NRL - commentary

[Dave T]

For me this is a shocker, and I'm baffled by the commentary which hears them all go over the top to play this down. 

This is why I struggle to watch a lot of the Aussie stuff, I find them worse than Baz and Tez. 

Who are the pundits? 

[Jughead]

Gus Gould was one. I think Braith Anasta was another there. 

Gould doesn’t advocate cards at all, he never has for whatever reason. 

It’s no different to Wilkin saying “it’s not a penalty but it’s a yellow card in today’s game” in the Wakefield v Huddersfield game, I think it was. 

[StandOffHalf]

I thought it merited a sin-binning.

Gould and Fittler go overboard a bit in defending it, but they've seen way worse in the 80s and 90s.

I expected a sin-bin watching it live on Fox League. Their panellists (Benji and Greg Alexander) went the other way and said they had no problem with the send-off and that it was the type of tackle that the authorities were trying to stamp out.

I suppose there are those two extremes - penalty and send-off. I think I'm probably somewhere in the middle. I thought Manly were really brave in sticking in the game but, in reality, Laughton being marched did kill the game.

[Dave T]

I'm not sure that is ever not a sending off, and I expect he'll get a decent ban. 

[MrPosh]

That's an awful tackle, matched only by the commentary.

Gould is a dreadful commentator. Come across as a dreadful man, too.

[Mr Frisky]

32 minutes ago, Dave T said:

For me this is a shocker, and I'm baffled by the commentary which hears them all go over the top to play this down. 

This is why I struggle to watch a lot of the Aussie stuff, I find them worse than Baz and Tez. 

Who are the pundits? 

I think Aussie NRL commentators and how they choose their words are a good 10 years behind the UK - the lad culture on the (now finished) footyshow showed this - a few years ago they were doing things Soccer AM were doing 20 years ago in the UK and stopped because things had moved on.

 

[M j M]

Phil Gould is just awful isn't he.

Of course it's a red card. How can that not be obvious to some people who make their living from the game? Is it because of one of Gould's many and varied agendas?

[Anita Bath]

In the post game show on channel 9 Cam Smith argued it was only a sin binning offence. JT challenged him asking him what would be needed for it to be a sending off. He was unable to answer.

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, Mr Frisky said:

I think Aussie NRL commentators and how they choose their words are a good 10 years behind the UK - the lad culture on the (now finished) footyshow showed this - a few years ago they were doing things Soccer AM were doing 20 years ago in the UK and stopped because things had moved on.

 

I'd agree with this. I really dislike the boys club culture that the Aussies go with. I dislike the use of nicknames etc and it's all very matey, and I think that comes across in their views too, trying to just be macho and downplay foul play or violent acts. 

[Eddie]

No one’s hurt, don’t worry, settle down  

[Jughead]

I was surprised by the send off, not because of the tackle itself but due to the rarity of send offs in Australia. I’ve no issue with with the decision either and I’d hope if similar happened here we’d see the same reaction from a referee but I don’t think we would now compared to the very early rounds. 

I don’t mind the Australian commentary. It’s light hearted and quite matey but doesn’t appear forced or include random stories and strange anecdotes like Sky’s team here. I’m watching as a neutral really so it doesn’t particularly bother me what is said over there. 

[Dunbar]

Gus Gould just likes the sound of his own voice and revels in being contrarian.

Anyone who watched the Fox coverage on watchNRL would have heard the team there saying it was a likely send off as soon as it happened (Greg Alexander I think).

[fighting irish]

1 hour ago, M j M said:

Phil Gould is just awful isn't he.

Of course it's a red card. How can that not be obvious to some people who make their living from the game? Is it because of one of Gould's many and varied agendas?

Yes mate, he is a pig of a man. The justification that ''Nobody got hurt'' says all you need to know about the bloke.

I personally think it's time for the lawmakers to draft explicit definitions of what constitutes an allowable tackle (as painstaking as that may be).

Ambiguous phrases like the old ''ungentlemanly conduct'' or ''unsportsmanlike behaviour'' and poorly defined laws, leave us (the game) open to justifiable harsh criticism and ridicule (from our enemies), the players at risk of real physical abuse and god forbid, (given the continually developing muscular/physical power of the players) increased risk of suffering life changing, devastating injury.

Those comments just reveal the contempt the commentators have for the individual players safety. What does it matter, if a few players get hurt as long as the game continues, full steam ahead, making money.

