A fine piece of footy journalism

Last weekend, a mate and I were lamenting the state of mainstream sports journalism in general and footy journalism in particular. He and I are pretty serious about our preferred codes, and it's his passion for Union that has led me to - slowly, grudgingly - have a little respect for that silly game.

Anyway, journalism. So yeah, having a bit of a moan about the sensationalism of much footy reporting. We don't care about who said what or who is deliberately getting their name in the media this week. It was Malthouse's ANZAC comments that fired us up.

We were in agreement that footy journalism is at its best when it focuses on the players; who they are, where they're from, how they're training, how they played last weekend.

So I was bloody happy when I read Phil Cleary's column about Ben Cousins in the Inside Footy this week. Cousins played in the VFL last week and drew a bit of a crowd down at Coburg. Cleary was there and he loved it.

And there was none of the usual bullshit in Cleary's piece. He talked about how Cousins' presence raised the tempo of the game, recalled past matches when big names have played in the VFL, and then had this to say about Cousins' performance.

Theatre and reminiscing aside, you have to marvel at the way Cousins plays. As Scorpions midfielder Shane Valenti - a match winner on Saturday - quipped on the boundary line during an interchange, "He just runs until he's spent."

Watching Cousins from ground level was a revelation. The way he blocks in stoppages, then runs to receive and keeps running until he wins the ball, and delivers without absolute precision, has made him one of the greats.

That's footy journalism.