Rugby League TV coverage before 1998

[Canard]

Channel 7 took the French feed of the Kangaroo tests in 1978 and 1982 with Rex Mossop providing commentary from Sydney. These were on delay.
1986 had no coverage in Australia.
The ABC did the 1990 series with Warren Boland doing the commentary.
The 1994 test was not shown.

Didn't Langer do some commentary for the ABC during that French Test, it was either him or Raudonikis, it was atrocious.

 

[PARRA_FAN]

I was watching a replay of the 1989 Grand Final on Foxsports the other day and David Morrow was the caller with Warren Boland and John Peard (on the sideline). David took over from Jim Maxwell in 1987. I think Mike Stephenson and Neil Hanson were on the call back then. David got recruited to Channel 10 sometime in 1990 and is part of the Kangaroo Tour commentary with Graeme Hughes. I think Artie came onto the call when David moved on from the ABC,

That's right he did too. Morrow was calling the Presidents Cup GF in 1990 but Im pretty sure he also called a first grade game that year as well. If you look up Raiders/Manly in Perth on Youtube he shared commentary with Hughes.

Also you or other Raiders fans might confirm this but wasn't Morrow part of the regional commentary for Raiders home matches? I think it was known as "Capital" back then.

I watched a clip of the Raiders/Roosters game where Meninga scored 5 tries and there was him and this other bloke commentating.

 

[PARRA_FAN]

Before I reply to some of the posts in this thread, something I recall to mind that I hadn't thought about for a long time and need some verification on this...

Long before the Ch9 2 Friday night games/round format began in 2007, I remember back in 1998 (round 4) as a one-off, Ch9 televised 2 Friday night games into NSW that night:

http://afltables.com/rl/seas/1998.html#4

IIRC, Manly vs Parramatta was televised at 8:30pm (1hr delay) followed by the replay of Melbourne vs Norths at 10:30pm. Storm vs Norths was live on Fox at 7:30pm, but Ch9 replayed the Fox broadcast/commentary 3hrs later. It struck me as odd that Ch9 did a Friday night double header that round. The only reason I can think of why this happened is because it was the Storm's first home game (infront of a jam-packed Olympic Park of 20k). Some highlights from that game can be seen in this Marcus Bai try compilation video, and you will notice the Ch9 logo in the top right despite using the Fox on-screen graphics and commentary:

It's interesting to note back then, the live Fox match went head-to-head with Ch9's 8:30pm Friday night game; something that would never happen today, as the NRL has this obsession with not wanting to schedule matches that kick-off at the same time or overlap.

I remember reading in the newspapers at the time that Melbourne vs Norths game rated very well on Ch9 despite the late 10:30pm timeslot. Back in 1995/96/98 when the comp was 20 teams, 2-3 Friday night games/round were common but only one was televised into Sydney.

In Rd 9 1998, there were a staggering FOUR Friday night games - the most since Friday night games began back in the '80s:

http://afltables.com/rl/seas/1998.html#9

I'm pretty sure that Melbourne/Norths game was on earlier, around 6.30pm, to avoid a clash with the two coverages. Even though the Manly/Parra was at 7.30 it was replayed 8.30 on Ch 9. I remember watching that Storm/Bears game on Fox live.

The Storm played a few more home matches on Friday night that year, not on Ch 9, but those weren't televised on either network. The first Storm game was a significant one being the opening game at Olympic Park.

Interesting you mention those 4 games on Friday night, I think Rams and Warriors had a few more Friday night games that year. Rams would be televised in Adelaide only, but the Warriors game would be on Fox.

The Warriors Friday night games on Fox only, I'm pretty sure continued until 2003. I remember getting home at around 6pm and the game would just kick off.

Before 1998, this would happen occasionally. Roosters and Souths I think had some Friday night games not televised, but didn't last long due to poor attendances.

 

[roofromoz]

My first memories are from the mid-80s but started watching it a lot more regularly around 1994...

- I remember the 43 minute Sunday night highlights very well... in particular the Broncos v Panthers match at ANZ Stadium in late 1995 where Penrith could have won it late if it wasn't for Girdler dropping the ball cold with the line open.

- David Morrow called Western Reds matches for Nine in 1995 (at the very least). Pretty sure I stayed up late one Friday night to see Penrith play the Reds at the WACA.

- Not too sure if the Monday night Nine matches alternated between the two comps or was exclusively Super League.

- "Breathe" by The Prodigy was used as the theme song for the Sunday match shown on the ABC.

- The Friday night match on Nine was at one stage moved back to a 9:30 replay. It was originally at 8:30 (maybe because Burke's Backyard was a high rating show) but around 1996 there would be something like two episodes of Frasier or that Cybil Shepherd sitcom after Burke's Backyard but before the footy. I think live Friday matches may not have started until around 2007.

- With the ABC match on Saturday, the co-commentator chose the man of the match, which would either be John Peard or Artie Beetson.

 

[The Mad Hatter]

I remember in 1995 on Newcastle NBN they had an ad/promo.

