Footy Media - good and bad

Here's the place to have your say about our footy media.

In line with the site objectives, let's keep personal criticisms out and constructive comments in.

If anyone is still willing to talk to us after this forum has been going for a while, we'll ask some of the media people to have their say and perhaps give a view from their perspective as well..

Nice work admin, I look forward to seeing the discussions in here...

Problem is that some of the local media that don't have much interest in sanfl, won't read this.

What did I hear this week?
Certain 5aa presenters who couldn't even name the Sturt coach when interviewing one of the players.

...disturbing!

It's an interesting phenomenon that well-known AFL figures, who started in the SANFL, are often the most scathing or ignorant about the SANFL.

Publication space for the SANFL has to face competition from the AFL and that's no contest. The reality is that the AFL is what sells papers, TV, etc, but the 2 competitions can peacefully co-exist to a reasonable extent.

I think 'Local Footy SA' and the Monday Morning Centreman are excellent and the Messenger gives a good coverage.

I've also got a lot of time for the 'Tiser football writers who do a good job under difficult circumstances.

Later, I'll write about the evolution of SANFL radio coverage from the 'good old days' until now.

Must say the SANFL has been lucky with radio broadcasts - with Life FM in their 11th season of broadcasting matches and 5RPH doing it for donkeys years. It's a pity that the 5DN/SEN situation occurred in the mid-2000's resulting in a lost SANFL broadcaster.

One thing I'd like to see is better use of YouTube for match highlights. I know that SANFL Marketing do a bit of an overall highlights pack of the non-ABC games, and the ABC do a great summary of their match on YouTube, but would like the highlights that are on AdelaideNow to appear on YouTube - mainly because AdelaideNow's media player is terrible! Perhaps down the track we could have live streaming of some matches - start off with the games that get no traditional TV/radio coverage.

I enjoy the Local Footy SA coverage in particular MMC. Very well written article. The radio is disappointing to say the least . I appreciate the coverage but then again I also think our comp deserves it so therefore I expect it.

We have a couple stations that cover it but it is very average . Doug Oakley on 107.9 is good ( I assume he is still doing it ?) , Neil Cross comes accross well and Daryl Smith with his comments is easy to listen to. It is all about the listener and how they hear it and I find some very hard to listen to .

I HIGHLY rate THE Messenger Press local footy coverage. It's the first page I open up to in my Messenger for both SANFL and the grassroots leagues

MMCM annoys me most weeks, but at least there is a write up on all games. I check the LocalFootySA website everynight for new articles. I like this intiative. Good on them for having a specific site for SA clubs - both SANFL and our major local league comps

The 5AA Sunday show only gives a brief run down of SANFL matches, could do more. Seems more interested in giving an overview of the AFL listed guys who are playing SANFL. As for the weekday show - do they even cover SANFL anymore? Heard there was a SANFL show this year, but I'm always at the club when it's on, so can't comment

I miss the live version of 5RPH most Thurs nights as I'm at footy. but listen to the podcasts when there'a a Glenelg rep on.

I reckon the SANFL match reports in the 'tiser this year have been a lot better than previous years. The one in this morning's paper covering South v Glenelg was pretty good, nearly a full pager with a colour photo.

It gives me no joy to say it but Life FM's call of the West v Sturt game yesterday was really frustrating. There were plenty of errors - Joe Anderson played at Hawthorn, Silverlock spent some time at Fremantle, getting Daniel Webb's number of games played and goals kicked wrong - but the real killer is the inability to identify the players, and one caller's fascination with anything but the game. And I'm not talking about John Nankivell. It's infuriating when you know play is continuing but the commentary is about the view of the hills, or where a player played previously. I do appreciate that these guys are giving up their time, but there is an onus I think to familiarise yourself with the players, follow the game fairly closely and try to describe what's happening.

If you want to find out about how Kurt Tippett's goal kicking is going, its fantastic

Flag No.9 wrote:It gives me no joy to say it but Life FM's call of the West v Sturt game yesterday was really frustrating. There were plenty of errors - Joe Anderson played at Hawthorn, Silverlock spent some time at Fremantle, getting Daniel Webb's number of games played and goals kicked wrong - but the real killer is the inability to identify the players, and one caller's fascination with anything but the game. And I'm not talking about John Nankivell. It's infuriating when you know play is continuing but the commentary is about the view of the hills, or where a player played previously. I do appreciate that these guys are giving up their time, but there is an onus I think to familiarise yourself with the players, follow the game fairly closely and try to describe what's happening.

Agree. The amount of time they spoke about the AFL was also frustrating. Who cares if a certain player played x amount of AFL games and you can't believe he is still not playing. We don't want to hear about that. We want them to paint a picture of whats happening in front of them. Thank god I probably wont have to listen to them anymore as hopefully I'll be at the games (apart from 2 when I'll be interstate).

And I'm not talking about John Nankivell

And just for those who did not listen another regular LifeFM caller was absent due to ANZAC Day preparations for his club.

Don't forget you can always email the station www.life.on.net or www.rphadelaide.org.au with your feedback... if it is specific and constructive it is passed on.

Calling a game isn't an easy task and I tend to allow time for callers to get experience before I form an opinion, unless that opinion quickly becomes obvious.

