Last month, I was contacted by a student doing Professional Writing and Editing course. She would like to go into Sports Writing but doesn’t particularly want to go down the mainstream route.
Tough gig.
Nonetheless, she wanted to pick what constitues my brain about running an independent sports site… because none of the other people she wanted to speak to even bothered to respond. Come on, Bill Simmons… you used to be a man of the people!
Anyway, these are the pertinent parts of the interview as applies to The Mongrel Punt, and they might also answer some of the questions people message me about.
Why did you start The Mongrel Punt and how did it all come about?
It all happened rather quickly. One moment, I was reading one of the same, basic reviews of a game on the AFL website. It was an official review, and it just struck me as completely boring and lacked insight. I was venting about it, and the state of footy coverage in general, and my wife was obviously sick of hearing me talk, so she said “if you can do better, do it… I’ll make you a website.”
I was a bit reluctant, so I trialled a short-form piece on Reddit. It was about Erick Mackenzie at West Coast, and one act in one game. It got a really positive response, so I felt a little more confident.
Thinking I had a while to play with whilst Mrs Mongrel created the site, and that it might actually fall off her radar at some point, I agreed that if she did it, I would start writing more.
Well, a few hours later, she came back with a basic website and it kind of forced my hand. I seriously thought it would take her months. That was in the 2017 post-season, so you have Mrs Mongrel to thank for that.
Had you written much before?
I used to dabble when I was younger, and did a Grad Dip in Professional Writing and Editing, but that was more to refine skills and be able to write for work – as in boring stuff like tender documents, KPIs, and monthly reports. The kind of stuff that saps the life out of you.
I’d had a few articles published here and there, but it was only when something took my fancy that I actually wrote outside of work. I didn’t think I was any good, and I still think there are people out there infinitely better at the craft than I am.
I just work harder than most of them.
Did you ever have Imposter Sydnrome?
Yep, and I still do, to a point. I mean, I get asked the question at least once a week – who are you to write about footy?
It’s a good question – who is anyone to write about it, really? Mike Sheahan was a plodder. Mark Robinson wasn’t exactly a star. Caroline Wilson would pull a heart string trying to kick a footy – who are they to write about it?
When you look at it that way, anyone can write about footy, and the quicker you come to that conclusion, the better off you’ll be.
How much time per week do you put into the site?
Too much, and I know it. It is my passion project, and I want it to be different to what others offer, but it takes a lot of work.
I’d say 40-50 hours per week.
On top of work?
Shhhh… sometimes at work.
I trade off a lot of sleep.
What are the best things and worst things about running your site?
It’s 90% good and 10% stuff I could do without.
The interaction and response is great for the most part. I think people genuinely appreciate that they are reading stuff from someone just like them. More handsome, and all, but just like them haha.
I like when I throw a weird reference in and someone picks up on it. I like engaging with people on socials, particularly when they are passionate about footy.
Best of all, I am doing something I thought I might do when I was 14-15. And probably at the same emotional depth I had when I was 14-15, too… according to some.
In terms of what I could do without, the abuse is something nobody likes, and you can count me amongst that group. I have a pretty thick skin, but when you get a massage telling you to kill yourself… I mean, what sort of person takes the time to message something like that because their team loses, or because their favourite player copped criticism. That’s pretty weird.
Oh, and I am not exactly tech-savvy, so I can struggle a bit with that stuff, as well.
Has the abuse happened often?
No, not often. I could count on one hand how many times I have had to delete a person from our socials due to something that extreme, but I reckon one is too many.
The day-to-day insults get a bit tiresome. I am sure to one person, it means nothing, but when it is the fifth or sixth person to have a go at you… you know, I get a little sick of it, and at times, I have a bit of “screw you” about me. I normally wait five minutes to respond, if I respond at all.
So, do you see socials as both a blessing and a curse?
Oh yeah, but far more of a blessing than a curse. Without them, our site is dead in the water, really. We’d just be floating along with very little way of promoting ourselves, so even though we have the occasional person taking shots, it is a great thing for little projects like this.
Do you find there is too much competition amongst sites like yours and other smaller outlets?
Not really. I don’t take much notice of many other outlets, to be honest. I like to think that people find their niche, and if they like us, and we become part of their niche, well, that’s great.
But if they prefer somewhere else, I reckon there is plenty of room for different types of coverage.
That said, I am now nine years in – I have seen plenty come in with a head of steam, then crash and burn, so I am happy to play the long game and build on the work we’ve done. If someone else hits a sweet spot, more power to them. I hope they are more than a one-trick pony, though, because things move quickly.
I do really enjoy the team-specific coverage by places like the Hawk Talk Podcast, the Demonland stuff, and several of the Richmond groups on Facebook, as well. Good people doing good work, and I value their opinions on their teams, as I see them as the genuine experts. They’re the ones who narrow the focus onto their team, whilst I try to be more across the entire league.
