So-called Family Club's Grubby Political Saga Worthy Of White-trash Tv Show

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday February 16, 2008

Andrew Webster

KERRY O'BRIEN deserves his place on the podium alongside Tony Jones and Chris Masters as one of Australia's most respected and ethical broadcast journalists. Like his ABC colleagues, he sizes up then pounces on political spin like a dobermann on a kitten. Or Kerry onto Amanda Vanstone's jugular.

So you can't help but wonder what the imposing host of the 7.30 Report thinks of allegations levelled at his son Chris, who was forced to resign as Bulldogs media manager this week amid claims he was behind a smear campaign to discredit director Ray Dib.

Kerry didn't return the Herald's calls yesterday but Chris released a statement late yesterday apologising to Dib. It was sent from his own email address - not under the name of Ronnie Younis.

It was in stark contrast to the deft top- and back-spin he's been known to serve up to rugby league reporters, particularly in the lead-up to tomorrow's annual general meeting and board elections at the Bulldogs.

On Monday he was nudging journalists toward an email doing the rounds that contained a transcript of an Independent Commission Against Corruption hearing from October 2004 revealing Dib's phone had been tapped during an investigation into his brother, David, over an alleged building licence scam. No charges have been laid.

As O'Brien told this journalist: "The last thing the Bulldogs need right now is a board member who has been mentioned in an ICAC inquiry."

On Wednesday night, he quit his job in disgrace after IT forensic experts hired by Dib had apparently traced the emails sent under a bogus name to O'Brien's computer. Dib has said he would take legal action.

Bulldogs chief executive Malcolm Noad - who employed O'Brien to soothe relations between club and media in the wake of the Coffs Harbour rape allegations of 2004 - couldn't blurt out the words quick enough: "He was the only person involved."

It was like he'd channelled Jackie Kelly, the former Member for Lindsay who said she had no idea that her husband, Gary, had letterboxed bogus leaflets praising Labor's support for the convicted Bali bombers in the lead-up to last year's federal election.

While the bogus flyers served as the final round-house kick to the head of John Howard's political existence, it's uncertain whether O'Brien's alleged email will have any bearing on the struggle for power at Belmore.

Do the 500 members about to vote particularly care about a media flak joining the Centrelink queue? Probably not. They - like non-voting fans - are more likely to be disturbed that the bitter campaign for control of their club has slunk further into the gutter.

You're likely to get a straighter line out of Carson Kressley than that creeping out of the Bulldogs at the moment. Nothing is as it seems.

Graeme Hughes says he doesn't head the rival ticket of fellow former players and is worried about the direction of the club - yet he seems driven by the sacking of his brother Garry as football manager almost three years ago.

Indeed, you wonder what political calisthenics were at play when suggestions surfaced this week about incumbent director Peter Winchester's fuming over his signature appearing in a letter from the existing board to football club members.

"Have you been speaking to Graeme Hughes?" Winchester asked when the Herald contacted him, before he insisted he had no issue with his name and signature appearing on the letter.

The finger of blame turned on Hughes last week when he was linked to former disgraced Canterbury Leagues Club boss Gary McIntyre, the toadish figure at the centre of the salary cap scandal of 2002 who has used every annual general meeting since to rant about the club he brought to its knees.

McIntyre told this journalist that his perceived link to the "Hughes Ticket" was part of a "devious" plan devised by Noad and O'Brien to discredit the so-called rebels. Right on queue, Noad started making references to the "McIntyre Ticket".

The rumours have been rampant. Bulldogs coach Steve Folkes could do nothing but laugh about the old one about him and assistant coach Kevin Moore not speaking.

The saga has even generated grubby gossip about extra-marital affairs. Every club has its feuds but this is like some weirdo Jerry Springer episode.

The final instalment airs at Canterbury Leagues Club tomorrow. But you sense, no matter the outcome, that too much has been said in the press, behind closed doors, and in bogus emails for the "Family Club" to be the same again.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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