There's a story in TV folklore about a former high-rating quiz show host, who was well known in the industry as a pain in the freckle to both management and co-workers.

Everyone put up with it while the show he fronted dominated, but once the viewer numbers dipped, his contract wasn't renewed.

The network wasn't sure that the replacement was a better host, but they were certain he was a better bloke.

That yarn may or may not be apocryphal, but for Jason Akermanis who has been desperate to make it full time in the media, there's clearly a parallel he may want to keep in mind as his newer career in the fourth estate is now his only source of income.

Because while there's no real evidence that he's acted dramatically differently in recent times off the field, what can't be denied is that he is no longer at his brilliant on-field career peak, thus as father time helps form deteriorate, the tipping point is reached.

So the two biggest parallels between sport and the electronic media is that the champion players/highest rating performers can get away with outrageous individualism and little or no sense of team ethic while they are so far on top of their game that they appear irreplaceable.

However once poor form, poor ratings or a resource's super profit tax is introduced, then it's amazing how quickly "everyone" remembers the old cliché about the cemetery being full of "irreplaceable" stars.

(And don't tell me that the PR obsessed PM Kevin Rudd didn't fall into the media category either!)

The furor that raged after Akermanis published a "gay footballer" article, was reminiscent of the controversies surrounding then Hawthorn captain Shane Crawford during the "Hank Bulger" year at the Footy Show in 2003.

They included:

- The same Henny-Penny reactions from the dull & colorless tub-thumpers, ("Has he gone too far this time? If you agree with me get on the line now and tell me how right I am...")

- Every question to everyone in AFL football at every media conference being asked their opinion on the matter despite it being something they generally had no link nor interest in, ("Andrew speaking of the MCG multi-million dollar redevelopment, do you think Hank Bulger is becoming a distraction to the rest of the Hawthorn team?)

- And "insiders" who "told" columnists that they "weren't happy" with the "on-going distraction" involving Crawford and his "Hank Bulger antics".

But the big difference between the two issues was that despite what "those in the know" allegedly told certain writers, was that nobody at Hawthorn had a problem with Crawford's extracurricular activities, but the Western Bulldogs players, coaching and administration staff clearly had a gutful of Akermanis and his public and private comments.

In the former's case, legendary Hawthorn and Carlton coach David Parkin once described Crawford as the best prepared athlete he had ever seen, and as such those inside the club saw the captain turn up, train his backside off, professionally rehab his body to give himself every chance of playing at the highest level possible week-on-week, and be the best leader he could be in a (then) average side.

The "on-going distraction" if anything galvanized the group because everyone was in the loop, so if after completing all club requirements and then some, if he buggerized around filming a silly soapie piss-take at Channel Nine on his one day off for the week as a bit of a pressure release, who cared?

Of course unsurprisingly by the end of the season after he had won another club best and fairest, finished one vote off away from tying for the Brownlow Medal and captained the International Rules team to a series win over Ireland, all had realized that the mid-season controversy was - to borrow a line from the ABC-TV show Hungry Beast - "a little bit bullshit."

But clearly this hasn't been the case with Akermanis, as he never "got" that his team didn't require him to conform to any uniform standards and give up a media career, but the non-negotiable was to be up-front and honest to the group at all times and keep all in-house club matters in-house.

Now whether he thinks he did or he didn't, the fact that he is now an ex-AFL footballer is because the Western Bulldogs as a group decided that he was no longer "one of them".

Now unlike Crawford, Akermanis's last game won't be in a premiership win on the MCG on Grand Final Day, so this all-time great AFL footballer who also wants to be a media star has unwittingly just finished a series in his own reality show called "2010 Western Bulldogs footballer".

Because the tribe has spoken and he has been voted off the island.

"Racetrack" Ralphy Horowitz is a full-time racing analyst for private clients and media commentator for Sport 927. He is a former producer at The Footy Show, Sunday Footy Show, 3AW & SEN.