Freddy Blind Drunk: Media Double Standard? Dan Ginnane 22 June, 2009 - 9:22 AM

When Dead Set Legends kicked off on Saturday morning, the Brad Fittler story was just blossoming and at that embryonic point it seemed only a matter of time before his tenure at the Roosters would cease.

Fast forward a few hours, and a rapid response from the club as well as a self-imposed fine put out the blazing fires like an Elvis chopper.

The media reaction to Freddy's bender has been less than volcanic, subdued almost beyond the point of being even-handed. Sanity seems to have washed over the headline makers. While it's difficult to criticise a media pack for taking a laid back - dare I say fair - approach to what is really just a silly error from Fittler, ask yourself whether the reaction would have been the same if it was, say, Brian Smith? Or Wayne Bennett?

Think the editors would have been so kind?

No way.

Compare Fittler's misdemeanour with what happened, supposedly, with Tim Cahill at a Kings Cross nightclub last week. Fittler - a coach, mind you - was hammered, two days before a game, prancing around the corridors of a hotel. None of which is in dispute.

Cahill had a few drinks, probably more than a few, after a match, and was asked to leave, perhaps when the club was closing, perhaps not. Maybe there was a dispute, maybe not. Nobody seems to be able to agree on what happened, if anything happened at all. Yet despite this shady evidence, it's the Socceroos star who has been pillared for a week, while Fittler was given a fair go.

Something isn't right.

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(3)

• philbee says

  I think Freddy did the right thing by fining himself. Very proactive stuff and sets a good example.

  I'm sure he's learnt his lesson.

  Posted Monday 22 June, 2009 9:55 AM
• mitch says

  what a slap on the wrist. that is pretty poor form from someone meant to set a good example to his players..

  Posted Monday 22 June, 2009 9:58 AM
• stone says

  Be it as it may, the rugby league gods sure aren't smiling on the chookies at the moment.... and some of us are cracking a smile about that

  Posted Monday 22 June, 2009 9:59 AM

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