I’ve rewatched the Newsroom recently. It’s perhaps more cutting on the re-watch now as a journalist who has worked in a mixture of newsrooms.
One thing that stood out to me in their “mission to civilise” or “mission to inform” is the emphasis on bringing context.
Breaking news generally isn’t stand alone. There’s a foundation of context surrounding that.
So many conversations as a journalist is “on background” and most seek out the background before a story becomes a story. Pure curiosity.
The best journalists and editors I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and working alongside have taught me the importance of knowing the context of a story, because that often informs the “why”; why did something happen and why do we care.
You might be asking, Molly, we’re here for football, why so philosophical about journalist after watching a HBO series. And I’m here to say when news like the Matildas being knocked out of the group stage or Tony Gustavsson parting ways drops — it’s imperative to remember the context.
In isolation, the Matildas failed the grade at the Olympics. They didn’t show up early enough, the tactics were lacklustre and it’s easy to pick apart individual performances.
But give it context and it’s a totally different story.
Just looking at the squad, our world class player in Sam Kerr was ruled out. Our next best out and out centre forward who had international experience and didn’t need blooding in (in a position that takes time to build confidence) was a 36 year-old who hadn’t played at the level for five years. And shout out to Heyman for well and truly stepping up.
Add in, our next best player who governs the midfield, Gorry, was recovering from injury and seemed only fit enough to play 60 minutes a game if we had any chance of playing her for consecutive matches in the packed and harsh Olympic schedule.
Then defensively, there’s a known issue of a lack of pace at centre back and no depth there. The tactics might have been wrong for that, but throw in Kerr’s forward press against Germany and her presence on defensive corners and things would’ve looked more positive.
Don’t even get me started on bringing global context to football tournaments and pecking orders. It’s easy to forget that Asia only has two Olympic spots so to qualify is a statement in itself. We failed to do so for three tournaments before a resounding, battling qualification for Rio and not having to deal with Japan for Tokyo’s entry.
Other better national teams with stronger systems than the Matildas have dropped out of major tournaments with worse results.
Wanna talk about our group? The audacity to presume the Matildas will walk it against Zambia who have two of the hottest forwards in the game. Against our defence? A drag queen on RuPaul’s drag race is saying “gurlll”.
Our opening opponent was against a European team constantly playing high level opposition in the Nations League, a far cry from some of our opponents in the past 12 months.
Then there’s the loss against the USWNT. They’re the team looking most likely to stop Spain from a gold medal and are reinvigorated under a new coach, the trophy magnet Emma Hayes.
The Matildas should be scrutinised. I’m happy to hold them to a high standard and to pick apart what went wrong, who we need to replace over the next 18 months and how we can grow from here. But if we do that, it needs to come with context and background.
That’s my mission to civilise.
MOLLY'S FOOTY RANTS 