Basil interviews Leon Cameron

[Juggs Magnetic]

Saw an old 2011 match last week featuring BT commentating on Foxtel - it is like a different person to what he has become on Ch 7. He was restrained, but not to the point of lacking excitement. There was no hand candy, no Calder Cannons footy factory, no weapon, no human meatball, not so much as a boy oh boy wowee in sight.

I am convinced that Ch 7 senior execs deliberately instruct all of their commentators to ham it up and become a caricature in some horribly misguided belief that it creates some sort of personality that is relatable to audiences. This is the crux of everything wrong with Ch 7 - they think of the commentators as the stars, not the players. These execs will simply point to the ratings as some sort of validation for their modus operandi - the truth is that the ratings would be just as big if the footy was on any other channel. McAveney and Cometti were supreme professionals back 15+ years ago, when their focus was solely on the job of play-by-play commentary - they suffer today because of the hammed up manufactured personalities created by their bosses. Ditto BT. Even the special comments guys are now performing seals and have identifiable 'personalities'.

Foxtel commentators have their own annoying traits but they never take away from the fact that the players are the stars of the show, and they try to remain fixed on the game and away from irrelevant diversions (or at least the diversions take place during a break in play). In short they take footy commentary and analysis seriously, whereas Ch 7 treat the footy as another one of their shitty light entertainment star vehicles for their commentators.

I despise Ch 7 - they are a s**tstain on sports broadcasting.

No doubt about this at all.

A few years ago Ch 7 were showing some sort of highlights package and they had the text of what the commentators were saying plastered on the screen as part of some weird graphic, over the actual highlights.
Goes to show while they say they 'just love the footy', they really just love themselves.

BT was a good commentator on foxtel. Dennis wasn't a parody of himself before he went across from 9.

 

[StonesThrow]

The standards are so low and everybody hates them so why do they all still have a job?

 

[Righteo]

The standards are so low and everybody hates them so why do they all still have a job?

Everybody on BF maybe, don't think we're representative of the wider footy viewing public.

 

[estibador]

The standards are so low and everybody hates them so why do they all still have a job?

Ratings will always be good because people will watch the footy no matter what.

If they invented a 'mute a commentator' function that the 7 execs could track it might make a difference, though they probably still wouldn't care as long as you didn't mute the ads.

 

[Lensen]

No doubt about this at all.

A few years ago Ch 7 were showing some sort of highlights package and they had the text of what the commentators were saying plastered on the screen as part of some weird graphic, over the actual highlights.
Goes to show while they say they 'just love the footy', they really just love themselves.

BT was a good commentator on foxtel. Dennis wasn't a parody of himself before he went across from 9.

Yes he was, Ed was horrendous at encouraging his "witticisms"

 

[Eaglemaniac]

King is no better on Fox. Before the start of saturdays West Coast v Port game, he was doing an analysis of WC's use of NN tap dominance, so he'd obviously planned it, and he kept referring to Mark Hutchings as Matt Hutchings, and then later as someone mentioned he called Eric McKenzie the captain of the Eagles. If you're supposedly a professional commentator, you should know who you're talking about..

 

[Blue1980]

Hopefully Dennis is seeing what the future of commentating is going to be and reconsiders his retirement.

Dennis can be the vin scully of the AFL & just keep going (although vin is retiring this year too)

Like Richie Benaud in the 12th man with mike walker?

 

[Blue1980]

King is no better on Fox. Before the start of saturdays West Coast v Port game, he was doing an analysis of WC's use of NN tap dominance, so he'd obviously planned it, and he kept referring to Mark Hutchings as Matt Hutchings, and then later as someone mentioned he called Eric McKenzie the captain of the Eagles. If you're supposedly a professional commentator, you should know who you're talking about..

Kings pseudo intellectual over analysis really shits me.
He goes so far up his own ass in analysis he doesn't make judgements on what he has seen, just on stats.

 

[Pie eyed]

The standards are so low and everybody hates them so why do they all still have a job?

Look at who employs them....morons...look at the tv shows they churn out like turds.....

 

[eagles80]

I think its Basils own fault, he does too much probably over tired and zombie. I call him MR everywhere. He gets up 4am each morning to do breakfast radio 5-8:30, he then goes to channel 7 and does the 7 news. probably not home until 8pm. On weekends he does the Saturday afternoon game, does the saturday night half time gig then does the sunday afternoon game, back to perth about 11pm on sunday night and does it all again.

 

[HBF]

I think its Basils own fault, he does too much probably over tired and zombie. I call him MR everywhere. He gets up 4am each morning to do breakfast radio 5-8:30, he then goes to channel 7 and does the 7 news. probably not home until 8pm. On weekends he does the Saturday afternoon game, does the saturday night half time gig then does the sunday afternoon game, back to perth about 11pm on sunday night and does it all again.

He still should know which team Leon Cameron coaches.

 

[Handsuper47]

Basil is in career worst form this year, which is just really shocking, horrific form. The Cameron gaff is a stand-out, but he is consistently, 3-4 times a quarter, making errors in both play-calling and other waffle.

His case is probably helped by Rompingwins distracting everyone with extended biographies on a player's aunt and uncle and other inane nonsense.