They implicitly argue that it's ok to put the players at risk in order to heighten the grotesque shock/horror element, that they believe enhances the spectacle of the NRL and increases the games television income.

Cleaning the game up by removing that class of tackle will only enhance the games following (allowing for continued growth in participation at junior level) and take nothing at all, from the highly skilled, all action, spectacle that is modern Rugby League.

 

[Dunbar]

2 hours ago, Dave T said:

For me this is a shocker, and I'm baffled by the commentary which hears them all go over the top to play this down. 

This is why I struggle to watch a lot of the Aussie stuff, I find them worse than Baz and Tez. 

Who are the pundits? 

I don't think it's possible to hear this commentary team in the UK is it?

[Damien]

42 minutes ago, Dave T said:

I'd agree with this. I really dislike the boys club culture that the Aussies go with. I dislike the use of nicknames etc and it's all very matey, and I think that comes across in their views too, trying to just be macho and downplay foul play or violent acts. 

That's the same here too though and I dislike it as much here. As with most things RL people here just try and copy the Australians.

[Dave T]

21 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

I don't think it's possible to hear this commentary team in the UK is it?

I have no idea. I generally watch NRL with music on and have it on in the background if I watch it. Naturally there are some better than others, but the style and approach of this example is typical of my experience watching NRL. 

Similarly, the journalism is bizarre, I think the Aussie sports reporting has a weird culture. 

[Dave T]

34 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

Gus Gould just likes the sound of his own voice and revels in being contrarian.

Anyone who watched the Fox coverage on watchNRL would have heard the team there saying it was a likely send off as soon as it happened (Greg Alexander I think).

It's interesting how the views can be so different for quite a serious tackle. Moley also complained about this sending off on twitter, and the vast majority of replies agreed with him that it should not have been a sending off. 

[Dave T]

16 minutes ago, Damien said:

That's the same here too though and I dislike it as much here. As with most things RL people here just try and copy the Australians.

Yes, it's where I find diversity helps with the punditry instead of having a load of Yorkshire forwards discussing it. 

[Dave T]

41 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

 

Anyone who watched the Fox coverage on watchNRL would have heard the team there saying it was a likely send off as soon as it happened (Greg Alexander I think).

For balance, here is a sample of the Fox coverage of it:

 

[M j M]

7 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Yes, it's where I find diversity helps with the punditry instead of having a load of Yorkshire forwards discussing it. 

Fortunately we don't have many of those since Stevo retired. Getting rid of the Lancastrian ones might help though.

[Dunbar]

11 minutes ago, Dave T said:

I have no idea. I generally watch NRL with music on and have it on in the background if I watch it. Naturally there are some better than others, but the style and approach of this example is typical of my experience watching NRL. 

Similarly, the journalism is bizarre, I think the Aussie sports reporting has a weird culture. 

Fair enough.  But seekng as you named specific UK summarises in  Baz and Tez I think it is only fair to not lump all the Australian ones together. 

[M j M]

How quick is the NRL judiciary system by the way.

 

[Dave T]

7 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

Fair enough.  But seekng as you named specific UK summarises in  Baz and Tez I think it is only fair to not lump all the Australian ones together. 

I could have named more than Baz and Tez, they are just the worst examples. 

I'm not a fan of the Aussie sports commentary in general. 

[Dunbar]

2 minutes ago, Dave T said:

I could have named more than Baz and Tez, they are just the worst examples. 

I'm not a fan of the Aussie sports commentary in general. 

That's your opinion I guess but it is far too generic for me.  Some are poor but some are very good and add real value to the games.

[Dave T]

20 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

That's your opinion I guess but it is far too generic for me.  Some are poor but some are very good and add real value to the games.

It may be unfair on some of the good ones, but it is the same with Sky, we'll moan about Sky's poor coverage, which can wrap the likes of Wells and Carney in which may be harsh. 

But in terms of Aussie coverage, it doesn't work to my tastes, in the main for the reasons I have already highlighted, but I'm not a fan of the jokey banter style that is prevalent in coverage I've seen. Even back in the RLWC a decade ago when Andrew Voss did the Premier coverage, I found it tiresome all the talk about local food and takeaways. It was praised a lot at the time imho because of the hatred for Eddie and Stevo. 

I'm sure there are decent pundits covering the NRL, but none are stopping me from turning the sound off and putting the radio on. 

But I accept its personal preference.