Paul Crawley - John Hopoate chasing Damir Dokic title  

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Berkeley_Eagle

Current Status: 24/7 Manly Fan
MOVE over Damir, looks like John Hopoate wants to challenge for the title as Australia's most controversial sporting dad.

That's the topic one of our reader's put up for debate yesterday when he posted a comment on The Daily Telegraph's website, labelling Will Hopoate as the NRL's new Jelena Dokic.

While that might be a little extreme it must be as sad as it is embarrassing for the 19-year-old Blues rookie.

In case you missed it, Hoppa snr made a mug of himself again this week when he attempted to hijack his son's first day in camp, allegedly because of his own war with the media.

Picture this: Will was downstairs at the Coogee Crowne Plaza doing interviews after being named as the youngest player in Ricky Stuart's squad when he got a call from his dad.

The next thing, Will disappeared, later telling team media manager Tristan Hay that he would not perform any more media interviews on the advice of his father

Seriously, you talk about words of wisdom.

It was left to Blues teammate Anthony Watmough to phone his old Manly teammate and convince him to allow Will to participate in promoting next Wednesday night's Origin game.By that point, the damage had been done.

Instead of a memorable day, Will woke yesterday to see his picture plastered across the front page for all the wrong reasons.

Remember, the kid did nothing wrong except listen to his father's advice.

It's a shame someone at Manly can't tell Hoppa snr to pull his head in. It's a shame Hopoate snr isn't heading off on his own sabbatical, like Will plans to do at the end of the season when he takes a two-year break to become a Mormon missionary.

It sounds like Will could do without his old man's interference as he prepares for the biggest game of his life.

This embarrassment would have to take its toll on his preparations - and when you think about all the wonderful opportunities rugby league has given John over the years, it makes even less sense.

People at Manly always stick up for Hoppa, saying he is a great bloke.

They will tell you that the former Manly, NSW and Australian representative has a fantastic relationship with his son, and that he's been a tremendous father to all his kids.

Even before Will pulled the pin on Monday's interviews, the Blues rookie spoke passionately about his dad being a role model throughout his life - despite all the controversies that marred his father's turbulent career, including the infamous bum-poking attacks of 2001 that made news all over the world.

Will told colleague James Phelps: "That time was a very tough time for the family. One of the toughest times of our lives ... I was never embarrassed by it and it is in the past now.

"And I always wanted to be like Dad."

His comments would make any father proud. So why would his dad want to stand in his way?

Like I said, it makes no sense, which probably makes perfect sense in John Hopoate's world.

Earlier this year, John tried to pull a similar stunt when he physically attempted to block media at a Sydney court - where he was facing assault charges relating to the bashing of a man at Kings Cross while he working as a security guard.

If you take time to look back over his career, there are too many controversies to begin to understand when it was that he started blaming the media for all that has gone wrong in his life.

Chances are he'll never forget the past - but hopefully his son can.

 



http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/john-hopoate-chasing-damir-dokic-title/story-e6frexv9-1226071297011


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By the way if you want to respond to Paul crawley at his Twitter @telepaulcrawley 
 
Berkeley_Eagle said:
Instead of a memorable day, Will woke yesterday to see his picture plastered across the front page for all the wrong reasons.

Remember, the kid did nothing wrong except listen to his father's advice.

I haven't seen the front page he is talking about (does anyone have a link to the story?), but I find it a very strange argument that this journo is blaming John Hopoate the media apparently laying into Will when as he says Will has done nothing wrong???
 
I actually applaude Hoppa Snr for sticking up for his Son and trying to protect him from the circus that is the media.

We all know the Media have a motto of " Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story"

The media want to put him on a pedastal and turn him into some sort of superhero saviour and eventually turn out per the likes of Carney.

I for one would be encouraging my sons to steer clear of the media as much as possible and endeavour to keep some privacy in their lives.

You only have to look at what the media did to Brett and how they crucified him without a fair trial.
 
Seaeagle63 said:
I actually applaude Hoppa Snr for sticking up for his Son and trying to protect him from the circus that is the media.

Me too mate, media thinks they own every one, if they dont get their own way they just twist a story..

Hoppa snr knows what the media can do, and after all why should Will give them a story when they disrespect his dad..

Till Gallop & News Ltd apologise, they should be snubbed do the occaisional one for the team , but out side that dont give Gallop any help promoting anything NRL for his benefit till he fronts up to us(manly)& apologises ......
 
The media are always a potentially duplicitous lot - some trustworthy but most will burn you to make a good story when it suits them.

