76woodenspooners
Brownlow Medallist
I couldn't find an existing thread for this, apologies if I've put this in the wrong place ...
Did anybody else go to the evening with Pele on Thursday night (Melbourne) / Friday night (Sydney)?
It was organized as part of Les Murray's testimonial.
The evening featured ...
- Mark Bosnich interviewing Pele for two ~ 30 minute intervals.
- Mark Bosnich interviewing Les Murray for around 30 minutes
- Some bloke singing an ode to Les Murray to the tune of "Up there Cazaly"; and an ode to Pele to the tune of "The girl from Impanema".
- The Pele interview covered his childhood right up to the 1970 World Cup team and a bit of his time at New York. He spoke about both his experiences in the national team and club teams.
- The Les interview covered from his arrival to Australia to how he started as a football commentator to how far the game has come to what he sees as the challenges of the future of the game of football in Australia. (For the record: 3 goals to strive for: (1) To host a World Cup, (2) To win a World Cup and (3) For the A-League to be able to compete financially with other leagues around the world to attract the best players ... If anybody else had said that it would have been fanciful pie in the sky crazy talk ... But hearing Les saying it with gravitas and in his usual measured-matter-of-fact way, together with him having just pointed out how far soccer has come in this country ... He made those goals sound achievable)
- An interval of around 20 minutes where they auctioned off Pele signed memorabilia.
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My opinions ...
* Pele clearly is unwell. He had two minders who were helping him go on/off stage and during the interview were poised in the wings. It seemed his health conditions meant he wasn't up to doing a long interview, so he just did two short ones, with a lengthy interval / padding in between. The evening seemed to be padded out a bit to fill the allotted time. It was clear that they cut proceedings short because of Pele's health. He was supposed to present something on stage to a group of kids but his minders pulled the plug on it.
* The evening had a very historical perspective. Anybody expecting a trip down memory lane (1950's to around 1980) would have been satisfied. Anybody who is only interested in the present day state of the game would have been very disappointed.
* Anybody who has read Pele's autobiography wouldn't have learnt anything new, although it is good to get a sense of Pele the man in person. His accent was strong and his English isn't the best, so it was difficult at times to follow what he was saying.
* For me, a very insightful part of the night came at the end when Pele was asked a question from the audience by a 9 year old kid: "If you could go back in time and give advice to yourself when you were 9, what would it be?". Pele answered "great question" and he was genuinely flummoxed for an answer. He ended up answering something about "same advice my dad gave me" and "look after your health".
* We just don't have anybody who is even remotely in the same league as Les Murray as a media personality for the game in Australia. IMO I find Mark Bosnich (and Craig Foster too for that matter) just aren't up to it. To be fair to Bos, he was proud to interview Pele in his own home town of Sydney last night, he'd clearly prepared well, and did the best job he could. But Bos is a retired goalkeeper and at best a "special comments" person - he simply doesn't have the skills to be an interviewer, let alone an interviewer of somebody of the calibre of Pele. For example, at one stage last night Bos presented his "team of greatest players I've played with or against" while Pele was on stage (With Bos keeping goal by the way). FFS Bos, it's not about you, and he rightfully got howled down by the audience.
Did anybody else go to the evening with Pele on Thursday night (Melbourne) / Friday night (Sydney)?
It was organized as part of Les Murray's testimonial.
The evening featured ...
- Mark Bosnich interviewing Pele for two ~ 30 minute intervals.
- Mark Bosnich interviewing Les Murray for around 30 minutes
- Some bloke singing an ode to Les Murray to the tune of "Up there Cazaly"; and an ode to Pele to the tune of "The girl from Impanema".
- The Pele interview covered his childhood right up to the 1970 World Cup team and a bit of his time at New York. He spoke about both his experiences in the national team and club teams.
- The Les interview covered from his arrival to Australia to how he started as a football commentator to how far the game has come to what he sees as the challenges of the future of the game of football in Australia. (For the record: 3 goals to strive for: (1) To host a World Cup, (2) To win a World Cup and (3) For the A-League to be able to compete financially with other leagues around the world to attract the best players ... If anybody else had said that it would have been fanciful pie in the sky crazy talk ... But hearing Les saying it with gravitas and in his usual measured-matter-of-fact way, together with him having just pointed out how far soccer has come in this country ... He made those goals sound achievable)
- An interval of around 20 minutes where they auctioned off Pele signed memorabilia.
---------
My opinions ...
* Pele clearly is unwell. He had two minders who were helping him go on/off stage and during the interview were poised in the wings. It seemed his health conditions meant he wasn't up to doing a long interview, so he just did two short ones, with a lengthy interval / padding in between. The evening seemed to be padded out a bit to fill the allotted time. It was clear that they cut proceedings short because of Pele's health. He was supposed to present something on stage to a group of kids but his minders pulled the plug on it.
* The evening had a very historical perspective. Anybody expecting a trip down memory lane (1950's to around 1980) would have been satisfied. Anybody who is only interested in the present day state of the game would have been very disappointed.
* Anybody who has read Pele's autobiography wouldn't have learnt anything new, although it is good to get a sense of Pele the man in person. His accent was strong and his English isn't the best, so it was difficult at times to follow what he was saying.
* For me, a very insightful part of the night came at the end when Pele was asked a question from the audience by a 9 year old kid: "If you could go back in time and give advice to yourself when you were 9, what would it be?". Pele answered "great question" and he was genuinely flummoxed for an answer. He ended up answering something about "same advice my dad gave me" and "look after your health".
* We just don't have anybody who is even remotely in the same league as Les Murray as a media personality for the game in Australia. IMO I find Mark Bosnich (and Craig Foster too for that matter) just aren't up to it. To be fair to Bos, he was proud to interview Pele in his own home town of Sydney last night, he'd clearly prepared well, and did the best job he could. But Bos is a retired goalkeeper and at best a "special comments" person - he simply doesn't have the skills to be an interviewer, let alone an interviewer of somebody of the calibre of Pele. For example, at one stage last night Bos presented his "team of greatest players I've played with or against" while Pele was on stage (With Bos keeping goal by the way). FFS Bos, it's not about you, and he rightfully got howled down by the audience.
