FTA-TV Fox Footy's 'History Month'

[Dogs Rule]

Garbage. The same old games (i.e 1986 State of Origin, 1993 Essendon v Geelong - Ablett/Salmon shootout) and the list goes on.

Hate to say it, but the NRL history month where they went year by year, round by round was far better.

Fox, if it's a rights issue with 7, just sort it out, or else don't bother with history month next year because we'll have seen it all before.

 

[brucetiki]

To be fair, it probably helps the NRL that this is the first off-season they've had with a dedicated channel, so the classics are fresh so to speak.

 

[Dogs Rule]

To be fair, it probably helps the NRL that this is the first off-season they've had with a dedicated channel, so the classics are fresh so to speak.

Understand that, but they did back to back matches and didn't repeat any. We've had repeated matches the following week and Open Mike replays in between. Lazy and boring.

 

[010203]

Yup, same old, same old and I'm over it tbh. Good that they tried something different instead of replaying the previous season on loop, however it's stale. Surely there are some games from the 70's they could show, maybe more specifically from the period in the 70's when colour TV started.

 

[brucetiki]

Understand that, but they did back to back matches and didn't repeat any. We've had repeated matches the following week and Open Mike replays in between. Lazy and boring.

That's true. How many times do we have to have Tigerthon

 

[IKnowtheDog]

Had the same thoughts. Funnily enough the late evening matches are some of the more obscure ones eg last night at midnight they showed the 'Shannon Grant 50' match of 2007. Agree that there could be plenty more variety. The commentators selections were far worse. They were all the same.

 

[Dogs Rule]

That's true. How many times do we have to have Tigerthon

That was a joke. We had it twice and it was just an indication of lazy unimaginative programming.

Even when the Dogs won in 2016, all I cared about was the Prelim and Grand Final. Couldn't have given a stuff about Round 2 or 12.

 

[Uncle_Leo]

The Fox Footy channel after the grand final is a complete disgrace, may as well close it down for 6 months or show fish tank vision.

 

[Dogs Rule]

The Fox Footy channel after the grand final is a complete disgrace, may as well close it down for 6 months or show fish tank vision.

How good was the 'Best Of' month? I spotted 'Best of Bounce' and thought they were taking the p***.

 

[Bombermania]

Whilst there is room for improvement, at least they are not showing the just completed season round by round over and over like they did in their first season. maybe they should do that once then show the Premiers matches then show a select round from some previous season then maybe re-show the classic matches and so on, or maybe where possible they can pick a club and show all the matches from its premier season or the last time it made the GF or maybe instead of having the commentary team pick matches, just show that commentators best matches or mildstone games or finals they played in.

 

[3rd Grade Maggy]

How good was the 'Best Of' month? I spotted 'Best of Bounce' and thought they were taking the p***.

That was a good 9 minutes.

 

[Demon3]

Couldn't agree more with most of what you guys said..they need to do a month of every teams wins for the year imo..so at least you can IQ them and watch them when you want...as much as I love the 90s I can only watch the 93 ess vs gee and the 95 anzac day game so many times

 

[Bombermania]

Couldn't agree more with most of what you guys said..they need to do a month of every teams wins for the year imo..so at least you can IQ them and watch them when you want...as much as I love the 90s I can only watch the 93 ess vs gee and the 95 anzac day game so many times

Today is a good example of a missed opportunity, they showed the 1980 rd 4 match between St Kilda v Essendon which they have shown several times now, and while I get it that in those days maybe not all matches had cameras but it would be good to follow up with one of the other matches from that round like say Hawthorn's 3 point win over Fitzroy or Melbourne's 9 point win over Footscray or even show the match from the previous week where St Kilda tied with Richmond.

(sourced from AFL every game, every played)

 

[King_Steele]

Agreed. Getting very stale.

Seen the 99 prelim Carlton v Essendon 3 times this summer.

 

[010203]

Amazed that the 89 Grand Final isn't shown at least once when they replay games from the 80's, ditto the game at Princess Park when Hawthorn beat Geelong 171-163. I appreciate Geelong fans could do without seeing those two games surely they're worth showing if you're going to show classic games from the 80's.

 

[Damon_3388]

Amazed that the 89 Grand Final isn't shown at least once when they replay games from the 80's

Probably because it's been played to death, and is supremely overrated as a "tight" game.

Revisionist history would have people believe it was a titanic back-and-forth struggle all day, but Hawthorn were comfortably winning the actual football contest for most of the match, up by 6+ goals at every break, before literally running out of fit players in the last quarter, resulting in a Geelong comeback.

 

[010203]

Probably because it's been played to death, and is supremely overrated as a "tight" game.

Revisionist history would have people believe it was a titanic back-and-forth struggle all day, but Hawthorn were comfortably winning the actual football contest for most of the match, up by 6+ goals at every break, before literally running out of fit players in the last quarter, resulting in a Geelong comeback.

You're right about overrated nature of the 89 Grand final. Just feels like every time a grand final from the 80's is on, the 84 grand final is shown. Memorable yes, but one of the highest scoring grand finals could do with being shown too perhaps.

 

[peternorth]

That's true. How many times do we have to have Tigerthon

As many times as they want!

