Cringeworthy Kearns/Martin moments.....minutes......hours......

[TOCC]

The Footy Show..... practically the David Attenborough of sports programming

yep.... applauding a fart.... well done :/

 

[Gagger]

Kearns a THOUSAND times in last night's coverage: "You can't win the game without the ball"

Yes Phil you can, like all the most successful teams last year.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

The Footy Show... practically the David Attenborough of sports programming

yep.. applauding a fart.. well done :/

"A rising plateau"
This is where its headed

 

[barbarian]

"A rising plateau"
This is where its headed

So one 30 second skit and all of a sudden it's the footy show. Christ on a bike.

Look I didn't think it was great either, but jeez the amount of oxygen/internet wasted on it is beyond me.
.

 

[Slim 293]

Kearns a THOUSAND times in last night's coverage: "You can't win the game without the ball"

Yes Phil you can, like all the most successful teams last year.

He obviously wasn't paying attention last year because he commented that Speight wasn't known to be good under the high ball.........

 

[hawktrain]

Watched most of the replay of Rebels v Force, and Cannon really needs to stop commenting on refereeing. He got a lot of explanations about decisions completely wrong, and was questioning and criticising correct decisions. Other than that he's quite ok, he's enthusiastic which gives him points over Horan/Kearns/Marto.

 

[wamberal]

Greg Clarke has apparently decided that we viewers are not interested in the actual game being televised, all we are interested in is a string of meaningless statistics. Tell us Clarkey, how many times does the team with white shorts win when they are ahead at half-time, playing away from home, on a Friday?


Meanwhile, Kafer made a passing reference to two players making their debuts last night. How about telling us where they come from, chaps? A bit of background would be nice, or would that take a bit of hard work?


Most of us want to know what is happening on the field, now, not what happened three years ago.

 

[Bardon]

I also liked how they started talking about AFL while the game was still going on. If I wanted to hear people talk about AFL I'd be watching an AFL game.

 

[Quick Hands]

Which proves that you don't always get what you pay for. We have to pay Foxtel to listen to these boof heads.

 

[maxdacat]

As I said on the other thread was the Suns draw against the Brumbies really the greatest upset EVER in super rugby history as the fox douchebags made out?

So much better to catch the NZ and SA commentators on the "tube" even if I have to wait a day or two.

 

[USARugger]

My two cents,

The Australian commentators are infinitely more entertaining to listen to than the South African/NZ commentators or GOD FORBID the European ones. My perspective is skewed though because I have really low expectations of them in terms of analysis, I do enough of that myself when I'm watching so getting a good laugh from them once in a while makes it worth it to me. I know my perspective is a pretty marginal one though so I understand everyone's griping over them. Would still rather listen to them than any of the other commentators though. Especially Johnathan Davies, he's fucking annoying. Really fucking annoying.

 

[wamberal]

Bill McLaren is my favourite model commentator. He said relatively little compared to today's lot, and what he did say was important, and added to one's enjoyment of watching the game.

A commentator should add value, particularly in areas and subjects that the normal viewer is interested in. We can see the pictures, chaps. Remember, less is more when it comes to television commentary of sporting events.

The current crop of Australian commentators seem to think that their role is to entertain us (which they totally fail at, anyway) rather than to inform us. I have lost count of the number of times that we have not been told about replacements, or reminded occasionally of yellow cards in operation (and especially the time remaining in the 10 minutes), let alone simple stuff like where a new player comes from.

The Australian commentators are easily the worst at getting the simple stuff right, ie just informing us of the bread and butter issues, they are also the worst at the more technical explanations.

 

[boyo]

As I've said before, they should espouse the "Richie Benaud" style of commentating: less is more.

 

[Hell West & Crooked]

It is easy to criticise, in life 'but'...

Firstly, I must take some exception to the description of Martin as a "Great" Wallaby - I think that falls ito the realm of unreasonable exaggeration. Its just not accurate. He is a "Former" Wallaby...

Secondly - (and I ask the question seriously); Can anyone explain how Martin even manages to scrape a living as a Commentator, given that he is so evidently unskilled in this position?

There are a number of poor commentators in Rugby - but Martin appears to fall way below the norm. In fact he is excruciating. What is the reason he has lasted for more than a few weeks?

Mr. Martin I am sorry to say, sounds more like that bloke sitting alone at the Bar, who won't shut-up while everyone else is watching the game... And a voice for radio? I think not.

I listen to Nathan Sharpe, Kafer - and even Cannon (who I did not previously rate), and can accept the level of comment they offer. I don't mind Kearns - he has a bit of the 'ratbag' about him - much like Chris Handy, (who did get a bit old after a while)... and its just a game of Rugby after all - But Martin simply doesn't demonstrate any potential, wit or ability that I can detect.

He is Jonathon-Davies-Bad, and I sit watching the game, and to be honest, thinking he must have been as annoying as buggery, to have had in your team...

What is the bloke who signs his paycheck thinking on a Monday Morning - does he even listen? Anyone who can clarify, it would be most appreciated.

I watched the Blues Higlanders game last week, and though I do not know who the commentators were, it was actually a pleasure to listen to them.

