Ch 7 announces AFL commentary team

[Gozu]

BT's a clown, no idea why 7 bothered luring that dropkick from Fox.

"Wowee"

[OnSong]

BT's a clown, no idea why 7 bothered luring that dropkick from Fox.

"Wowee"

THERE'S 15 FIGHTS GOING ON!

[Rik E Boy]

How can a bald guy have a Blonde moment? Our very own Tommy Harley looked at the sign that said Good luck Ro$$ and said 'Good luck Ro' LMAO. Fancy Tommy missing the dollar signs. Needs some more Swisse I reckon.

regards,

REB

[Q.]

How can a bald guy have a Blonde moment? Our very own Tommy Harley looked at the sign that said Good luck Ro$$ and said 'Good luck Ro' LMAO. Fancy Tommy missing the dollar signs. Needs some more Swisse I reckon.

regards,

REB

Ablett would have got it right

[Rik E Boy]

How can a bald guy have a Blonde moment? Our very own Tommy Harley looked at the sign that said Good luck Ro$$ and said 'Good luck Ro' LMAO. Fancy Tommy missing the dollar signs. Needs some more Swisse I reckon.

regards,

REB

Ablett would have got it right

And big Trav maybe? That's all right though Q, You've still got Dawes!

regards,

REB

[Brad]

Listened to hamish and basil fir the first time today, they are utter crap!

[Q.]

C'mon Seven, get with the program

WITH nine games a week, the television coverage has become an integral part of football discussion. So it's impossible to ignore an issue that has an army of diehard fans just about ready to riot only a month into the season.

It's Channel Seven's AFL coverage, which, not to put too fine a point on it, has totally missed the mark this year. Technically infuriating and unbelievably self-indulgent.

Yes, the viewing figures are healthy for Seven, as they should be with no free-to-air competitor for the same audience. And yes, it now throws in some before-and-after-game analysis, correcting a previous sore point. But boy, do the match broadcasts leave a bit to be desired.

Let's start with the technical stuff. I'm not as fussed as some about the refusal to broadcast in high definition, as long as we get a reasonably clear picture. But I do want to see what the bloody hell is going on. And that's not happening.

Seven's directors are obsessed with two things - close-ups and replays. The former, time and time again, show lots of bodies hurling themselves at the ball in all their close-up, sweaty glory. And because of that, you regularly have absolutely no idea where that ball is in relation to the goals.

The obsession seemed to reach new heights in Friday night's Fremantle-Carlton clash. Here's how it goes. Wide shot tracking a player running on to the ball with the goals in sight, suddenly cuts to ground-level close-up, the posts nowhere to be seen. By the time the wide shot is taken again, it's already a goal or behind, none of us any the wiser at the actual moment the ball has been kicked.

If you have a vested interest in either team involved in the game, it's unbearable. If you're any sort of footy fan, still maddening.

But what I just cannot grasp is, if you're the sort of "larger audience" we're continually told the broadcaster needs to attract, why would you find it any less annoying?

OK, so the close-up might offer the half-interested a bit more visual candy. But if they are to become the rusted-on viewer of football on TV that Seven presumably wants, don't they also need to have some idea of the result of all that microscopically filmed physical endeavour?

Don't you need to know whether the bloke who has dived into the pack near goal, extracted the ball and thrown it on his boot has actually kicked a goal? What's the point otherwise? You might as well be showing the wrestling.

Then there are the replays. Yes, they're useful devices. Not, however, when they're shown several times over, often of stuff with little consequence, at the expense of the live action. Ask a ruckman, many of whose centre-bounce work is lucky to be shown at all, the cameras often returning to the fray well after the tap has been won or lost.

Or take Saturday night, when St Kilda's Brendon Goddard and Melbourne's Jordie McKenzie had a spat that resulted in Goddard earning a free kick. McKenzie then brilliantly smothered the kick. "Wowee, did you see all that?" screamed Brian Taylor.

Well, no, actually Brian, because we were watching a replay of Goddard shoving McKenzie. Never mind, though, because then we did get a replay of the smother instead of the next passage of play.

Speaking of commentators, why has Seven turned Bruce McAvaney and Dennis Cometti, two of the best callers televised football has had, into some sort of pantomime act?

McAvaney's knowledge made him what he was. Now it's all about "delicious", "loosies", and any other cringeworthy piece of quirkiness that will enable the whole team to talk about themselves endlessly at the expense of the game.

Cometti's one-liners were best delivered impromptu and understated. Now they're set up with all the subtlety of Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. All that's missing is the "boom-tish" on the drums in the background.

Special comments? If Seven was serious about them, it would have gone out and got clearly the best two comments men to have emerged in the past few years - David King and Matthew Lloyd.

But perhaps in a bid to cultivate a "softer, gentler" feel, they went out and got a cavalcade of "good blokes" who, frankly, don't have a lot to say.

This year, it seems they've got Brett Kirk, to play up his more spiritual side. As captain of one of the most competitive midfields the modern era has seen, he could have been telling us plenty of substance.

Instead, we've been treated to a free-form-type intro to a Saturday broadcast that has become a cult hit on YouTube with its references to "energy exchanges" and last Friday night a story on Adam Goodes, which talked about him spreading "light and love to all in his presence".

The saddest comment on Seven's coverage of today is that if you watch a game on the same network from any time prior to the turn of the millennium, you'll find far fewer bells and whistles, but callers actually calling the game, and vision that actually has some context within that game. More statistics, too.

Instead now, we have a "Megawall", colourful crowd shots, little in-jokes about BT's fat fingers, WAGs and wacky voiced-over "plays of the week". Very clever. Very 21st century.

