undertaker
Coach
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Long rant coming up here (I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this, whether you agree with me or not...)
Numerous ppl have mentioned Tallis in this thread. How Tallis ever got a prominent media position is beyond me. Yes, he was an outstanding player at the Broncos - won premierships, state of origin matches, played for Australia. No questioning his playing credentials.
However, regarding his speaking, this is the difference between American sports media and Australian sports media. In Australia (not just rugby league), we have this fixation on having former players as commentators. The sport where this is most commonly seen in is cricket: about 90-95% of commentators (rare ones in the 5-10% include Nickelarse) in cricket broadcasts has played at international level. We instantly make the association "former player = excellent commentator".
But, former players don't necessarily make the best communicators/commentators, neither do they make the best coaches.
For example, in cricket, one of the most articulate commentators is one that has never played the game: Jim Maxwell on ABC radio. Excluding Benaud who is also articulate and has been around for decades, hence having a strong wealth of knowledge, Maxwell would give any of the other folk at Ch9 a run for their money.
I look at the pre-game, post-game shows and interviews in American sports and regardless of whether I think sports like NBA is boring as batshit or whatnot, their coverage of the game and quality of the total broadcast craps all over the ones here in Australia. Majority of the ppl in the media there know what they're talking about, and dropkicks like Slothfield and DUI would NEVER ever get a start in sports media over there. It's embarrasing that we call them "Australians". Their "articles" would get thrown straight into the trashcan without hesitation.
In America, they have the right balance of 'journalists' and 'ex-players' in their sports broadcasts and they don't have to deal with dropkicks like Dellavision Sailor who, instead of using their high position in the media to promote the game THEY CLAIM TO LOVE (although they probably are in love with themselves) and contribute back to the sport that has allowed them to live the luxurious lifestyle that about 1% of the national population will get to experience and 99% could only hope to dream of living, they instead use their position to promote nothing other than themselves, take the fans for granted and suck as many $ as they can whilst they're at it. They don't have to deal with ppl like Gus who, in the Storm/Knights QF last year, rubbished the crowd on air. They don't have to deal with ppl like Hadley who, instead of using his high position and $2 million/year salary to give back to the game that has made him famous, paid him a lot of money (even earning an Order of Australia medal) and he's been able to make a living from, rubbished international RL during the 2008 RLWC saying it was a waste of time (not to mention the Continuous Call Team show, being the flagship radio program of the NRL, talk about anything BUT RL for 99% of the 3-5 hours they're on air). Even when our RL clubs try to do fan days and all that by letting the fans intermingle with the players, it just looks so amateurish and leaves us for dead. Hell, we even copied Monday Night Football and the one who benefits from it the most is Foxtel whilst the clubs are left to rot with a measily $20-50,000 or so from the NRL (which doesn't come anywhere near compensating the loss in gate revenue)
Numerous ppl have mentioned Tallis in this thread. How Tallis ever got a prominent media position is beyond me. Yes, he was an outstanding player at the Broncos - won premierships, state of origin matches, played for Australia. No questioning his playing credentials.
However, regarding his speaking, this is the difference between American sports media and Australian sports media. In Australia (not just rugby league), we have this fixation on having former players as commentators. The sport where this is most commonly seen in is cricket: about 90-95% of commentators (rare ones in the 5-10% include Nickelarse) in cricket broadcasts has played at international level. We instantly make the association "former player = excellent commentator".
But, former players don't necessarily make the best communicators/commentators, neither do they make the best coaches.
For example, in cricket, one of the most articulate commentators is one that has never played the game: Jim Maxwell on ABC radio. Excluding Benaud who is also articulate and has been around for decades, hence having a strong wealth of knowledge, Maxwell would give any of the other folk at Ch9 a run for their money.
I look at the pre-game, post-game shows and interviews in American sports and regardless of whether I think sports like NBA is boring as batshit or whatnot, their coverage of the game and quality of the total broadcast craps all over the ones here in Australia. Majority of the ppl in the media there know what they're talking about, and dropkicks like Slothfield and DUI would NEVER ever get a start in sports media over there. It's embarrasing that we call them "Australians". Their "articles" would get thrown straight into the trashcan without hesitation.
In America, they have the right balance of 'journalists' and 'ex-players' in their sports broadcasts and they don't have to deal with dropkicks like Dellavision Sailor who, instead of using their high position in the media to promote the game THEY CLAIM TO LOVE (although they probably are in love with themselves) and contribute back to the sport that has allowed them to live the luxurious lifestyle that about 1% of the national population will get to experience and 99% could only hope to dream of living, they instead use their position to promote nothing other than themselves, take the fans for granted and suck as many $ as they can whilst they're at it. They don't have to deal with ppl like Gus who, in the Storm/Knights QF last year, rubbished the crowd on air. They don't have to deal with ppl like Hadley who, instead of using his high position and $2 million/year salary to give back to the game that has made him famous, paid him a lot of money (even earning an Order of Australia medal) and he's been able to make a living from, rubbished international RL during the 2008 RLWC saying it was a waste of time (not to mention the Continuous Call Team show, being the flagship radio program of the NRL, talk about anything BUT RL for 99% of the 3-5 hours they're on air). Even when our RL clubs try to do fan days and all that by letting the fans intermingle with the players, it just looks so amateurish and leaves us for dead. Hell, we even copied Monday Night Football and the one who benefits from it the most is Foxtel whilst the clubs are left to rot with a measily $20-50,000 or so from the NRL (which doesn't come anywhere near compensating the loss in gate revenue)
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