MY OLD GAFFER “Stormin'” Norman Macdonald took the Editor's chair at a desperate time in the history of the Paisley Daily Express – the smallest daily paper in the UK. The paper was losing circulation and the owners were seriously considering stopping daily production and making it a weekly. But Norrie decided to go on the attack, put the pride back in Paisley and get the paper's circulation and influence back to where it had once been.
The next seven years were a roller-coaster ride, but, he doubled the circulation and for those of us who were at the sharp end in the Newsroom – it was a fun ride. One of Norrie's early wheezes was that he would publish “A Good News Edition” - nothing but good news stories.
This suited most of us, but not, unfortunately, the late Brian Brough, who had the crime beat. Paisley at the time had a major drugs war ongoing and was being seen as “The Murder Capital of Scotland”. Big Brian was secretly loving his job, but, as he complained to me – in our capacity as the Statler and Waldorf of the Newsroom – sitting up the back and criticising - “where am I going to get a good news story this week?”
He managed it somehow and the Good News Edition sold well and made everyone smile. This is unusual, we journalists revel in bad news, controversy and argument; that, to us, is far more fun than when everything is sweetness and light.
So, this week, the Australian media, never people to hide their light under a bushel, will be having a ball, since they have a morsel to cling to following the Lions' series-clinching win in Melbourne on Saturday – their belief that: “We wus robbed” when Andrea Piardi decided that Jac Morgan's clean-out of Carlo Tizzano was legal. Of course, the Australian view contradicts The Laws of the Game of Rugby Union – these clearly state: “The Referee is the sole judge of fact”. But, the fact the Referee has ruled has never stopped the side which felt it had been wronged, or its national media from publishing a dissenting view.
In the long and storied history of Match Officials getting it wrong, Mr Piardi's ruling is not particularly controversial. It's not as if the Referee and his Linesman got it wrong as to whether or not a ball had crossed the line in a World Cup Final, or if a TMO ignored his rules of engagement in another World Cup Final. And I honestly don't think the Australians will still be whingeing they wus robbed by a wrong decision, 120 years on – as the New Zealanders keep going on about a disputed try in Wales in 1905.
Those Australian upholders of fair play and the spirit of the game, have been awfy quiet over the past ten years regarding how they eliminated Scotland from the 2015 World Cup on the back of a clear mistake by the officiating team. What goes around, comes around.
No, it might suit them better to mark the sage advice of the late, great Jock Stein, one of whose pillars was the belief – you never give the referee a chance to make a difficult decision which might tell against you.
To put Saturday's result into a football context, which most Scots could understand: Australia were three goals up before half time – and lost. Don't blame the referee for that, blame yourselves.
Received opinion appears to be that Australia began to go backward as soon as Will Skelton and Rob Valenti went off. OK, the over-generous replacement laws allowed for their early removal, but, a player or players who are not fit enough to last longer than one half, to my mind have no right to be in an international squad.
If they are that influential and that limited in how long they can operate, maybe they ought to be on the bench to start with – did Joe Schmidt get his selection correct.
I felt it was one of Andy Farrell's few good decisions when selecting his team, that he put Ellis Genge on the bench, to bring his particular form of enthusiasm and aggression into play down the home stretch – maybe Schmidt just isn't as good as Farrell when it comes to man management?
I started this with a mention of Norman Macdonald. One of Norman's gospel truths of journalism is: If you're picking-up a story, say to given it a local “spin” - if you cannot add value to it, don't bother.
I just wish the many media commentators who have jumped on that controversial ending to the game on Saturday could ingest that sage advice. It might have calmed the furore a bit.
All these different takes on what happen matter not a jot – the only opinion that mattered was that of Andrea Piardi – and he had already given his ruling.
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