A nationwide petition to have Kearns removed from commentating?

[Wilson]

Frankly, I'm unconvinced that there's a better alternative out there. For all the complaints about Kearns' negativity, I don't think a person who is positive about rugby exists in Australia. Everybody in Australian rugby is a whinger. It's ingrained in the fan culture.

And we underestimate just how difficult it is to do live sport commentary. It's a really specialist skill. It only seems easy because everybody who does it says something stupid or obvious every now and again. Sure, Kearns is full of himself, but who are the alternatives? Gregan, Mitchell, Turinui and Eales have all done it and have been as dull as dishwater.

Sean Maloney is much better than anything going at fox right now and was a big loss. He's exactly the bloke you want there spruiking the game and keeping things entertaining, even when the game isn't delivering.

As far as ex-players go it's a bit harder to find talent, but there's plenty better than Kearns. The bias isn't the issue for the most part, colour commentary should be playing favourites to some degree, it's the relentless negativity that's the real problem. He does also appear to have lost enthusiasm for any game not involving the tahs, but that's probably exacerbated by the fact that there's only a couple of guys on staff now so he's doing all the games.

 

[Dctarget]

Was it my imagination or was Sean Maloney doing halftime entertainment at the Reds v Rebels last night? Good to see him around in some capacity.

 

[wamberal]

The commentary generally was a helluva lot better last night. I could be wrong - Bradman got out for a duck occasionally - but I am certain that this thread has been taken notice of.

 

[Wilson]

Was it my imagination or was Sean Maloney doing halftime entertainment at the Reds v Rebels last night? Good to see him around in some capacity.

Pretty sure I heard him as the ground announcer or something

 

[formerflanker]

Was it my imagination or was Sean Maloney doing halftime entertainment at the Reds v Rebels last night? Good to see him around in some capacity.

Yep. Ground announcer for the whole game including a chat with one player's mum and sister at half time.
Like everyone else, he took a couple of moments after full time before he talked about the procedure for Super Time.
A good performance on the night.

 

[The Nomad]

This may have actually worked !

No Phil Kearns on the Tahs v Force game .

Thank god , could only imagine the moaning .....

Apologies if this has been mentioned in the game thread .

 

[fatprop]

This may have actually worked !

No Phil Kearns on the Tahs v Force game .

Thank god , could only imagine the moaning ...

Apologies if this has been mentioned in the game thread .

And Kafer and Gregan were just so much more positive ..............................

 

[Derpus]

I reckon Reg, Cavill etc and a couple of the Report Card guys should host a 'alternative game commentary' program - beers included.

 

[Brumbieman]

Frankly, I'm unconvinced that there's a better alternative out there. For all the complaints about Kearns' negativity, I don't think a person who is positive about rugby exists in Australia. Everybody in Australian rugby is a whinger. It's ingrained in the fan culture.

And we underestimate just how difficult it is to do live sport commentary. It's a really specialist skill. It only seems easy because everybody who does it says something stupid or obvious every now and again. Sure, Kearns is full of himself, but who are the alternatives? Gregan, Mitchell, Turinui and Eales have all done it and have been as dull as dishwater.

So lets stop using CTE victims in the commentary team? There are blokes and girls out there who would do a job 100x more entertaining, end educational, than this lot.

They've probably never played higher than 3rd grade subbies, but love the game and might have a hidden talent/golden voice. We'll never hear them though unless some kind of effort is made to draw them out.

 

[KevinO]

I reckon Reg, Cavill etc and a couple of the Report Card guys should host a 'alternative game commentary' program - beers included.

Surely they can set up a zoom broadcast that we can tune into

 

[Dctarget]

Well, the commentary team for Shute Shield will be Shannon Parry, Daniel Parks, Louise Ransome, Maloney & Tony Lewis. I only recognise half those names, good luck to them and hopefully they go better than Kearns.