AFL Hall of Fame legends Garry Lyon and Tim Watson have taken exception to the ABC’s Media Watch for referring to them as ‘ageing footballers’, calling the program ‘ageist’.
It comes after the two commentators were mentioned in the show’s report on the coverage of machete violence in Victoria, which has seen police roll out an amnesty to get the weapons off the streets.
Victoria Police have installed more than 40 secure ‘Machete Safe Disposal Bins’ at police stations, allowing residents to safely surrender machetes penalty-free.
On Sunday, two boys aged 12 and 15 were fatally attacked with machetes in Cobblebank, Melbourne, in what police believe was a mistaken-identity youth gang assault.
Just weeks earlier, on August 12, a 24-year-old man was ambushed and killed by a machete-wielding group in Lyndhurst, highlighting a disturbing rise in deadly blade violence across Victoria.
Victorian opposition MP Nicole Werner went on the offensive about the Machete Amnesty Safe Disposal Bins last week, claiming they cost $13million, or $325,000 each to install – roughly the same price as a Ferrari.
AFL Hall of Fame legend Garry Lyon was not happy with being referred to as an ‘ageing footballer’ by Media Watch
His SEN co-host Tim Watson is also in the AFL Hall of Fame and said the comments were not on
The furore has been centred around Machete Safe Disposal Bins installed in Victoria by police
That’s how Lyon and Watson got dragged into the machete violence drama on their radio show SEN Breakfast with Garry and Tim.
Last week, Lyon was reading the figures from a Melbourne newspaper when he made a comment about it on their show.
‘You tell us how you can get a steel box worth $325,000, just tell us,’ Lyon said.
That attracted the attention of Media Watch, with host Linton Besser revealing that the $13million figure had attracted the attention of several media outlets.
‘They even occupied those ageing footballers over on SEN,’ he said.
Lyon and Watson did not catch Media Watch on Monday night, but were alerted to the comment while presenting their show on Tuesday morning.
‘This person reckons Media Watch called us two ageing footballers,’ Lyon said incredulously.
‘Now I am disappointed,’ Watson replied.
Media Watch host Linton Besser (pictured) was pointing out the differences in reporting of the knife crime issue in Victoria when he roped in Lyon and Watson
Lyon was quoted from his SEN Breakfast show, along with other media outlets who commented on the issue
‘Now that is ageist. That’s not on,’ Lyon said.
‘That’s exactly right, we can come back at them for that,’ Watson replied.
‘My word we will, we’ll do our own investigation,’ Lyon replied.
‘That’s just ageist. What do you mean two ageing footballers?’
‘They could have done better than that,’ Watson agreed.
Watson revealed they had received an email from the Media Watch team, but had not replied to it.
‘If we had have [replied], you could have been [described] as “the most recent addition to the AFL Hall of Fame”. That’s what they should have gone with,’ Watson said.
‘Not “two ageing footballers”,’ Lyon replied.
‘We’re both Hall of Fame members and they go to that,’ Watson said.
Media Watch also revealed that the Herald Sun newspaper reported that the bins only cost $110,000 in total to install.
‘Apparently something you said about these steel machete boxes wasn’t correct. Wasn’t 100 per cent correct,’ Watson said on SEN.
‘I was reading it out of the newspaper,’ Lyon said.
‘Exactly, that is our defence. I don’t know if it is a defence,’ Watson replied.
‘We’ve added to the confusion,’ he continued. ‘We’ve just got to correct it.’