Enjoy the moment Will, but beware and remember that the media doesn't operate by the same ethical and moral code that you do
 
Say what you like about the media but still poor form from Hoppa Snr to yank his kid out mid interview. Believe it or not we need the media as much as they need us.
 
Masked Eagle said:
Say what you like about the media but still poor form from Hoppa Snr to yank his kid out mid interview. Believe it or not we need the media as much as they need us.

Good point ME and John should have asked himself "what will happen when I do this?" but then again he should have been asking that question at various times through his career (finger, Galloway etc).... I still love him though haha
 
Masked Eagle said:
Say what you like about the media but still poor form from Hoppa Snr to yank his kid out mid interview. Believe it or not we need the media as much as they need us.

The Media are only up our a** because we are winning.. where were they last 2 yrs??? f***n rubbishing us.. they would look pretty stupid ignoring a team coming 2nd wouldn`t they.. If we keep winning they will need us more than we will need them...
 
The vicious pricks! So a father wants to protect his son from the media and keep his feet on the ground before the biggest game of his life? Sounds like good parenting to me. But cause it's Jphn Hopoate and the Manly Sea Eagles it's got to have a sinister twist to it!
 
I commented on the article this morning but not surprisingly they didn't put my comment on the website. John has been crucified by the media, largely due to one stupid antic that was encouraged by his coach (and Lam was one the of grubbiest of all time). The high shot on Galloway was trial by media and I can understand why John has no time for them. Matt Johns said this morning on Triple M that he spoke to John and John was going to allow an interview because he knew that Johns, Geyer and co would not carve him up but Matt decided to respect the wishes of the family and cancelled the interview. The DT are one of the worst media outlets when it comes to turning player, current of former, into heroes or villains.
 
jjai said:
Masked Eagle said:
Say what you like about the media but still poor form from Hoppa Snr to yank his kid out mid interview. Believe it or not we need the media as much as they need us.

The Media are only up our a** because we are winning.. where were they last 2 yrs??? f***n rubbishing us.. they would look pretty stupid ignoring a team coming 2nd wouldn`t they.. If we keep winning they will need us more than we will need them...
Just more anti Manly bull****. **** Crawl Pauley.
 
jjai said:
Masked Eagle said:
Say what you like about the media but still poor form from Hoppa Snr to yank his kid out mid interview. Believe it or not we need the media as much as they need us.

The Media are only up our a** because we are winning.. where were they last 2 yrs??? f***n rubbishing us.. they would look pretty stupid ignoring a team coming 2nd wouldn`t they.. If we keep winning they will need us more than we will need them...

What about the posts on here for the last 2 years? Heck, even for parts of this season. I dare say we have been more critical of our players, coaches, CEO, games plan etc more than any media organisation as been. But the moment someone writes something negative about us (Brett Stewart issues aside) its automatic they are anti Manly.
 
Masked Eagle this website is a place where people can come and voice their opinions and create debate based on those opinions. The Daily Telegraph isn't such a medium. It is 1 persons twist on a subject and it is often seen as gospel by those who read it. It is hardly the same thing. This website also doesn't rely on it's authors to falsly create scenarios and situations in order to sell it's pages and please it's subscribers. The Tele (among others) are a bunch of gossip columninsts who call themselves journalists. That is why people get upset over issues like this.
 
"souffs are in the media,rorters are in the media,parras in the media,st merge is in the media,why arent we?"Is the catch cry!Ive read on here that even bad press is better than no press.When they leave us alone for good,and our sponsors get no play at all,then it will be "why are there no stories about manly?"
 
Not sure that bad press is the way to attract sponsors. What annoys me is over the past few years any perceived negatives concerning the club have been highlighted by the media.
 
Fonz said:
Masked Eagle this website is a place where people can come and voice their opinions and create debate based on those opinions. The Daily Telegraph isn't such a medium. It is 1 persons twist on a subject and it is often seen as gospel by those who read it. It is hardly the same thing. This website also doesn't rely on it's authors to falsly create scenarios and situations in order to sell it's pages and please it's subscribers. The Tele (among others) are a bunch of gossip columninsts who call themselves journalists. That is why people get upset over issues like this.

I know what your saying but still. The article itself is hardly daming. I for one don't think Hoppa did it to protect his son, he just saw it as an opportunity to get back at some of things that have been written about him. And lets be honest, he probably deserved. We shouldn't be so precious with whats written in the media because going in our shells and not having anything to do with them won't help us one bit.

For example, its like on here when everyman and his dog was complaining about Lowe and what a terrible job he's been doing but then to call it an outrage if the paper was to suggest we weren't a well run club. Its just hypocritical to me.
 

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