'Gutter Journalism': AFL Coach Blows Up At Reporter Before Storming Out Of Press Conference

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge launched an extraordinary attack on AFL journalist Tom Morris.

Beveridge completely blew up at the reporter, calling his work "gutter journalist", before finally walking out of his Round 1 post-match press conference early.

Following the Bulldogs' opening day defeat to the Melbourne Demons, Morris went to ask head coach Beveridge a question during the press conference.

But Beveridge clearly wasn't having a bar of it and shut Morris down completely before going on a three-minute rant where he accused the Fox Footy journo of causing "turmoil" within the club.

He then went on to insist that Morris was no longer welcome at his press conferences and signed off by calling him an "embarrassment".

Overall, the press conference made for pretty brutal viewing with Morris trying his best to defend himself while being completely berated by the Bulldogs boss.

The tirade has been widely condemned by those in the AFL community.

"You've got the nerve to ask me a question, and even be here? You've been preying on us the last two times," Beveridge said.

"You barrack for Melbourne, you've been preying on us. You've been opening us up, causing turmoil within our football club by declaring our team well before it needs to be declared. Is that the way Fox want you to operate? Is that the gutter journalist you want to be?

"Other than JJ coming out in the warm-up, everything was according to plan from the Sunday, which somehow you've found out about again, so we need to get to the bottom of this.

"Obviously we need to put our hand up and say there's some leakage going on, but you're preying on it, and it's a team you barrack for, your conflict of interest here is considerable. Your gutter journalism at the moment is killing us behind the scenes.

"This is why the health and wellbeing of people in the game is caught up in this, because we've got things to concentrate on performance-wise, we've got to look after our own and then you cause all this muckraking trash that happens behind the scenes and names get caught up into it, and all we're doing is planning for a football game. Are you proud of your self?"

But Morris returned serve.

"Yes, absolutely. Fox backs me," he replied.

"This is the AFL's press conference."

Beveridge didn't take too kindly to Morris' rebuttal though and fired right back himself.

"Yeah, OK, well I think we've got enough boys and girls. I think we're probably done, aren't we?" he said.

"So this is what happens, because I know Sam Edmund does it, many of you, if you found something out you'd ring (the club) and say look, I know this, just to know that you know, something's happened, it's got out, and courtesy and integrity and the ethical way to go about it has happened in the past.

"And this bloke here and what he's doing is giving everybody else a bad name, and right when we're trying to stabilise our competition and what we do, with everything that's gone on behind the scenes, and us as coaches and a football program with the soft cap situation as it is, and this sort of stuff happens.

"You're an embarrassment to what you do, mate. You're an embarrassment."

Topics: Aussie Rules, afl, Aussie Rules Football, press conference, Australia

Max Sherry

Max Sherry is a journalist for SPORTbible Australia. After migrating Down Under from London as a teenager, he instantly fell in love with Aussie sport and its culture. From NRL to AFL, cricket to rugby — you name it, Max watches it (with a beer in hand, of course). During his time at Fox Sports, he worked in the football department covering the Premier League, A-League, Socceroos and Matildas. Born a stone's throw away from West Ham's training ground, Max is obviously a die-hard Liverpool fan.

@maxysherry