There's a great deal of difference between callers for the AFL and the SANFL in one major respect and that is bias. Strangely, I think the better SANFL callers are more aware of their responsibility to give an unbiased call, whereas several AFL calls are obvious in their bias. (I'm excluding obviously biased calls to a local market, such as 5AA with the Crows and Power).

So, at SANFL level, bias isn't an issue, but there is a big difference in quality between those callers with a 'feel' for the game and some who tend to rely on their experience, often with disastrous results.

As for radio, some things should be obvious. There's nothing worse than hearing the crowd roar in the background while the caller is talking about something other than the game. We can't see what's happening, we want you to tell us and we're going to get pissed off if you can see and don't bother to tell us.

On TV, we can see, but we don't want to see the third replay of something we've already seen, while the ball has magically gone the length of the field during the replays.

We don't want to see a lingering shot of the coach, or the crowd, or someone on the bench, while the ball is in play.

That just scratches the surface, there's plenty more.

I will say, though, that we're very well served in many ways. The ABC TV production is generally excellent and there are several very good callers on radio.

Unfortunately, it's a fact of life to hone in on the inept, or the annoying.

It's fun, though, isn't it

One thing I find annoyinng about a couple of people on the radio is how much they love advising one and all that they do radio. It's very self indulgent .
I would imagine it's very difficult but on radio and TV we only have a few quality commentators.

ANZAC Day being broadcast on 5RPH 1197AM from 2.30pm.

Kym Morgan, Chris Kendall and Darryl Smith in the commentary box.

I need radio commentators to just call the game, nothing else. If I'm not at the game, they are my eyes, and I need them to paint a picture for me. So many radio commentators fall short of the mark in that area. You have no idea where the ball is, all of a sudden a goal is scored. And when it is scored, pleased tell us the score.

One radio caller in particular, namely Rex Hunt, was so full of self promotion that he was useless to me as a commentator, always rabbiting on about his own business affairs, annoying sobriquets and other things of no interest to me.

TV commentary is different, I like to be told what I can't see. Don't tell me James Allan has the ball, I can see that for myself. I see their role more as telling me what the player's options are, who's presenting themselves up forward, etc. When I'm watching live, that's what I'm doing.

I find SANFL commentary quite reasonable. They just call the game without unecessary frills. The AFL commentators drive me nuts. Self-promotion appears to be more important than accurate reporting, and I can always tell which team a caller has backed heavily to win.

Apologies to Andrew Hudson (TV) and Karl Langdon (radio) who I think are excellent.

I listened to some of the RPH call today on line. Pretty happy with it, as what I listened to kept to the game.

Good to hear one caller pronounce 'Greeger' correctly, but the other two kept on with 'Gryger'.

Also an interesting discussion about Westies, although the comment from one commentator linking West's demise last year to the Foxtel Cup was kneejerk stuff and lacking in facts.

Having said that, though, I thought it was a good call of that part of the game I listened to.

Might be a good time to look at some of the facets of SANFL media from a discussion perspective, starting with radio and commentators. We'll then look at the print media and then the TV coverage, both match day (ABC-TV) and the other commercial stations coverage of SANFL during the year.

Try to keep the discussion reasonable, and looking at things within their control. For example, a signal reach is not always within their control.

Who are some of the radio callers you prefer to listen to and why? Are there any that you don't enjoy listening to and why?

I don't mind Dennis Brown, even though he uses rhyming slang a little too much for my liking. The only real weakness he has is poor identification of players, always needing to ask his co-commentators which player took a mark, etc. Mind you, in night games I can't blame him, I have trouble in that area myself.

The only SANFL radio caller who has annoyed me in recent times was Paul Blandis who was as biased as they come. I recall one night game between Norwood and Glenelg (which Norwood won), you wouldn't have known Norwood were even on the ground, it was all Glenelg, Glenelg, Glenelg. I don't miss him at all.

Our mate CK does a good job because I really cannot stand callers who go over the top. Just tell me what is happening and don't treat every mark as mark of the century.

Adelaide Hawk wrote:The only SANFL radio caller who has annoyed me in recent times was Paul Blandis who was as biased as they come. I recall one night game between Norwood and Glenelg (which Norwood won), you wouldn't have known Norwood were even on the ground, it was all Glenelg, Glenelg, Glenelg. I don't miss him at all.

From memory, he played underage footy with the Bays...

whatever happened to Paul Blandis ?

i think it was him who coined the phrase ''Clive baby Clive'' for Clive Waterhouse

Thank goodness that expression isn't heard any more!

I have to confess I have never heard of Paul Blandis and by some of the comments on this subject I am lucky in that department.

Looks like LocalFootySA is a casualty of the new look Adelaide Now website. The most recent article was Norwood's win over West Adelaide on Friday night, with no match reports for yesterday's matches, or even South's Foxtel Cup triumph.

The 5RPH call of the West v South game yesterday was generally pretty good, and certainly better than my last experience with Life FM. There were a couple of clangers, such as calling Ben Fisher and Brad Fisher brothers, but they generally stuck to calling the game.

But today I have in my sights the Adelaide Now match write-ups. I only read two because I gave up counting the errors in them. These aren't long pieces but they each had 11 mistakes in them, highlights being "to edge passed", "corridore" and "starging", whatever that is. It's like a monkey is just slapping the keyboards in there.