It’s fair to say that Tim Percival knows a thing or two about media management and relationships.
After all, he had to work for Eddie Jones for a while back when the headline-generating Australian was in charge of England.
Currently,the communications lead for the RFU, Percival has put his experiences into a new book, Off The Record & On The Ball.
It’s not just about his experiences, though. Percival sought the help of over 30 elite-level coaches, including extensive quotes from former Chiefs, Wales and Lions boss Warren Gatland.
The result is a revealing look at the way the media operates within an often variable degree of trust, one that can change with the blow of a whistle or stroke of a keyboard.
The book acts effectively as a ‘how to’ guide for both sides of the media/athlete relationship, explaining a lot of the unwritten rules and conventions around an industry that’s often widely misunderstood by the audience that follows it.
Off the Record & On the Ball, by Tim Percival.
One of the main areas of conjecture, especially now that the value of disingenuous empathy as social media currency has never been higher, is around the role of journalists as critics.
One of the most notorious instances of that was Gatland’s welcome back to New Zealand as coach of the British and Irish Lions in 2017, where he was greeted with a full page newspaper cartoon depicting him as a clown.
“I don’t think it affected my performance,” Gatland says in the book, with the series against the All Blacks ending in a dramatic drawn third test at Eden Park.
“I was really conscious of the negativity and I’m 100% convinced it came from the All Black coaches at the time. It was a deliberate ploy to put pressure on me from day one. It made me determined to do well. It galvanised me and I thought, you know, I’m going to work harder here.”
The book also talks about the siege mentality that’s often used by teams to create motivation, against an outside perceived injustice that’s either real or imagined.
Veteran former premier league manager Harry Redknapp, who was famous for giving off the cuff press conferences leaning out of his car window while leaving training, is liberally quoted in the book. He reveals a level of respect between himself and the media, saying he understands that they “have a job to do”.
“I couldn’t drive past someone at seven o’clock in the morning in January, when it’s freezing cold. It’s not in my nature to go straight past someone without stopping and speaking to them. If I can help them do their job, then what difference does that make to me?”
The overarching theme of Percival’s message is that while there’s no one clear right way for athletes, teams or coaches to operate with the media and vice versa, there are plenty of wrong ones. It’s frustrating that the default option, especially now that not just every comment but also not commenting on certain issues by athletes are dissected by the public, is to simply shun social media entirely.
Gatland makes the sad point that it wasn’t the online criticism of himself, rather that of son Bryn that got to him the most.
“Some of the vitriol on social media, it’s just nasty. It’s disgraceful.”
Perhaps that’s where publications like this can help educate the most, because at least Gatland has a right of reply when conversations are held in press conferences and under a ratified journalistic structure.
Comments sections don’t have that and likely never will, so the more the public know about how sports journalism actually works, the healthier the environment will be for everyone.