Then there are the people/groups that have all the older footage – Rhett Bartlett, the North Melbourne Vintage Youtube Channel, and the St Kilda Archive. They’re treasure troves of footage. I love the work they do.
What do you do differently to other agencies that cover footy?
We’re unpolished, and that’s fine. I own that. We don’t have an editing team, or a specific person that does our graphics or anything like that. It’s basically just me, the writers put their time in, submit their work, and off we go. That’s it, in a nutshell. I like to think that we provide a different perspective, at times, without diverting too much from the actual games.
Given that, I like to give the writers the freedom to find their own voice and a way of writing that they feel comfortable with. That way, when someone sees the name “Justin Rake” or “Matt Oman” on the title of an article, they know who it is and what they are providing.
Each writer has his or her own way of writing, and I want that reflected, even if it means that some things may not read like they’re going to be submitted to the Walkleys.
I like weird stats and follow them on my own spreadsheets. I have running awards that require me to pay attention to every game of the season. You know that a lot of people covering the game don’t actually watch games? It’s crazy – they have massive voices in the industry, but toddle off home to bed and maybe cover three games per weekend.
So yeah, I like to think we watch enough footy to know what we’re talking about, and possibly look for things in a game that may fly under the radar. I really enjoy when a writer, or me sometimes, finds a little tidbit in the game, and run with it, and suddenly people look at t and go “yeah… you’re right.”
Of course, I sometimes get it wrong, too. That happens.
I also have a hard and fast rule about gossip and off-field stuff. It is way too prevalent in the footy media and I won’t have that crap on our site. No character assassination, either. You can find that elsewhere, as far as I am concerned.
Oh, and no betting stuff.
I notice you don’t ever mention odds or multis or anything connected to that. Why is that?
I should be clear – I am not against sports betting. If you like a flutter, go ahead…go to town and do what you do. I dislike the cozy relationship the league now has with betting, and how it has become ingrained in the sport. That’s my line, and I don’t cross it.
I have worked with families who have gone broke due to gambling, and I am not talking about the bloke who spends his day at the TAB. Those days are gone – these days it is the bloke at home, betting on the footy and getting pissed off when he loses. The league is in bed with these betting agencies, and it stinks to high heaven.
You have never taken any money from one of those places?
Nope. Not a red cent.
Do you have offers?
To take them on as sponsors?
Yes.
Yeah, all the time. Less often these days, as I think they get the message that we’re not interested. Or that I’m not interested, I suppose.
However, at one stage, I was getting four or five requests per week to insert odds into articles and link to certain sites, and I’d get some coin for doing so. I mean, I have heard plenty of people denounce the impact of betting on the game. Yet, there they are, working on a show and promoting exactly what they’ve been so vocal about, or having odds as part of their own site – how can you take these people seriously? They’d sell their firstborn for a few bucks.
When have you got something very wrong?
I know the exact time I got it most wrong.
I was driving somewhere for work, and was about to get out of the car. It was post season, and just as I was getting out, I heard a radio report that Majak Daw was pulled out of the river. That’s all the report stated, so I posted, before going into a meeting, wondering what the hell was going on – I asked whether people heard this news.
Off I went into the meeting, came out, and there were like 50 responses calling me insensitive… amongst plenty of other things. Hey were right, too – I posted without thinking more broadly on what was being reported. I probably should have taken 30 seconds to look into it more, but I didn’t.
In hindsight, that was a massive error, and I shouldn’t have been in a rush to ask that question. It didn’t dawn on me, given the flippant way it was reported, that there was something more than just a bloke getting on the piss and falling into the river. Obviously, it was much more serious than that, and it was an error in judgment on my behalf.
Is that your biggest regret?
In life? No!
In running the site, yeah, it was a howler.
Did you lose traction because of that?
Yeah, a little bit. You can do 99 things right, but one thing wrong brings it all undone pretty quickly. I lost a bit of support. I was only building the site and socials at the time, so the reach wasn’t huge, but those who saw it made enough noise to make me reconsider how insignificant it is to be “first” compared with how important it is to be accurate.
What has given you the most traction?
It’s hard to say – I stopped using Google Analytics a few years ago. I just found myself constantly looking at it, and I didn’t want to be driven by numbers. Obviously, as we grow, we get more eyes and I get notifications on socials telling me “hey, you did this” or “he, you reached that”. We have people joining now because they read our stuff on Google News, but we get people from X, and Facebook, and even Reddit. That’s nice.
Back when I was looking at numbers, one of our ANZAC Day reviews had over 25K reads on the evening of the game. That was the one with the atrocious umpiring that both teams were just shocked by. I think it might hev been 2019? I remember all players just stopping at one point, because there was a clear holding the ball. Play just halted, and then everyone had to scramble for the footy because the ump was calling play on. I went through and time stamped all these contentious decisions, and it got a lot of coverage, particularly from Essendon supporters, as they felt they got the short end of the stick.
