We love our readers here at Outside The Box — they are the reason we get up every morning striving to carve entertaining and correct takes.
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But not all readers love us, and in this digital climate, they have the ability to reach out and give some ‘'honest” feedback directly to yours truly.
To say this feedback is water off a duck's back would be putting it mildly, but we thought we'd let you in on a few of our favourite moments along the way — just so our readers know what we're battling through to bring you this absurd content every week.
In no particular order, here's a few of my favourite moments from when our readers and OTB just haven't been on the same wavelength — if you haven't caught on yet, this is basically just the best times people have had a go at me on Twitter.
Disclaimer, it is absolutely all love towards everyone featured in this column and I can only (probably foolishly) hope you feel the same.
Do you too have some choice words for OTB? Feel free to follow me on the social (@alexmitchy_ on Twitter), or as my favourite reader of all-time did, send me a letter to the office (7940 Goulburn Valley Highway, Kialla).
Echuca United
After round one last season, we penned a column entitled Overreaction Friday where OTB delivered a scorching hot take on each district footy league, in what was clearly a poor attempt to poke fun at sports analysts who watch one game and then make ridiculous sweeping statements.
The Murray league take was Echuca United was "still irrelevant" despite winning its first-round match — while it admittedly sounds a touch harsh looking back, the larger point was that we'd like to see United do it in the finals before thinking it was the real deal, and look how that turned out.
United's Tom Curnow clearly got wind of this, and filmed the team song after his side flogged Rumbalara the next week with the caption "irrelevant" — a move I rather liked — before a couple of his mates got involved to inform me I wasn't welcome at their club.
I'd love to say I had the last laugh — and I pretty much did — but it was pretty disappointing United bombed out of finals as I was really looking forward to seeing it face Nathalia in the grand final.
GVL trade week
I'm not sure I've ever smiled as widely as the time Gold Coast Suns played Nick Holman decided to take to Twitter and "agree" a column I'd penned was "one of my more ridiculous projects".
Look, the idea of trading country footballers between clubs mid-season without their permission was a little different, but the idea this filtered up to Queensland, made its way across the Kyabram product's radar and annoyed him to a point where he felt his followers needed to hear about it really did amuse me greatly.
Maybe Holman was upset on behalf of some Bombers that got dealt — from memory I traded club legend Kayne Pettifer — but I remain a huge fan on the Sun and his junior club.
The letter
If you thought Australia Post was out of business, think again — something I learned in late 2018 after writing the AFL should adopt a best-of-three grand final series.
The letter (inexplicably addressed from Western Australia) labelled my column "absurd", and the great man pointed out he would not usually write letters to a newspaper, but my column had got him so worked up he felt he had no choice.
I stand by the call that playing the grand final solely at the MCG is really unfair on the interstate clubs, although it's fair to say I've been shut down by my mate from the west, who asked me if they should move around "Wimbleton" as well.
The GOAT
Where do I start with my good friend Nick Breslin?
The Old Students star was far from pleased with me due to a picture that went in the paper labelling him as "struggling", although given the article stated he'd made 60 runs in five innings, I'm sure he'd agree he wasn't in top form.
Breslin ‘politely’ inquired on Twitter if I'd won a Lightfoot Medal (I'd struggle to get a run in E-grade to be honest), although once that had been deleted he did hit me with a far more light-hearted message that included "#GreatestReporterEver".
Ironically, I actually now live with Breslin's cousin, who was able to confirm the great all-rounder is not my biggest fan.
Never again
I didn't field this one personally, but on a day off I'm led to believe someone called up the office and informed my colleague Liam they would never buy the Shepp News again because my column wasn't about sport.
To be fair, it wasn't, but I thought a top 10 television shows they should bring back would put nostalgic smiles on faces rather than incite such anger, but it's certainly an ‘'each to their own” situation.
Head-scratcher
So I was watching a replay of a classic St Kilda versus Geelong match from 2009, and I mused on Twitter it was the greatest home and away match of my lifetime.
I'm still searching for an explanation as to how I got these two messages from the SAME account.
“Hey Alex, have been telling people for 10 years this is the best game of the home and away game of the decade.”
“Best home and away game? Someone’s had a few too many!”
Senior journalist