Toolie's Football Trivia.

Used to annoy the crap out of me. I thimk David Campese appeared on it too.

I remember in the mid 1990s Sunday mornings were The Footy Show on 9, Balls Up on ABC (Denton? Spillane and Lex Marinos?) And Sports scene with David Fordham divided in to RL, Vfl and RU segments on 7.

 

[The Mad Hatter]

50 secs mark....

Glorious

 

[PARRA_FAN]

Channel 7 also had a Sunday morning league show in the 90s, I think it was before the Footy Show on 9. So mustve been around 10am, hosted by Graham Hughes, and also had John Harker and Roy Masters.

I remember the Sunday Footy show used to have a live audience, hosted by Fatty and of course the pass the ball competition which has since been revived into Freddy's Pass off.

The ABC Saturday afternoon matches were great also. Not only live but I think they did a pre game or post game segment where Boland would review the matches the previous round.

 

[undertaker]

I'm pretty sure that Melbourne/Norths game was on earlier, around 6.30pm, to avoid a clash with the two coverages. Even though the Manly/Parra was at 7.30 it was replayed 8.30 on Ch 9. I remember watching that Storm/Bears game on Fox live.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/aus.sport.rugby-league/NRL$20Premiership$20-$20Round$204$20draw|sort:relevance/aus.sport.rugby-league/RGt2OKZu2oU/_qx8WrJ6L5UJ

Just stumbled on an old rugby league forum/website on the google forums archive and confirmed that Storm/Norths was at 7:30. I am still interested to know why Ch9 decided to replay a Fox game (which it went head-to-head with) as part of a Friday night double header when they didn't give a stuff about the Storm after that, shafting their Ch9 matches into the 'graveyard slot' which continued for more than a decade after that.

The match on Friday night 6:30pm game that I think you may be thinking of was in Rd 9 2001:

http://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/seasons/nrl-2001/results.html

Melbourne vs Northern Eagles and Roosters vs Brisbane were the two Friday night games on Good Friday, and the Storm game was at 6:30pm to avoid a clash with the Ch9 Roosters vs Brisbane telecast at 8:30pm.

The Storm played a few more home matches on Friday night that year, not on Ch 9, but those weren't televised on either network. The first Storm game was a significant one being the opening game at Olympic Park.

Correct. I posted highlights of one of them on the Adelaide Rams thread:


You can clearly see its ground footage with the use of in-goal touch judges and fixed camera. 1998 was the last year that there were matches with no tv coverage. There were at least 2 per round that were like this.

Interesting you mention those 4 games on Friday night, I think Rams and Warriors had a few more Friday night games that year. Rams would be televised in Adelaide only, but the Warriors game would be on Fox.

From what I remember, Balmain vs Parramatta was on Ch9 (8:30), Auckland vs Cronulla was live on Fox at 5:30, Adelaide vs Canberra was on Ch9 in Adelaide, and I don't think Melbourne vs St George was televised. Found some short highlights of the Adelaide match:

The Warriors Friday night games on Fox only, I'm pretty sure continued until 2003. I remember getting home at around 6pm and the game would just kick off.

Before 1998, this would happen occasionally. Roosters and Souths I think had some Friday night games not televised, but didn't last long due to poor attendances.

Warriors hosted the odd Friday night game here and there during 1998-2002 (always live on Fox/Optus at 5:30pm). Last time they did it was Rd 26 2002 vs Wests Tigers. In Rd 9 2003, Bulldogs played the Warriors in Wellington on a Friday night, but it was a Bulldogs home game.

During 1995/96/98 (when the comp was 20 teams), it was common to have at least 2 Friday night games/round, sometimes 3, and in Rd 9 1998, 4. But outside of 1995/96/98, pre-2007, 2 Friday night games in the round that were both in Australia was very rare (as I said, the one-off occasions in this period involved the Warriors in Auckland so the match wouldn't clash with Ch9's game). During the time I've been watching league, I distinctly remember in 1997 Newcastle played Wests Magpies the same night as the more commonly-remembered Manly vs Parramatta game (at a packed Brookvale Oval on Ch9, and you will remember that Parramatta wore those awful aqua blue jerseys that was a hot topic on the following Sunday Footy Show, hahaha!). Newcastle vs Wests was covered by and replayed later that night on NBN (with Mike Rabbitt as caller), but why the ARL decided to schedule them on the same night as Manly vs Parra, I have no idea. 17k still turned out at Newcastle, which was very good in a year where crowds were decimated by all the SL war crap.

 

[PARRA_FAN]

I don't think that the was the game where Parra wore the M and M jumpers. Pretty sure that game was at Parramatta earlier in the year. We got beat in that game against Manly but we won the game you mentioned at Brookvale, Simon kicked 3 field goals in a tight contest. But I do remember how odd it was having those games at the same night.

The only explanation was that Wests and Newcastle played two weeks before with only 2 games being because of the test match played. Although originally there was only supposed be 1 match played, Newcastle's game was rescheduled due to the heavy conditions affecting the ground. And I think in that game also had poor weather like a lot of other games in 1997.

