ABC TV - West v Eagles

I'm going to watch this tonight on IView, if time allows, so I'll put up a review some time afterwards.

Did anyone watch this on Saturday>

If so, any comments?

I Foxtel iQ'd and watched it back a couple of nights later...

I thought, as always, it was well presented, well commentated and displayed the SANFL well...

Enjoyed the Ben MacReadie and Andy Collins interviews post game as well...

In an age where it seems everyone’s first instinct is to criticise, it’s nice to review a TV production and realize it’s hard to find fault.

I sat down to watch my Bloods defeat the Eagles on ABC IView last night, prepared and ready to be critical and look for the errors that would inevitably occur. What I watched was a seamless production, professionally done and very enjoyable.

I’ve been critical previously about a couple of things with this show. The most annoying was a frequent tendency to show one, two or sometimes three replays of an incident while the play was continuing. “We’ve already seen that, what the hell is happening’, I’d shout, as I wondered how the pill had gone from our forward line to suddenly being out of bounds at half-back.

Well, credit where credit’s due, that wasn’t an issue at all. Replays were shown at the right time and with sympathy for the game. We still twice got the favourite pictures of a spinning footy against the sky at a throw-in, but only for a second or so and we’ll allow the producer one folly.

Having said that, the rest was as good a package as any SANFL fan would want to see and, in my opinion, was vastly superior to the usual AFL TV offerings.

Why?

Firstly, the camera work was excellent. Working with far fewer cameras than an AFL game means that the temptation to show 135 different camera angles isn’t there, and that’s a good thing. There was no straining to see what was happening from seemingly two hundred metres away on top of the grandstand and the result was just a pleasingly smooth flow following the game. Even the obligatory shots of the crowd or the interchange bench didn’t conflict with the game. The camera angles showing the play with West coach Andy Collins in the foreground were also a success, IMO.

Commentators?

It should be said that Neil Cross and Michael Maney now set the standard for how football commentators should be. Player identification was close to flawless and they have perfected the art of giving a sympathetic and intelligent TV commentary, rather than the ubiquitous radio description of what we can see for ourselves. I was also pleased that the ABC seems to now allow a bit of latitude with discussion about umpiring decisions and that added to the entertainment. Bias just wasn’t remotely an issue and many an AFL commentator would benefit by having a listen to hear how it is done professionally.

I took a little while to get used to Matthew Slade. He’s still a bit rough around the edges, but as the game went on I found myself enjoying his insight into the game from the viewpoint of a recently retired player.

Many of us know Chris Kendall, the 'boundary rider'. He’s growing into the role and succeeded on several fronts, appearing only when it was relevant, with relevant information. His questions to coaches and players were intelligent and showed a good feel for the game, instead of the banal ‘how do you feel?’ questions we so often hear. His interviews with Andy Collins and Michael Godden elicited some good insights , although the game was held up for a few seconds at the breaks in this game with interviews. A small price to pay for SANFL fans, though, I would have thought.

On top of all this was a host of packaged highlights of other games and other competitions, all well done.

Overall, I just enjoyed the whole production. Knowing the result probably helped that and Eagles fans might not be so generous, but I think the SANFL community can thank the ABC for what it does with this show.

Firstly, lets acknowledge that if it wasn't for the ABC then SANFL footy would not be TV at all with minimal media coverage so I take the coverage warts and all - in fact I feel some of the warts give the coverage colour.

I agree with R&B that the replays are excellent and normally well time.

I like the around Australia coverage of the three main leagues and the good coverage of the U/18 completion which is presented in a very balanced way highlighting good efforts from both teams.

Only bitch as a Westies man is the in joke reference Collins listening to music - may be more interesting to viewers to be made aware of the communication technology used.

Good point, oldfella, and it illustrates my point about their professionalism.

Chris Kendall followed that up quickly and asked West about it.

The commentators then made viewers aware that it was his communication line to his coaches.

Just a shame for us O/S fans that the ABC restrict iView to Australian viewers only.

Still waiting for the game to go up on my AFL torrent site.

One saving grace is the radio coverage on RPH / Life that we can listen to in almost real time - keep up the great work guys.

I mentioned that they still have a close-up of the ball spinning in the air.

Now they're doing it when the ball is being kicked into the 50 for a marking contest!

Aaaaarrrrgggghhhhh

Note to producer: Don't do it. It's annoying.

Very annoying.

Apart from that, again an excellent production.