"Players are human beings and, as human beings, we all have the same physical, mental and emotional vulnerabilities. As human beings, we all have the right to medical support. And we all have the right to receive that medical support in a confidential and supportive manner. That is the fundamental essence of a doctor-patient relationship." - then AFLPA chief executive, Brendon Gale in August 2007.

Given the disgraceful and indefensible double page spread the Herald Sun ran on January 25, headlined "Subdued Fev Cuts a Lonely Figure," Gale's comments are as relevant now as they were back then.

Reporter Amelia Harris's yarn was basically a cobbled together a pile of crap based on half a dozen paparazzi photos, what seemed to be an hour of borderline stalking while Fevola was taking a break from treatment and quoted a "female companion" saying, "Leave him alone. He's not real well."

Gale's successor Matt Finnis has hardly been known for his strong public statements during his time in the chair, but full credit to him that when he eventually made a public statement - that afternoon on Triple M's Rush Hour - he let rip against the story if not the paper.

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Brendon Gale's quote at the top of the column was after Channel Seven news reporter Dylan Howard paid for stolen medical records and subsequently "broke" a story involving the private medical treatment of AFL players for illicit drug use.

The AFL community started a shit-storm that subsequently led to an unprecedented boycott of the station, and would in turn lead to the reporter's axing.

But while the players seemed to be taking a tough stance at the time, in hindsight it wasn't that hard, nor brave.

After all there is no topic that society's most self-indulgent group of people - the media - love talking about than themselves, and if it's a "our station is better than your station" story, then "Drop the Dead Donkey" because we've got a new lead story.

Thus Nine's Tony Jones set himself up in front of Seven's Docklands headquarters to do his "live cross" featuring "breaking news" that amounted to taped pieces of various players refusing to answer press conference questions at training about "Harry Knackers" sore hamstring because it came from the reporter who worked at the "naughty station" that we don't talk to.

Leading journalists were thoroughly briefed, with the mood of the day caught by the Australian's multi-award winning columnist Patrick Smith.

And naturally The Footy Show made Gale the featured studio guest, to again let rip.

Now all's fair in love and war, but somewhere along the way the point of the outrage was lost in point-scoring.

But what shouldn't be forgotten was the fact that the players said and showed that they weren't going to cop a media organization acting that way.

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Interestingly the Herald Sun took the high moral ground only a month ago during the "nude-photos-of-Saints-players-on-Facebook-teenage-girl" controversy.

They made a point of stating that they refused to neither purchase nor publish the illicit images.

What a noble stand.

May it return one day.

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Of course St Kilda's captain Nick Riewoldt has unwittingly become the poster boy of that controversy, and seemingly took the bait from a couple of drongoes last week.

The Age's Martin Blake basically wrote, "Welcome to the rest of your life", while former coach Grant Thomas criticized the club for putting Riewoldt forward during the controversy, instead of trying to keep him out of the limelight.

With due respect to Thomas, the Fevola story proves that the media landscape has changed dramatically since he left the game in an official capacity at the end of 2006, and keeping out of the limelight is far easier said than done.

Put simply, Riewoldt should have had done a "soft" FM breakfast interview where "Hughesey and Kate" or "Brig and Lehmo" could have cracked a few gags about what makes "dickhead mates" take nude photos on footy trips. He could have laughed along, jokingly claimed that part of the snap was "trick photography," yet still forcefully get across the only reasons he did the press conference in the first place.

That is that he'd never met the girl in question, the photos were just blokes being stupid taken by a team-mate and by the way, it would have been really good had they been instantly deleted instead of downloaded millions of times via Facebook, Twitter and text.

Once that was established, it was time for a return of Officer Barbrady from South Park.

"Move along people, nothing to see here. Go home, you looky-loos."

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In closing I'd just like to state my empathy for actress Tottie Goldsmith.

Last Sunday morning I found someone else's quaddy ticket in my wallet.

"Racetrack" Ralphy Horowitz is a former producer at "The Footy Show" "Sunday Footy Show" 3AW and SEN, and now works full-time in horseracing. Twitter.com/rtralphy