans are bracing for the worst as sports and justice chiefs dropped a bombshell today: allegations of the widespread and systematic use of performance-enhancing drugs in Australian sport.

ANDREW CROOK | SPORT|

AFL drugs probe: crime links and the doctor who advised

Crikey speaks to the doctor who advised Essendon conditioning staff on the supplements at the centre of a scandal that could blow up the AFL — and potentially other sports.

RICHARD FARMER |

Richard Farmer’s chunky bits: new match-fixing unit

Start by having a chat with Andrew Demetriou. So the federal government is expanding its bureaucracy by setting up a new national unit to protect the integrity of sport in an attempt to stamp out match-fixing. Well a good place for the new investigators to start would be at the AFL, the body that institutionalised […]

Media briefs: GF ratings … the Kohler tax … Apple radio? …

One thing is certain from the weekend grand finals for the AFL and NRL: rugby league has a much stronger following in Melbourne than the AFL has in Sydney. Plus, The Australian’s price rise and other media news.

GLENN DYER | ADVERTISING|

Grand final ratings: RL in Melbourne beats AFL in Sydney

Melbourne sports fans like rugby league more than Sydney fans like AFL. That’s what you can take out of TV ratings for the weekend’s two grand finals.

Age ‘toon backdown … NT News trolls … AFL beats NRL …

In today’s Media Briefs: Age backs down on cartoon scrapping … NT News trolls attack the dead … AFL beats rugby league in TV ratings … Front Page of the Day … The Department of Corrections …

GLENN DYER | SPORT|

AFL beats rugby league in TV head-to-head

Thanks to the co-broadcast deal with Seven and Foxtel/Fox Sports, the AFL was the big winner from the first weekend of finals football.

SPORT|

The AFL keeps kicking behinds against homophobia

The AFL has endorsed a campaign to tackle homophobia in sport, but that’s as far as its support goes. Doug Pollard questions whether the game is uncomfortable with the issue.

LEIGH JOSEY | SPORT|

A tiger in the sack: anatomy of breaking AFL news

Did the AFL know that player Daniel Connors had been sacked ahead of a 2pm press conference and if so did they publish information that was sensitive ahead of one of its members, Richmond, going public with the news?

Falconio journo in court … Buttrose warned Paper Giants producers

In today’s Media Briefs: Front Page of the Day … How the British press covered the American Revolution … Seven Network journalist to face court … Ita Buttrose warned Paper Giants producers and more …

COMPANIES|

Seven, CBA, AFL lead the way into new domain era

Seek, iSelect, three of the four major banks and the AFL are among the Australians who have applied for access to new top-level domains, writes Patrick Stafford of Smart Company.

COMPANIES|

AFL admission: turns out pokies are a bad look

The AFL has announced overnight that it wants to help its clubs wean themselves off poker machines, writes Charles Livingstone, of Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.

The Age | LINKS|

The problem with Channel Seven’s AFL coverage

The Age journalist and AFL analyst for SEN radio Rohan Connolly takes a long run up to Channel Seven’s AFL coverage for the 2012 season thus far, taking particular aim at its use of camera zooming and bizarre commentary.

TV & RADIO|

Show me the TV money — the time bomb that may sink soccer

If insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result each time, then Frank Lowy must be certifiably bonkers, writes David Salter, veteran journalist and former head of TV sport at the ABC and Channel Seven,

Crikey Blogs | LINKS|

How the AFL and News Limited got into video games

Fantasy football games such as SuperCoach and Dream Team fit into the same sphere occupied by social games, Facebook games and Android applications, writes Dan Golding.

GLENN DYER | TV & RADIO|

AFL-NRL-Pay TV-FTA-watch

It’s the first AFL round of the year and this time the media’s fancy turned to comparing the audience numbers for Seven’s FTA coverage and the Pay TV coverage.

Oz media kill a man twice … The Age’s The Sting love fest … Oz’s $200K correction …

In today’s Media Brief: Oz media claim police killed a man twice … AFL-NRL-Pay TV-FTA-watch … The Age’s The Sting love fest … Front Page of the Day … The Department of Corrections and more …

The Age | LINKS|

Lyon: my mate Jimma

AFL and youth work legend Jim Stynes passed away yesterday morning after a long battle with illness. Garry Lyon discusses their final months together as mates talking about life, love and the rules of pool in a lovely tribute to his mate.

The Conversation | LINKS|

The battle over Yuendumu

Melbourne Demons footballer Liam Jurrah remains embroiled in an clan dispute that ended up in an Alice Springs court room last week. Jurrah’s biographer Bruce Hearn Mackinnon explains some of the challenges for footballers coming from remote indigenous communities.