Why do footy shows suck?

Tap Tap Tapperoo

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Dec 15, 2009
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With all the great characters of the game, why do all the light hearted footy shows suck? I just watched The Bounce and I was actually embarassed for those involved. Similar when I watched The Footy Show a week or 2 back.

I just flicked over and am watching the Matty Johns show, and while I'm not an NRL fan at all (actually, quite the opposite), they are genuinely funny and the humour is all very natural and flows well. Compare that with watching Dunstall and Frawley's "chemistry" on The Bounce, or watching Crawford and Brownless try and get a laugh.

The Front Bar is probably the one that might scrape in for a pass mark. Am I missing any others?

There aren't many things the NRL does better than the AFL, but I would be interested to hear who the great characters of footy are that could get something going like Johns, Fletcher and Hindmarsh can on the Matty Johns show.
 

TeeJay Blue

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Feb 11, 2015
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Like 'The Front Bar' though. I always seem to enjoy Mick Molloy and Sam Pang. They seem naturally funny and Pang isn't afraid to take his humour to questionable levels. Maher is also not as irritating here as most other shows he works on.

Prefer Molloy and Pang heaps over Hughes, Lehmo and Helliar.
 

Tap Tap Tapperoo

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I don't, it just pops on whenever a footy match finishes. At that moment, I'm too lazy to change the channel. :cool:

I'm not sure if anyone recalls, but the first season of the bounce was actually funny. It seemed a lot less scripted and the original yesterday's heroes challenges were pretty funny.

Now it is just so forced it is ridiculous. And the current yesterday's heroes challenges are up there with the most cringeworthy television you could possibly see. Any time I hear that fake laugh from Danny Frawley, that is the moment I reach for the controller and start channel surfing.
 

Tap Tap Tapperoo

Club Legend
Dec 15, 2009
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Like 'The Front Bar' though. I always seem to enjoy Mick Molloy and Sam Pang. They seem naturally funny and Pang isn't afraid to take his humour to questionable levels. Maher is also not as irritating here as most other shows he works on.

Prefer Molloy and Pang heaps over Hughes, Lehmo and Helliar.

100% agree with all of those.

Molloy and Pang are both funny (although Molloy has started to grind my gears a bit, but he has enough runs on the board).

How anyone finds Peter Helliar or David Hughes funny is beyond me.
 

TeeJay Blue

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100% agree with all of those.

Molloy and Pang are both funny (although Molloy has started to grind my gears a bit, but he has enough runs on the board).

How anyone finds Peter Helliar or David Hughes funny is beyond me.

Hughes and Helliar just try too hard that it becomes awkward.

Lehmo's not that bad, but I feel like his humour isn't as strong. The pre-match show on Saturday nights doesn't seem that interesting anymore with him in and Molloy out.
 

SportsCentre

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Apr 5, 2015
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All players of the last 10 years have been media trained to the nth degree.
Don't be controversial, edgy or stray from the company line, you'll "damage the brand", and if you try to be funny, you will offend someone, somewhere, somehow.

The only real content that is available now are the online snippets the clubs themselves generate via social media, and those you can be assured, have been scrutinised to within an inch of its life.
 

Testekill

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There's a limited pool of talent and producers prefer going to the well with certain people instead of trying something new. The only footy show I even watch nowdays is Marngrook and even then that's only occasionally.
 

halalsnackpack

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Apr 11, 2018
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Before the game in the 00s was pretty good. I liked how they reviewed the afternoon games and previewed the night games. Was pretty entertaining. Wouldn't work these days with fox footy and oversaturation though
 
Regurgitating of basic stats like possessions and tackles and the like give very little insight to the game. If done at half time, people would rather get food and drinks or do a quick chore than listen to meaningless info.

Basic analysis of games or halves makes footy nuts yawn and doesn't interest the rest. There is no audience for this.

Deep analysis looking into team structures, gameplans and the ways in which teams have scouted their opponent bores the footy nuts as they're not interested enough to sit there and listen to meat heads read an auto-cue, or they already know what the commentator is saying and don't want to hear what they already knew. There is no audience for this.

With the restrictions on what can be analysed and criticized put on the media by AFL House, everything else is compromised and thin in depth.

The humorous stuff is juvinile and predictable done by unfunny people being paid to perform scriptedly unscripted comedy. Yawn.

Interviews with players or any show featuring current players are the cherry on the cake of why football shows suck. They are the worst. Robotic, cliche and pre-scripted to say a lot without saying anything at all. It's about as entertaining as white noise and only appeals to the hardcore nuffies.
 

SHAKESPEARE

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It's sort of like why is the first Ninja Turtles movies from 1990 way better than the modern films that have more CGI and are had way bigger budgets.
TMNT in 1990 was a dark movie. Way above the audience it was targeting.

Still holds up as a great movie. Can't believe my old lady took me to it.
 

SHAKESPEARE

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I really enjoyed Before the Game. Was disappointed to see it go.

Now I really enjoy The Front Bar.

Neither of them take/took themselves too seriously.

Egotistical chip scabs like Barrett could learn plenty from guys like Mick Molloy.

BTG and TFB are obvs very good and those involved with it know it works.
 
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