Mega Thread Port Forum 'General AFL Talk' Thread Part 3

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Hammer#8

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Watching a feature on legendary commentator Ray Warren, to paraphrase:

"I would commentate marbles rolling down a slope and call them as horses when I was a kid".

"I would watch a black and white TV through a department store window and commentate whatever sport was on TV".

"My dream was to be commentator".

Would any of the six commentators last night have ever been like this when they were a kid? I highly doubt it, and I ask this because there were times last night I was half reaching for the remote to hit the mute button because the commentary was spoiling what was otherwise a fantastic contest.

Our great game is deserving of better media commentary and coverage, but when I see player X in a suit uttering poorly articulated comments and providing no real insight you just wonder how many passionate and more talented hopefuls they jumped the queue for.

Sad state of affairs really.
 

Papa G

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Bruce cops a lot of shit and has become a bit of a parody of himself which has drifted into cringeworthy, but he has always wanted to be a commentator and is thoroughly professional. Whately and Hudson fit into that category too. Cometti drifted into it and became very good at it, but after that it starts to get thin. Basil tries but misses the mark, the rest are pretty much just jobs for the boys. I didn't mind Tim Lane when 10 had the footy.
 

Magus

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Bruce cops a lot of shit and has become a bit of a parody of himself which has drifted into cringeworthy, but he has always wanted to be a commentator and is thoroughly professional. Whately and Hudson fit into that category too. Cometti drifted into it and became very good at it, but after that it starts to get thin. Basil tries but misses the mark, the rest are pretty much just jobs for the boys. I didn't mind Tim Lane when 10 had the footy.
Hudson is far and away the best of the lot.
 

mic59

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The difference between the third and the fourth quarter's wasn't just that Melbourne didn't have a ruck as he had gone off in the second quarter. It was that Melbourne only had two rotations and players who were beating their Richmond opponents previously were tiring. Petracca, Jones, Oliver and Hibberd were well in the game up to 3/4 time but fell out afterwards, particularly Petracca and Jones. Having the 196/93 Watts ruck against the 199/106 Nankervis was never going to work, Watts did pretty well in the third quarter but Nankervis totally broke away in the last quarter.

And apart from Smith and Spencer, both Petracca and Viney had injuries leading to them doing little in the last quarter. At one point the camera settled on Viney on the bench in the last quarter where he had been for 8 minutes.
 
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TeeKray

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Bruce cops a lot of shit and has become a bit of a parody of himself which has drifted into cringeworthy, but he has always wanted to be a commentator and is thoroughly professional. Whately and Hudson fit into that category too. Cometti drifted into it and became very good at it, but after that it starts to get thin. Basil tries but misses the mark, the rest are pretty much just jobs for the boys. I didn't mind Tim Lane when 10 had the footy.
Agree with all of that.

You're right about Basil. He tries hard but misses the mark. At least with him you can see he loves the game not just himself.

Rompingwins on the other hand ...
 

Papa G

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So the actual game itself today starts at 2:50pm? Just need that confirmed so I don't accidentally tune in too early and have to watch any of the overblown, hyperbolic and cringeworthy ANZAC Day shit with a deep voiced Craig Willis narration or Old Man Sheedy again self congratulating himself on creating this wonderful "tradition".
 

elpirate

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All of those teams were defensive animals aswell.

Also, besides Geelong, their forward movement was not based on Joe the goose type entries, with the exception of Geelong in 2007 who won the flag largely because of their arrival as a force and a very poor opposition who was not mentally prepared or physically capable of winning the GF.
 

1954

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Watching a feature on legendary commentator Ray Warren, to paraphrase:

"I would commentate marbles rolling down a slope and call them as horses when I was a kid".

"I would watch a black and white TV through a department store window and commentate whatever sport was on TV".

"My dream was to be commentator".

Would any of the six commentators last night have ever been like this when they were a kid? I highly doubt it, and I ask this because there were times last night I was half reaching for the remote to hit the mute button because the commentary was spoiling what was otherwise a fantastic contest.

Our great game is deserving of better media commentary and coverage, but when I see player X in a suit uttering poorly articulated comments and providing no real insight you just wonder how many passionate and more talented hopefuls they jumped the queue for.

Sad state of affairs really.
The print media was a bit different, it was much more interesting when ex footballers like Jeff Pash and Don Sutherland used to write for the local papers, ie the News and Advertiser.
Their game reviews were often a good read, and even the Sunday Mail ( aka the Le Cornu's flyer ) was actually worth a look back in those days.

It all fell apart in the mid 1970's when a decision was made that sport's stories had to be done by accredited journalists, the result was the quality of sporting journalism fell through the floor, and I'm not sure it has ever fully recovered.
 

crazee_peet

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All of those teams were defensive animals aswell.

Also, besides Geelong, their forward movement was not based on Joe the goose type entries, with the exception of Geelong in 2007 who won the flag largely because of their arrival as a force and a very poor opposition who was not mentally prepared or physically capable of winning the GF.
I'm pretty sure Geelong with Matthew Scarlett were one of the best defensive teams of their era. I know in the years prior to '07, they definitely always had one of the best defences, which is what they built their premiership team on.
 

Rexie J

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The print media was a bit different, it was much more interesting when ex footballers like Jeff Pash and Don Sutherland used to write for the local papers, ie the News and Advertiser.
Their game reviews were often a good read, and even the Sunday Mail ( aka the Le Cornu's flyer ) was actually worth a look back in those days.

It all fell apart in the mid 1970's when a decision was made that sport's stories had to be done by accredited journalists, the result was the quality of sporting journalism fell through the floor, and I'm not sure it has ever fully recovered.

May I add Merv Agars and Gordon Schwartz for their quality and balanced reporting although they were professional reporters.
 
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