 

[peternorth]

Whilst there is room for improvement, at least they are not showing the just completed season round by round over and over like they did in their first season. maybe they should do that once then show the Premiers matches then show a select round from some previous season then maybe re-show the classic matches and so on, or maybe where possible they can pick a club and show all the matches from its premier season or the last time it made the GF or maybe instead of having the commentary team pick matches, just show that commentators best matches or mildstone games or finals they played in.

Do you remember in their inaugural season after the opening match concluded they just played, replayed, the same match over and over until the next game finished? lol

 

[peternorth]

OK. So here's my take.

Lazy programming? Yes certainly. I think the AFL tries to create things/rounds to garner some sort of new interest. Hey look at us it's heritage round! We wear old jumpers! Next week it's man bun round! Week before finals it's brown table round! Take photos and post them of you and your brown table!!

That's what the channel has undertaken. There are heaps of footy games recorded, let's play them and dress them up as "LEFT FOOTERS WEEK".

Essentially all they're doing is putting games together in an order to suit their narrative. They don't understand the public can see this foreshadowing.

Documentaries would be good. But perhaps we dont have that many docos to show.

Also, I think given AFL is a domestic sport the channel caters for just us. Contrast to say the NBA which is global (the sport) they can draw on millions of content hours globally. The scope is huge allowing for more growth and interest.

 

[footyfan1978]

I only had Foxtel one year. That was probably first year of Fox Footy Channel.
I remember I was surprised by lack of variety of older footage given the hundreds and hundreds of hours of replay shows that I watched in late 70's as a kid and 1980's but it just seems like most of those hours are lost for some reason. Most of them were done by Channel 7 so I guess they were not looked after or there is some issue with cigarette sponsors from past that stops them being shown. It would seem nothing has changed with Fox Footy Channel from the first season of it , in that regard.

Basically it comes down the limited selection of "Name a Game" distribution in the VHS era that seems to float around on things llke Fox Footy and even that seems small in comparison to what channel 7 would have produced. Channel 7 from memory used to cover 3 games a Saturday. We would only see about 20 to 40 minutes highlights of each game but the full game must have be recorded so it is really sad how little of it seems to be in circulation.

As a result it seems channels like Fox Footy show a bit of 1990's stuff when clear of cigarette sponsors and not a lot more. Which brings it back to only stuff Fox Footy produce themselves that is probably 90% what you will ever see on their footy channel. I got very bored of stuff just replayed of the season I had just seen very quickly. I am also surprised the only have a bit of ABC coverage too. They had a lot more footage than just the 1 hour of Winner each week. What happened to 2 hours of a "Pleasant Sunday Morning" replay show ?

 

[mr bagcroft]

If they are not showing games because of cigarette sponsership, they are idiots. I doubt thats the case.
I have no interest in history month. History to me, needs some time....Am I going to stay watching when I flick over and a game from 2006, 2011, 2009 is on, * no. !978? Much more likely. Maybe its rights, maybe the footage is gone I dont know.

 

[Dogs Rule]

I agree if they're showing 2010s as 'history' they may as well give up. FFS a match from 2014 is not 'history'.

Again, it's lazy, phoning it in programming.

 

[Teagueeee15]

I only had Foxtel one year. That was probably first year of Fox Footy Channel.
I remember I was surprised by lack of variety of older footage given the hundreds and hundreds of hours of replay shows that I watched in late 70's as a kid and 1980's but it just seems like most of those hours are lost for some reason. Most of them were done by Channel 7 so I guess they were not looked after or there is some issue with cigarette sponsors from past that stops them being shown. It would seem nothing has changed with Fox Footy Channel from the first season of it , in that regard.

Basically it comes down the limited selection of "Name a Game" distribution in the VHS era that seems to float around on things llke Fox Footy and even that seems small in comparison to what channel 7 would have produced. Channel 7 from memory used to cover 3 games a Saturday. We would only see about 20 to 40 minutes highlights of each game but the full game must have be recorded so it is really sad how little of it seems to be in circulation.

As a result it seems channels like Fox Footy show a bit of 1990's stuff when clear of cigarette sponsors and not a lot more. Which brings it back to only stuff Fox Footy produce themselves that is probably 90% what you will ever see on their footy channel. I got very bored of stuff just replayed of the season I had just seen very quickly. I am also surprised the only have a bit of ABC coverage too. They had a lot more footage than just the 1 hour of Winner each week. What happened to 2 hours of a "Pleasant Sunday Morning" replay show ?

Drew Morphett was interviewed on the JYB segment on SEN and he said that Fox purchased all of the old ABC footage when they started airing The Winners repeats from the 80’s in 2015, so they must have access to more than they are showing or The ABC threw out a lot of stuff before Fox got their hands on it.

 

[Number 10 is cursed]

I would like to see some film makers commissioned to do some 30 for 30 styled stories during the off season. If done well the AFL should be financing these (similar to NFL Films) and keeping the game in the spotlight during the offseason with quality offerings. The AFL website is a farce through Dec and Jan.

I think the Fox Channel should also have dedicated club days during the preseason. Before Xmas every club has a day allocated where they update on new recruits and training, in depth interviews with coaching staff, personal interest stories within the playing list, b&f coverage, players talking through game footage of previous season, etc

In January, a similar thing but include a membership drive for a couple of hours as well. Some sort of incentive for Fox subscribers to purchase membership during the broadcast.....just tossing ideas out now.

I feel most in AFL accredited media are happy to be lazy and keep their snouts in the trough and the footy channel is a major culprit in this.

We pay for this and deserve more 12 months of the year.