SEN’s Gerard Whateley has cleared up any confusion surrounding Sam Mitchell and his involvement with Collingwood, while making his stance on the media’s reaction evident.
Speculation has surfaced following reports questioning whether Mitchell was part of the early process in being coach of Collingwood before being announced as the future coach of the Hawks.
“This is where the power play and the politics that centres around Jeff Kennett is very real, and from what we know there was barely a 20 minute conversation between Clarkson and Mitchell on the way into the announcement,” Whateley said on SEN's Crunch Time.
“The work has been actually been done in the aftermath of it.
“Sam (Mitchell) wanted it very clear in the timeline that he didn’t take Clarkson’s job above all else, that’s what he’s spelt out.”
Whateley explained that the decision was made, Sam was then informed of the decision, and from there he was involved in the next step of the process by telling Collingwood that he’s out.
“He’s (Sam) then the next step in the process and then he tells Collingwood, no I’m out,” he said.
“The idea that put himself into the Collingwood process is not right, it was the other way around.”
Throughout the speculation surrounding Mitchell, Whateley described the response of the modern media as “jarring”, especially the notion that Mitchell needs to be careful about what he says.
“That’s not how I think our profession should operate,” Whateley said.
“There’s just a couple of layers in this which probably tells you the evolution of the modern football media.
“I’m absolutely happy to sit here and say that there are elements of it that I’m just not comfortable with, and have never believed that’s part of our role.”