 

[nrlnrl]

I was watching a replay of the 1989 Grand Final on Foxsports the other day and David Morrow was the caller with Warren Boland and John Peard (on the sideline). David took over from Jim Maxwell in 1987. I think Mike Stephenson and Neil Hanson were on the call back then. David got recruited to Channel 10 sometime in 1990 and is part of the Kangaroo Tour commentary with Graeme Hughes. I think Artie came onto the call when David moved on from the ABC,

Are you sure it was Morrow, Boland & Peard? Channel 10 had the GF in 1989 & there were 2 versions of it. The Sydney based guys were Ian Maurice & Graeme Hughes as callers with comments from Rex Mossop. Brisbane had Billy J Smith & David Fordham, with comments from David Wright.

 

[no name]

Am I right in thinking ABC simulcast GFs back in the day?

 

[nrlnrl]

There were some up until the 1980's, but I don't know when that stopped. Anyone?

 

[axe&smash&crush]

Just for fun Warren smith used to call the baseball in his younger days

 

[Canard]

Am I right in thinking ABC simulcast GFs back in the day?

The 89 GF was definitely shown on the ABC with Morrow calling ( and a commercial channel).

That's one of those games you never forget.

 

[The Mad Hatter]

Not sure if simulcast in 1994, but the ARL grand final was definitely replayed on ABC from 6pm the night of said grand final.

 

[undertaker]

I don't think that the was the game where Parra wore the M and M jumpers. Pretty sure that game was at Parramatta earlier in the year. We got beat in that game against Manly but we won the game you mentioned at Brookvale, Simon kicked 3 field goals in a tight contest. But I do remember how odd it was having those games at the same night.

The only explanation was that Wests and Newcastle played two weeks before with only 2 games being because of the test match played. Although originally there was only supposed be 1 match played, Newcastle's game was rescheduled due to the heavy conditions affecting the ground. And I think in that game also had poor weather like a lot of other games in 1997.

I remember that game at Parramatta Stadium, but also thought the Brookvale Oval encounter featured the M and M jumpers. I must've got the games mixed up.

Regarding the terrible conditions affecting 1997 matches, Newcastle vs Souths had to be rescheduled as the ground got savaged after experiencing conditions similar to when the Pasha Bulker incident occurred in 2007. Newcastle vs Norths was also played in terrible conditions: heavy rain, temperature in the low teens and strong winds all game. IIRC, I think Robbie O'Davis or Darren Albert had to be taken from the field in the 2nd half due to hypothermia.

 

[carlosthedwarf]

Am I right in thinking ABC simulcast GFs back in the day?

Positive this happened, I remember watching an AFL GF and NRL GF on ABC in the mid 80s in Newcastle when we only had NBN.

 

[Captain Apollo]

The ABC did simulcast the NSWRL Grand Final. I can still remember the argument I had at a Grand Final party in 1992 whether we should watch Channel 9 or the ABC for coverage.

Also the ABC's TV coverage in the regular season did not start out live. The Saturday afternoon game was televised live in country areas, but in Sydney it was on delay and not shown till 6.00pm, and then it was only a highlights of the game as it went from6pm till 6.55 pm. If you lived in the right area in Sydney, and had the right antenna type though, you could pick up Channel 5A which was ABC TV's regional telecast channel.

Sunday football, when it was on Channel 7, was not live either. It was 1 hour coverage from 6.30 pm till 7.30 pm. In fact when Rex Mosspo did the sports report on the 6pm news, he would not even give the score out of the game that was about to be televised. (Source for some of the above - http://www.theroar.com.au/2014/01/22/televised-footy-the-way-it-used-to-be/)

 

[PARRA_FAN]

So basically the 1989 Grand Final had three different commentary teams on TV. Channel 10 NSW, Channel 10 QLD and ABC. Not sure about 1990 and 1991 but when 9 took over the rights in 1992 you still had 3 different commentary teams on that GF day. Ch 9, ABC and NZ (Graham Hughes and Graham Lowe). Although I don't think anyone in Australia saw the full coverage of the NZ version at the time, whenever a replay of those finals games in 1992 is shown, they seem to take the NZ commentary team.

 

[Damochandler]

So basically the 1989 Grand Final had three different commentary teams on TV. Channel 10 NSW, Channel 10 QLD and ABC. Not sure about 1990 and 1991 but when 9 took over the rights in 1992 you still had 3 different commentary teams on that GF day. Ch 9, ABC and NZ (Graham Hughes and Graham Lowe). Although I don't think anyone in Australia saw the full coverage of the NZ version at the time, whenever a replay of those finals games in 1992 is shown, they seem to take the NZ commentary team.

They had the same for the 88 grand final as well. I had the 88 DVD and they had the qld commentary on it

When it was super league and Optus cup. Foxtel had a 24/7 channel. Optus would televise the presidents cup and reserves grade as well