If a Kangaroos player posed for a newspaper photo or appeared on the radio or television, then according to Pagan he had "wandered down media street". And unless he could back it up with a best-on-ground performance, he risked incurring the wrath of his old-fashioned, hard-edged coach who didn't take kindly to such strolls.
The Kangaroos had an incredibly successful decade under Pagan - would it have been compromised if the coach had been more open to the media?
Ten years later Collingwood are the best team in the competition. They have become a Goliath of a football club - not only have they raised the bar on the field, but off the field their high-altitude training rooms and mid-season trips to Arizona are well-publicised testimony to having one of the best-resourced football departments in the game. Less well known, however, is that its media policy has also left the remainder of the competition in its wake.
When captain Nick Maxwell and Heath Shaw had an on-field verbal altercation two weeks ago, the club sent them both to the press conference the next day to talk it out. A fired-up media throng got to ask questions directly, the boys explained that heated debate was commonplace in the Collingwood backline, threw some humour in with it, and we all moved on.
Other clubs adopt a siege mentality when they see a possible controversy in the offing. They prevent coaches and players from raising the matter for fear that it might gain momentum. Unfortunately what usually happens is the exact opposite.
Internet footy chat rooms had already started joining the dots with Maxwell and Shaw; rumour had it that a rift was forming between the captain and the rest of the team and that Maxwell no longer had a guaranteed spot in the side. It was all absolute rubbish of course, and it was put to bed by a three-minute interview with the players concerned. The massive bonus for Collingwood's sponsors, members and supporters is that they get an insight into the inner workings of their team through two gun players who, at the same time, have enhanced their own standing in the community.
Majak Daw's interview with Dennis Cometti and Tim Watson on the Seven Network at half-time on Sunday, after being racially abused at a VFL game in Port Melbourne the day before, was compelling viewing. It was an incredibly courageous act to speak live on national television about something that affected him deeply.
As Majak said, "If they knew the sort of person I was, they wouldn't have said it." What an unbelievable young man he is and what a great decision by the Kangaroos to let him tell his story. Without any further incentive I suddenly found myself desperately wanting North Melbourne to win the second half of the game and I'll follow Majak from now on with great interest.
As I moved from a playing career towards a full-time media role in the past few years, I began encountering a general consensus that St Kilda was the worst club to deal with from a media point of view. If I suggested a Saints player as a guest, I would usually be told of the difficulties and real battles it would involve.
In the past six months St Kilda has had to face an almost unprecedented number of sensitive issues. Perhaps partly due to a lack of access to players, the media drew its own conclusion that as a club the Saints faced a "cultural issue". Such a criticism would have stung the senior playing group and coaching staff as much as anything else. It seems now that Ross Lyon is deliberately opening the doors a little more to the media. If we had heard a little more from Nick Riewoldt, Lenny Hayes, Leigh Montagna and co. in the past, would the Saints have been able to weather the storm more easily?
Over recent years Bulldogs skipper Matthew Boyd has carved out a reputation as one of the most respected midfielders in the game. With his side struggling badly, having won only three games in the first half of the season, Boyd has found himself in a firestorm of media pressure.
It was a fairly nervous young man who faced some tough questions on Monday night's One Week at a Time; but Boyd was honest, open and forthright in all his messages, and he gained the respect of a couple of seasoned football interviewers in Robert Walls and Stephen Quartermain.
I've always admired this same quality in Matthew Scarlett, whose natural inclination is to not speak at all but who makes himself available every time Geelong lose. But then it's not something that he has had to do very often.
Football clubs are aware of the need to manage the expectation that players make themselves available to the media. It's no surprise that Eddie McGuire's and James Brayshaw's teams are leading the way in this, given they both have an intimate understanding of the way the system works. Collingwood sends out internally produced media grabs of up to a dozen of their players on a daily basis, which again puts them way ahead of the curve.
Next time you watch a Formula One race you'll see the last thing the drivers get on the starting grid before hitting the first turn at 300 kilometres an hour is a microphone in their face, waiting for one last quote. If Mark Webber and his mates can walk and chew gum under that sort of pressure, then our footballers have still got a fair way to go.