But Seven, please spare us your catchphrase "We just love the footy". Because the genuine fans of the game know you really don't. And that if you did, you wouldn't be insulting our intelligence, or treating us with the contempt you have so far in 2012.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/c ... z1tlcgedZS

[The Dark Knight]

Very good article IMO.

[the milky bar kid]

Agreed with most the article, until he called Matthew Lloyd one of the "best comments men"...

[Dutchy]

I miss Ch10's 5th quarter on a Saturday night, gave a great wrap up of all the action in the round to date.

[The Dark Knight]

I miss Ch10's 5th quarter on a Saturday night, gave a great wrap up of all the action in the round to date.

Yeah, the "5th quarter" was great, always gave me the chance to catch up on results/games I hadn't seen and gave a decent report on all of them.

[Gozu]

Might as well mention it here but I'm really enjoying The Game Plan on One. That and Footy Classified are the only two footy shows I really bother to watch and it's a lot better this year with Mark Howard hosting instead of that Huddo creature. It's got the right mix of analysis and humour without delving into out and out comedic crap like Before The Game or The Footy Show-esque stupidity.

A couple of good interviews on there tonight with Ben Graham and Anthony Koutoufides and they had Daicos on the other week.

[gadj1976]

As I say, just call the game! Commentators by definition should call the game and that's it. Yep, have stats included and have some analytics from Matthews, Harley etc but the crux of it should be about calling the game as it occurs. They should be adding to the telecast by calling the action we possibly can't see. The histrionics they go on with bore me to tears, and hence I just listen to the ABC as often as possible.

[OnSong]

Might as well mention it here but I'm really enjoying The Game Plan on One. That and Footy Classified are the only two footy shows I really bother to watch and it's a lot better this year with Mark Howard hosting instead of that Huddo creature. It's got the right mix of analysis and humour without delving into out and out comedic crap like Before The Game or The Footy Show-esque stupidity.

A couple of good interviews on there tonight with Ben Graham and Anthony Koutoufides and they had Daicos on the other week.

When it The Game Plan on?

[Brodlach]

Might as well mention it here but I'm really enjoying The Game Plan on One. That and Footy Classified are the only two footy shows I really bother to watch and it's a lot better this year with Mark Howard hosting instead of that Huddo creature. It's got the right mix of analysis and humour without delving into out and out comedic crap like Before The Game or The Footy Show-esque stupidity.

A couple of good interviews on there tonight with Ben Graham and Anthony Koutoufides and they had Daicos on the other week.

When it The Game Plan on?

Thursday nights about 8pm.

Wayne Carey is good on the show.

[OnSong]

Ah, I'm usually still at the footy club, that's probably why I've never seen it.

[Rik E Boy]

I've been against Cometti for years for precisely what the article said...it's now so set up. He has a quick wit but now is clearly trying too hard. His best gold is when it comes naturally. Go back to that and he'll be fine. Bruce should just go. It is amazing how far he has fallen. Lloyd as a special comments man is an absolute dill who is a master of pointing out the bleeding obvious. Kirk is a waste of space as a media man and I'm not a big wrap for King either. I reckon Richo goes all right and Cameron Ling's style works because he's being Cameron Ling. Not sold on Harley but I'd have him ahead of Brucey any day.

One thing the article forgets to mention is the bloody 'insert'. I hate those things. Show the play. We know what a guy hobbling off looks like. Get the 'doc' or the boundary rider to update his condition but let us see the friggin action.

Thank god for Fox, love it when the Cats aren't on Seven.

regards,

REB

[saintal]

Have pulled out some old St Kilda games from the 90s recently and the difference in presentation/commentary is obviously very noticeable, especially McAvaney’s and Cometti’s input.

The commentary was far less self indulgent, insightful research and facts were actually presented on the teams/players rather than some of the garbage that the likes of McLaughlin and Harley come up with (Player X is banging Player Y’s sister, Player X looks like bass player for such and such band). Less manufactured hype. Boundary riders like Dipper, Knuckles, Russell "Fly" Morris (as biased as they come!) had that slightly rough, everyday man appeal about them that seemed to work well. The more polished modern day types like Harley can bore you to tears. Camera work was more straight-forward, far fewer close up and replays. Stories/interviews with WAGS/Parents..WGAF?

I’m not sure if anybody caught last Saturday night’s “Footy Central” recap on C7. Basil Z made an absolute mess of it. Amateur hour.

Richo would be my fav of the current mob. Calls a game as it is (i.e doesn’t talk up the contest if one team is 5 goals up with 5 mins to go like a D. Russell type will) and doesn’t take himself too seriously, yet wont fall into blatant self indulgence too often.

[Gozu]

Might as well mention it here but I'm really enjoying The Game Plan on One. That and Footy Classified are the only two footy shows I really bother to watch and it's a lot better this year with Mark Howard hosting instead of that Huddo creature. It's got the right mix of analysis and humour without delving into out and out comedic crap like Before The Game or The Footy Show-esque stupidity.

A couple of good interviews on there tonight with Ben Graham and Anthony Koutoufides and they had Daicos on the other week.

When it The Game Plan on?

Thursday nights 8:30-10. Also replayed Friday afternoons at 2pm.

[saintal]

Another saturday night coming up with no footy on FTA. I was stupid enough to think Ess V WCE was going to be on the box.

It's probably been posted elsewhere...but under the old agreement we would often get the four FTA games, plus a foxtel game if it involved Port or Adel. So often 5 games a week would be on FTA. I've noticed this year though if we get a foxtel game (Freo v Port) we lose out on one of the four channel 7 games, even where there is no clash in times.

It's crap.