I guess when you are brought up on McGilvray, Benaud, and Frank Hyde, its hard to not be annoyed by the likes of this bloke.

 

[Hell West & Crooked]

It defies belief how low the proportion of good rugby commentators around the traps in most countries is - how do the broadcasters pick them and especially keep them - surely not many people are flicking through the channels and come across kearns/marto or tony johnson et al. here in nz and say - great I love these guys, and watch the whole game?

You make a very good point... Given the fact that the game is attempting to appeal to a wider and wider audience, it comes as a shock to realise how parochial the commetary set-up is... why have Saffers on SA games and Kiwis on NZ games etc - when common sense would suggest that the teams should be made up of a cross-section of backgrounds - including Non-SANZAR to increase appeal and flavour...

I exclude American Commentators from this observation.

Finally, why does it take 3 blokes to do this Job? One on the sidelines and one in the Box - enuf.

 

[USARugger]

You make a very good point. Given the fact that the game is attempting to appeal to a wider and wider audience, it comes as a shock to realise how parochial the commetary set-up is. why have Saffers on SA games and Kiwis on NZ games etc - when common sense would suggest that the teams should be made up of a cross-section of backgrounds - including Non-SANZAR to increase appeal and flavour.

I exclude American Commentators from this observation.

Finally, why does it take 3 blokes to do this Job? One on the sidelines and one in the Box - enuf.

The American commentating for the CRCs and the World Cup were and still are (same announcers for the CRC tournament for the past few years: http://www.usasevenscrc.com/) fucking horrendous. Besides the fact that they are quite literally hand-holding the spectators through each and every single fucking game they are just flat out wrong a lot of the time. Watching our CRC matches the week after the tournament on the tape-delay broadcast had me cringing a lot. I may have a personal bias though, the head commentator accused me of hands in the ruck on what was a clearly legitimate pilfer (didn't know until the tape delay or the commentating box would have needed a heavier door). Bastard. Okay maybe my left knee was on the ground. Whatever.

There are zero American commentators worth listening to at the moment, at least none who have commentated a US Test match yet.

I'm not sure about the NZ/South African commentators but are all of the Australian commentators former players? From my perspective that's a bit of an anomaly, pretty much every major sports broadcasting team here in the States is a mix of retired pros and professional commentators. The latter being there to help mediate the former, perhaps this is what the Australian commentary lacks at the moment?

I don't have a problem with multiple commentators in the box though, the group dynamic is where pretty much 100% of the humor they manage to pull off comes from and I wouldn't want to lose that. They just need to be better about not talking over each other - perhaps assign each of them a set of things to look for in order to 'funnel' their commentating a bit to avoid the overlaps as much?

 

[Hell West & Crooked]

I agree in regards to the multiple commentators issue - IF - commentators actually have something to ad, or can generate some interesting conversation...

You would not have had much Cricket Commentary in the US, however, when Richie Benaud, Ian Chappell, Freddie Truman and several others,were doing their thing together, it was uplifing to listen to...

the late Freddie Truman commentating with Tony Cozier should be taught in Schools!

The reason was simply because they KNEW what they were doing.

Former players can make execellent commentators in different sports, and I would say that after 8 rounds, Nathan Sharpe is shaping up as a first rate prospect - but so many of the others - as someone else mentioned - think they have to be 'entertaining'

- and they are simply not up to it.

The NZ commentators have their faults, but are generally pretty good.
The SA commentators know their stuff, but have such an overblown, verbose style that I can barely sit thru 90 minutes of it...
The Aus commentators are a very mixed bunch. But Greg Martin seems to be breathlessly trying to think 'what can I say next'? / speaking to fast - (and in a garbled, semi-shout most of the time), and to put it bluntly, simply does not have a speaking voice which should justify any involvement in the broadcasting industry.

As to our american cousins... If I hear one more Rugby commentator talk about 'Dee-fense' or making 'Yards'... I will likely put a chair through my television.

 

[Richo]

The right balance is simple. A play-by-play guy and a colour guy, with a sideline reporter. Generally, the play-by-play is the "pro" who knows how to keep the rhythm of the game, orchestrates who speaks when, and generally informs the viewer of what's happening. The colour guy should be an analyst, first and foremost. If he's funny too, that's great, but not essential. He should be the guy who sees the bigger picture and hones in on the key moments. The sideline guy should report fairly occasionally, but provide crucial information about what happens off the pitch. He's the guy who can find out about injuries and so on.

The major problem for rugby, IMO, is that the sideline guys are the better analysts but they're not part of the rhythm of the commentary. Kafe or Sharpie should be in the box and saying stuff frequently and calling up replays to support their comments. The sideline guy should be a good sports reporter first, former player second. The Kearns and Horans and Martos of the world should be relegated to before, after and halftime chat in the studios. Then they only need to come up with three minutes of coherent comment and repartee each.

IMO, the NFL does this really well. Listening to Cris Collinsworth and Al Michaels calling Sunday Night Football is a thing of beauty. All the famous name ex-players babble away outside game time.

 

[Hell West & Crooked]

A pretty Fair summation.

 

[Hell West & Crooked]

.. But I still don't understand how Martin survives.