There's only way to solve this - put Basil in the ruck

 

[Fat Nyfe]

I'm glad this thread is still here. Bazzzz is underrated in the hate department. Out of all the embarrassing commentators in our game, he is the worst. I think he might be a sociopath because he never gets genuinely excited, it's always faked, and badly faked at that. So cringeworthy to listen to, I will actually switch the TV off sometimes.

 

[Mr Mister]

I think its Basils own fault, he does too much probably over tired and zombie. I call him MR everywhere. He gets up 4am each morning to do breakfast radio 5-8:30, he then goes to channel 7 and does the 7 news. probably not home until 8pm. On weekends he does the Saturday afternoon game, does the saturday night half time gig then does the sunday afternoon game, back to perth about 11pm on sunday night and does it all again.

You sound like Basil's Mum.

If he has the time to take on the role, he has the responsibility to perform to expectations. Geez, if everyone could get away with the "don't worry, you do too much" excuse, there would be no accountability in this world.

 

[PP34]

Everybody on BF maybe, don't think we're representative of the wider footy viewing public.

Nah it's a pretty common theme I've noticed. Different age groups and footy watchers all get irritated at the idiots that 7 churn out.

Unless everyone started boycotting 7 won't change a lot because they a small bit of positive feedback from morons and look at the views and think footy fans watch 7 for their commentary.

Really, it's just a case of footy fans wanting to watch footy.

 

[Chuckie357]

No doubt about this at all.

A few years ago Ch 7 were showing some sort of highlights package and they had the text of what the commentators were saying plastered on the screen as part of some weird graphic, over the actual highlights.
Goes to show while they say they 'just love the footy', they really just love themselves.

BT was a good commentator on foxtel. Dennis wasn't a parody of himself before he went across from 9.

Yes back in his foxtel days when the "Boy oh boy WOWWEEE!" Was restricted to scandalous events during the footy. Instead it is now used whenever the umpires get a bounce right

 

[Teagueeee15]

Saw an old 2011 match last week featuring BT commentating on Foxtel - it is like a different person to what he has become on Ch 7. He was restrained, but not to the point of lacking excitement. There was no hand candy, no Calder Cannons footy factory, no weapon, no human meatball, not so much as a boy oh boy wowee in sight.

I am convinced that Ch 7 senior execs deliberately instruct all of their commentators to ham it up and become a caricature in some horribly misguided belief that it creates some sort of personality that is relatable to audiences. This is the crux of everything wrong with Ch 7 - they think of the commentators as the stars, not the players. These execs will simply point to the ratings as some sort of validation for their modus operandi - the truth is that the ratings would be just as big if the footy was on any other channel. McAveney and Cometti were supreme professionals back 15+ years ago, when their focus was solely on the job of play-by-play commentary - they suffer today because of the hammed up manufactured personalities created by their bosses. Ditto BT. Even the special comments guys are now performing seals and have identifiable 'personalities'.

Foxtel commentators have their own annoying traits but they never take away from the fact that the players are the stars of the show, and they try to remain fixed on the game and away from irrelevant diversions (or at least the diversions take place during a break in play). In short they take footy commentary and analysis seriously, whereas Ch 7 treat the footy as another one of their shitty light entertainment star vehicles for their commentators.

I despise Ch 7 - they are a s**tstain on sports broadcasting.

I agree with you about Channel 7, but I don't think BT is much different now to what he was on Fox. I was watching a random Freo game from 2011 and each time Nat Fyfe got the ball BT was yelling out 'Avatar boy'.

 

[Flandersss]

I think its Basils own fault, he does too much probably over tired and zombie. I call him MR everywhere. He gets up 4am each morning to do breakfast radio 5-8:30, he then goes to channel 7 and does the 7 news. probably not home until 8pm. On weekends he does the Saturday afternoon game, does the saturday night half time gig then does the sunday afternoon game, back to perth about 11pm on sunday night and does it all again.

Thanks for sharing Basil.

#stillaflog

 

[HBF]

I wonder what Basil has in store for us this weekend.

 

[RedmanWasHere]

The male Kelli Underwood.

"He's where the ball ain't."
That's because Basil's 3-4 plays behind.
Every single time.

Also has a very annoying voice and doesn't know how to build up to a really good point of a game.

Ship off Basil.

 

[Flandersss]

The male Kelli Underwood.

"He's where the ball ain't."
That's because Basil's 3-4 plays behind.
Every single time.

Also has a very annoying voice and doesn't know how to build up to a really good point of a game.

Ship off Basil.

Told him he sucked on Twitter.

He needs to know how bad he is.

 

[Zarrix]

I think its Basils own fault, he does too much probably over tired and zombie. I call him MR everywhere. He gets up 4am each morning to do breakfast radio 5-8:30, he then goes to channel 7 and does the 7 news. probably not home until 8pm. On weekends he does the Saturday afternoon game, does the saturday night half time gig then does the sunday afternoon game, back to perth about 11pm on sunday night and does it all again.

He's the WA Eddie, minus the charisma

 

[Arbuckle]

The male Kelli Underwood.

Very good comparison. Both are horrendous, and excruciating to listen to.