Since then, I just let numbers work themselves out. They don’t mean a hell of a lot to me.
Which articles do you enjoy writing most?
Oh, the historical ones, easily. I love looking at an older game, particularly ones that were played before advanced stats were kept. I enjoy applying modern stats to those games as I watch, so you get an understanding of which players were playing “ahead of their time” a bit, I guess.
I have a few of those Oral History articles in the archives – they were fun, and I have had media outlets contact me to use them for quotes, and so on. The finished product is always fun with those pieces, but there is a lot of research and reading that goes into them.
And I love articles that take a different view. The “Villains” series I have been doing for a few years is always something I gravitate back to. Covering Toby Greene, Wayne Carey, Sam Newman, Kane Cornes, Eddie McGuire… and putting a positive spin on them… I love doing that. It’s easy to knock people based on public perception – I like to look a bit deeper.
Why do you no longer cover AFLW?
Yeah, tough one. I tried. For four years, we covered AFLW and I have to be honest, it almost burnt me out.
We had a very passionate writer, Alex Docherty, and he’d pour his heart into covering that league. However, the result was that anything we published about AFLW got around 8% of the reads that even the lowest-circulated article focusing on the men’s game.
In the end, I had to step away because too much of my time was going into it, with too little in return. Once Doc pivoted to concentrate on getting married and having babies… or one baby (settle down, Ma Docherty – I don’t know anything you don’t) there was nobody left to prop up the coverage.
Do you feel you’ve shortchanged AFLW fans?
I did for a while, but when I step back and look at it, I would rather shortchange them than shortchange my family. That’s the trade-off, for me. Cover AFLW and have zero time, or don’t cover it, and we go to the park here or there, and watch a movie together.
Really, it’s an easy choice to make.
What advice would you give to a young writer looking to gain a foothold in the AFL space?
Aside from going through the established avenues, I would say that allowing your writing to reflect who you are is a great way to build rapport with readers.
Or ostracise them, I suppose. That happens, too.
If you enjoy writing, write what you enjoy most. For me, I like to write about footy because I love footy. If you’re passionate about it, it doesn’t feel like work – just do it, but do it properly. I have had people come and write for us – they do two articles and only get 20 likes on socials, and they get disheartened. Mate, that’s gonna happen!
Firstly, not everyone is going to agree with your takes. Secondly, people may not be interested in the area you’re writing about. Thirdly, they may already have an idea about the subject, themselves. And lastly, you’re learning. I am too. Every article I write and every response I get teaches me.
Sure, I may disregard some of those lessons, but the opportunity to improve is there. And anyway, are you writing for you, or are you writing for someone on social media to comment on?
If it’s the latter, you’re probably looking at it the wrong way.
How does one join The Mongrel Punt?
As a writer, or as a member?
As a writer.
Oh, my metaphorical door is open. Once per year I put a call out for writers, and some people jump on. We have several long term writers, now – JB Eddy, Trent Adam-Shields, The Slugger, Disco… we’re like a little club and they chat away every day about sports and a whole host of stuff.
All of them started with me with an exchange of email or a message. If you can write, and you’re a nice person…maybe a bit rough around the edges, the door is absolutely open. If you think this is a gateway to notoriety, or you want to make big statements and conjure up angst… we’re probably not for you.
But yeah, a quick email to hbmeyers@themongrelpunt.com and the ball starts to roll.
Do you have anything else you can help students understand about starting a site like yours?
I wish I did. So much of it is just giving it a shot, taking the hits, and continuing to roll. If you’re thin-skinned, you might struggle, and if you’re lazy, you’ll fail
Work hard, trust yourself, and don’t be afraid to have an opinion. Do that, and you’ll at least enjoy what you’re doing.
Do you take on student placements?
I can’t really take on placements, as you’ll just be coming over to my house after work and taking up room in my lounge or study. Otherwise, I would love to do a bit more.
Maybe one day we’ll get so many people liking and joining our site that I will be able to have a little office… that’d be nice. I swear if that happens, I will take on a student per semester, and you guys can see all the glamour that goes with being a writer at The Mongrel Punt.
Thanks for your time, HB.
A pleasure.
As always, massive thanks to those who support this work. You can see the amount of care that goes into it. I love footy, I love writing about it, and I hope you enjoy reading it. Without you, this whole thing falls over. Sincerely… thank you – HB
Like this content? You could buy me a coffee – I do like coffee, but there is no guarantee I won’t use it to buy a doughnut… I like them more. And I am not brought to you by Sportsbet or Ladbrokes… or Bet365, or any of them.
