Afl Pressures Judd To Meet Tv's Request For Interview

The Age

Wednesday March 19, 2008

By Samantha Lane

THE AFL is exerting pressure on Chris Judd's manager and the superstar midfielder's new club in a bid to overturn the refusal of an interview request from one of the game's television broadcast partners in the lead-up to tomorrow night's Carlton-Richmond season opener.

In an intriguing, behind-the-scenes power play in the countdown to round one, the AFL intervened in a protracted negotiation between the television network and the manager of one of the game's biggest names. Judd will play his first game for the Blues tomorrow in a game that will be televised by Channel Ten.

For more than a month, Judd's manager Paul Connors has indicated that his client would not participate in a pre-recorded interview that the broadcaster hoped would be a centrepiece of its coverage of the much-anticipated Carlton-Richmond match.

AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou confirmed this week that the league had become involved after Ten officially lodged its concern about the refused interview request about a fortnight ago.

In the past 24 hours, chief broadcasting and commercial officer Gillon McLachlan has continued to negotiate with Carlton chief executive Greg Swann, while other AFL officials, McLachlan said, had raised the matter with Connors.

Less than 48 hours before the first bounce, the matter was still not resolved yesterday. But having "chipped away" on behalf of Ten, the league insisted it was hopeful that Judd would be made available and added that, as a club captain, he should agree to additional media duties.

"I think it's a reasonable expectation for broadcasters to approach captains and for them to go on broadcasts - I'm not talking about the personalities - and I don't think the manager should get involved," Demetriou said.

"Captains, when they sign up, there's an expectation that captains perform in the media. And for broadcasters who are paying $800-odd-million dollars, it's not unreasonable for them to have captains appear, whether it's a pre-record or post-match or the like."

When contacted by The Age yesterday, Connors said: "I hope everyone can appreciate that Chris' sole focus at the moment is playing football on Thursday night."

McLachlan said Swann had provided an undertaking to him about trying get Judd to participate, but that there were "a variety of reasons" why the interview request initially had been refused.

"I've spoken to the CEO and he's trying to help, I think. He's certainly indicated he'd try to make it happen. But there were, I think, some issues they had there and that he was trying to work through with Chris.

"Most relevant to Chris is his very full schedule and I understand that, and I understand that he's probably the most in-demand player in the game and it's trying to balance all of that.

"We understand he's very busy and we understand he's very in demand, but . . . as the captain of Carlton and to launch the season with one of our host broadcasters, we're keen for him to do it," McLachlan said. "It's a very big game for Carlton and a very big game for the AFL and a very big game for Ten as we launch the season."

Other than communicating in strong terms that the AFL was unhappy with the rejection to one of its official broadcasters, McLachlan said the league was unprepared to take further action.

"We're looking for the goodwill of the players rather than us threatening anything," McLachlan said.

The Seven and Ten networks paid a record $850 million for the AFL television rights deal that lasts until 2011.

A portion of the games was later sold to pay TV station Fox Sports.

© 2008 The Age

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