Damian Barrett has hit back at Luke Beveridge after the Western Bulldogs coach aimed an extraordinary attack at the veteran AFL journalist over his coverage of Tom Boyd.
Boyd, 23, announced his retirement after just 61 games on Thursday, citing a lack of desire to play on after a lengthy battle with mental health issues.
In an emotional press conference, Beveridge was highly critical of the media’s coverage of Boyd prior to his premature retirement, referring to a ‘certain journalist’ widely believed to be Barrett.
“There’s no doubt at times I thought people were too hard and too keen to scrutinise and to drag him down, and they probably know who they are – one in particular,” Beveridge said on Thursday.
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“And that just shows just a sheer lack of conscience and drive to be nasty, and that’ll never be forgiven by anyone at our football club.
“So that’s a real shame because that’s a choice that a certain journalist might make and it’s just a window into that person’s soul and how black that soul is.”
Speaking on Triple M’s The Friday Huddle, Barrett agreed with the consensus view that the comments were aimed at him.
“I would imagine that are directed at me, he didn’t name me but I would imagine they are,” Barrett said told The Friday Huddle.
“… It’s wrong, it’s unfortunate and it’s sad, I think, that Luke Beveridge needs to use Tom Boyd moments to leverage the hatred that he has for me, clearly,”
Barrett initially said he has ‘no idea’ why Beveridge holds so much animosity towards him before speculating over specific stories he has broken that the coach may have taken issue with.
“The issue that Luke has with me, it predates anything to do with Tom Boyd,” Barrett said.
“It goes back to the Michael Talia and Daniel Talia situation in 2015, and it may extend into the 2016 season when he and others at the football club lied about why Tom Boyd was playing VFL football at the time.
“And that related to him having a bar room incident with a teammate, in Zaine Cordy, where a fist or something was thrown to the point where Zaine had a mark under his eye, and he’d (Boyd) been disciplined.
“The club had conveniently lied about that moment to me personally, and the general football public, but then came clean on it once they were called out.
“So if that’s what he’s relating to, because that’s the only comments I’ve made about Tom Boyd, and I’m in two minds as to whether to just leave it or try and explain it.”
Barrett added he was unaware of Boyd’s mental health struggles at the time of the 2016 story, insisting: “The reporting of that, it was before Tom Boyd himself went public with the mental health.
“And people in this room know that when I know there’s a mental health issue, I do not touch a story.
“I have refrained from telling dozens of stories over the journey when you know mental health is involved.
“That’s his choice to go down that path with me and I don’t know why.”
