- Sep 27, 2014
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Ugly football: Could broadcasters be the source of AFL's image problem?
Watch AFL on television and you could see a completely different game to the one you'd see live. Russell Jackson analyses whether it could be what's broadcast that changes our view.
abc.net.au
Scarcely acknowledged in these discussions is the widening gap of understanding that has opened up between those intimately involved in the game at club level — the coaches, assistants and analysts who have access to every available piece of footage filmed on game day — and the average fan and even journalists, who, if they're not sitting in the stands, are entirely reliant on what's shown by the Seven Network and Fox Sports.
This week, under the condition of anonymity, I asked AFL coaches and team analysts a simple question: would they be able to understand a game of modern AFL football from the television broadcast alone?
Their blunt answers of "no" gave way to detailed observations that painted a picture of AFL broadcasting as something closer to a coaching fraternity in-joke.
The outline of grievances is simple enough:
- The tactical battle can now only be truly understood with vision from behind the goals, an angle from which the home viewer rarely sees anything other than replays of goals or reportable incidents
- How a team sets up at a stoppage is crucial to the outcome of the contest but a total mystery on TV
- There are too many lingering close-ups that serve no purpose other than to familiarise viewers with players' haircuts and tattoos, and obscure what is really happening in the game
- When the game slows down and the ball carrier is launching a transition of play, home viewers rarely, if ever, see the options available to him
- Some of these gaps in knowledge could be overcome if commentators explained tactical scenarios or anticipated the decision-making of players, but they rarely offer anything other than a description of what has already occurred.