The Media & the Game

[JoondalupJ]

I grew up watching footy in the 1960s. Football media back then was the odd replay, a panel show usually on Sunday mornings, but ostensibly it was the newspapers which reported on the games. Not a lot of footy during the week, but I loved reading the teams prior to the match and the reports on the game. Journalists would actually write about the game and told you all you really wanted to know.

By the 1990s, the media changed along with the game itself. No longer a basic game, it became more interested in off field politics and club scandals, reporting on the game became more analytical and journalists no longer reported on the actual game, they began offering opinion pieces. Opinions are like backsides, everyone has one, but you don't want to see yours in the paper.

I became far less interested in football media from about that time. The media game reached a saturation point with show after show with people just offering opinions on the game. It became obvious after a while that many people in the media could not disguise their personal biases against certain clubs, teams and/or players. I generally just tune out, but every now and then I will watch a show to hear if there is any REAL news about the game.

Last night I watched a show (Football Classified) which is the perfect example of everything I dislike about the media. Four people sitting there, crapping on and unable to make it clear what they were actually talking about. And they jump from one thing to another so quickly you lose track of the point of the show.

And the way some of them talk, you'd think they'd never made a mistake in their entire lives. So sanctimonious with their assessments. And just when you thought there couldn't possibly be another reason for a new show, up comes "Players". I couldn't understand most of what they were talking about, or the point of the show, so I switched off halfway through. The game has well and truly passed me by.

Passed by many I'm afraid. It's like reality TV cheap opinionated and mostly false.

The AFL and TV channels have hijacked this sport , where is a Kerry Packer to give us a real game back where it belongs.
I believe the two new clubs and this 19th club will dilute the game even further, but I doubt in the last ten or fifteen years I have never heard a commentator have a say about how the game has been changed to suit the media and the tv rights for the AFL. Not one has the guts they are TV indoctrinated to go on air and do the AFL's bidding.
I also believe we have now developed a two division competition, with some teams, if it goes on will never ever win a grand final in a 19 team comp!.
We don't have a population like American basketball to have huge distances travelled to carry a 19 club national sport, elite Australia rules is themost hardest of sports to everadapt to. It is something you almost have to grow up with it, to even play lower level footy.
And at elite level the the numbers are phenomenal and dangerous to the level of elite in pur 27 million people country, where we have to field two teamson huge grounds 0r 18 on field and 5 sitting on the bench, that two new teams began the end of football as it should be it now has two division standard,and remember StKilda will have waited 60 years next season since winning a flag, they may go another 60 years. We need a real, national competition all states and territories and TWELVE CLUBS!
How do you reckon that'd be. Imagine what a standard improvement of our game.
Each team now has to field no less than 40 players including seconds, they don't come up to scratch with lots of clubs! Thanks for absolutely nothing AFL.

 

[JoondalupJ]

Garry Lyon admitted to not watching games unless he's calling them.

Gary says not much, he, I think, has a view of our game much like the disappointment of most people who know the game who have commented negatively , like me on media and the sport itself being hijacked.

Gary does the job well and is a good professional comment maker. Gerard Healey may be another of that ilk, Perhaps Buckley too.

 

[Gough]

It's media across the board, not just footy. At some point just being an an observer and reporter of events wasn't enough and journalists felt the need to insert themselves into stories, so we've ended up with this agenda driven, tepid Gonzo journalism.

 

[Jim Prideaux]

It's media across the board, not just footy. At some point just being an an observer and reporter of events wasn't enough and journalists felt the need to insert themselves into stories, so we've ended up with this agenda driven, tepid Gonzo journalism.

It’s a bit chicken and egg, but the way people consume and enjoy entertainment (and sport is very much entertainment) has changed vastly over the last couple of decades.

The chicken and egg thing is, did our habits change to suit what was being presented, or did what was being presented change to suit what we required.

I use ‘we’ broadly, it doesn’t mean you or I necessarily. I grew up on a wholesome diet of Richie Benaud - do I miss him, absolutely, do I reject everything now as a result, nah, not really.

 

[Oscarman]

They are a joke. Trade talk in March? FFS, and most of them are basically recruiting for a few select clubs (Geelong, Collingwood, maybe Essendon, Carlton or the Bulldogs) - Mitch Cleary I am talking about you - and shit-talking about other clubs to discourage players from going there.

Then one journo makes a comment and others use that as the basis to keep it in the news by reporting 'Kane Cornes said...........'. You aren't the news you flogs - just report what is happening in clubs or AFL HQ, or on matches and training.

 

[DeanoDocker]

Gary says not much, he, I think, has a view of our game much like the disappointment of most people who know the game who have commented negatively , like me on media and the sport itself being hijacked.

Gary does the job well and is a good professional comment maker. Gerard Healey may be another of that ilk, Perhaps Buckley too.

I actually think Buckley is easily the best of all the media - very insightful, balanced opinions. Has a very good knack of adding onto a conversation to give better context (which he sometimes needs to do "on the couch"). And yes, Gary knows his limits - unlike some who state things based on their "perception" of a club rather than actually watching