The AFL's official website has come under fire for a tone-deaf TikTok video that featured Brisbane champion Michael Voss discussing his sudden departure from Carlton. Voss, one of the AFL's greatest players, made the decision to quit his position as coach of Carlton last week, but the news became public on Tuesday. The AFL's website quickly secured an interview with the universally respected champion.
The AFL's media team then promoted the interview across its various platforms, but it was the TikTok video that raised eyebrows for all the wrong reasons. On TikTok, beneath the Voss interview, the content creator decided to run footage of the popular video game Subway Surfers.
Veteran journalist Caroline Wilson has savaged that decision, calling it "disrespectful" and baffling. "I am swiping AFL.com," Wilson said on Channel 7's The Agenda Setters on Tuesday. "They get the big exclusive interview today with Michael Voss and on their promotional TikTok video, they underscore a coach who has been sacked doing an exclusive interview with their man, Damian Barrett, with Subway Surfer. I don't get it."
Splitting the interview with video game footage is a strategy designed to increase "watch time." Kane Cornes explained: "So people watch the video below and listen to the video above. It's all to do with the algorithm. It's over my head ... I'm just giving you the reasons why."
Wilson remained critical: "I think it's disrespectful. He's a three-time premiership champion, a Brownlow medallist, talking about the end of his coaching career. I am staggered. What a sad state of affairs."
AFL great Luke Hodge agreed. "Surely they pick and choose when they play it," Hodge said. Cornes, 43, added: "I don't think it's aimed at people our age." But Wilson did not care. "People who aren't our age might learn something by listening to Michael Voss," Wilson said. "Unimpressed, AFL.com. Hang your head in shame."
Hodge later joked that it "looked like a good game," while Dale Thomas said with tongue in cheek, "Is there a video above?"
