The Brisbane Lions are reportedly considering a boycott of major news outlets, including newspaper The Herald Sun and radio station 3AW, over the reporting of their off-season incident which came to light last week.
The Lions’ leaders denied on Monday there was any link between their disappointing 0-3 start to the season and the fallout from a post-season holiday to the United States.
Various reports across the media have revealed an accidental upload of WhatsApp messages to a player’s iCloud, which was seen by his partner, left the teammates’ partners back home in Australia furious and ended at least one relationship.
Brisbane footy boss Danny Daly denied there were “crisis meetings over the weekend” but confirmed he spoke with co-captains Lachie Neale and Harris Andrews to confirm the playing group was not divided.
“There are some issues which we don’t need to be aware of. It’s an end of season trip for our players – they’re on leave – and whatever happened on that trip wasn’t to the extent that the football club needed to know about it,” Daly said.
“There’s no policies or anything they went outside of that we need to address. The issues are of a personal nature and that’s where it’ll be left.”
But the way in which the story emerged has left many at the club fuming, with some reports including many photos of Lions players on holiday in the US, not necessarily related to the Vegas incident.
“My understanding tonight is that the Brisbane Lions are considering a boycott of not just the Herald Sun, not also 3AW, for an indefinite period of time for their reporting,” Nine’s Tom Morris said on Footy Classified.
“They’re angry. The club are more angry at the Herald Sun, the players are more angry at 3AW.”
Fox Footy’s Gerard Whateley believed there was some merit to the frustration.
“The story is titillating and salacious but it’s been used to pretend there’s more than that … sexier story, but not true,” he said on AFL 360.
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