Rugby League TV coverage before 1998

[PARRA_FAN]

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 televis the presidents cup and reserves grade as well

Ahh yes. Pretty similar to last Sunday. U20s and State Cup both on Fox And Ch 9. Although Ch 9 didn't show the U20s in 1997 as I recall them showing highlights of Tigers/Roosters with TK, Blocker and Mario commentating.

And with 1988 I wasn't sure if Fordham/Smith and Wright were calling as ABC definitely called the 88 Grand Final. If anyone has seen Fatty's f bomb talking to David Morrow that was before the big mach.

 

[undertaker]

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.

I believe Graeme Hughes called the matches Ch9 covered (Friday night/Sunday) for FTA in NZ during 1992-94 (before he moved to Sky in 1995 when the Warriors entered the comp), including finals and origin matches, as seen here:


I also stumbled upon a brief clip of ABC's intro of the 1995 Grand Final with Warren Boland somewhere, so I'm sure that was the last year ABC covered the Grand Final.

And good point you made about highlights from matches in 1992 predominantly taken from the NZ coverage rather than Ch9, including finals matches before the GF (namely Newcastle vs Wests, and both Illawarra vs St George matches) and other renown moments such as Rod Wishart's last minute try vs Manly at Brookvale to secure Illawarra's first finals berth.

 

[Anthony82]

Dose any one rember a tv show called late night league on Sunday night like 10 pm

 

[Johnny88]

I remember a show called League Round Up shown on WIN Television around 11pm on a Wednesday or Thursday night back in the early to mid 90's. The show only focused on 2 Teams Illawarra and Canberra very biased show.

 

[Johnny88]

Dose any one rember a tv show called late night league on Sunday night like 10 pm

Yeah I think Channel Ten showed it there was a panel with Wayne Pearce on it late 80's early 90's.

 

[Johnny88]

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

I remember watching live League on Saturday arvo in the late 80's in Sydney on the ABC mabe they changed this in the 90's.

 

[POPEYE]

Long time since the grainy b&w highlights of games in the 60's when Col Pearce was the mesiah of referees until now. . . I've been there all the way

 

[Diesel]

I remember a show called League Round Up shown on WIN Television around 11pm on a Wednesday or Thursday night back in the early to mid 90's. The show only focused on 2 Teams Illawarra and Canberra very biased show.

Was that called Big League and would show all weekend game highlights in one hour show? some were from some camera angle

 

[Foz]

In the early 1970s channel 9 used to do the second half of a Sunday game live.Never did the first half just the second.Memory is a bit cloudy but seem to remember a Cross to a Penrith game the year they had Mike Stephenson and Bill Ashurst.
ABC showed Saturday games live around this time too.
Remember watching the Sharks at home hammer Souths 25-0 (or something like that)when Souths were up the top and the Sharks down the bottom.
Think Ron Casey did the channel 9 games but can't remember who did the ABC games.
Do remember getting Reg Gasnier and John Oreillys autograph one day at Endeavour Field but that was late 70s I think.

Just checked.Cronulla 25 Souths 6 1970.

Ashurst and Stephenson were 1974.

 

[Johnny88]

For all the Rabs fans.

 

[Captain Apollo]

I remember watching live League on Saturday arvo in the late 80's in Sydney on the ABC mabe they changed this in the 90's.

Yes it did change.Read back to what I posted - "Also the ABC's TV coverage in the regular season did not start out live". It changed eventually to being completely live on the ABC in NSW, but I can't remember definitively when it was. Probably was the late 1980s or early 1990s.

This is what an article on The Roar said about TV coverage in the 1970s -

Rugby league
In Sydney, league was king in the 70s on the airwaves, due in no small part to the influence of Rex Mossop as Director of Sport at Channel Seven.

TV viewers could see two televised games over the course of the weekend.

The Saturday afternoon game was always played at 3.00pm and televised live into the country areas by the ABC.

And this is where that rabbit ears aerial came in handy. Because on a rainy day (going back to the folks “outside” policy in fine weather), those aerials could pick up what we knew as Channel 5A, and we could watch the game of the day live.

If not, ABC in Sydney showed highlights of the match from 6.00pm to 6.55pm on a Saturday, with commentary from Alan Marks and Reg Gasnier, and later on, from John O’Reilly and Gasnier.

Channel Seven showed the best Sunday game from 6.30pm to 7.30pm, with Rex Mossop going as far as not giving the result of the game away on the preceding evening news bulletin.

For a time, both Seven and the ABC had the right to televise the grand final live, with a midweek tease leading up to the game that the live broadcast might not go ahead if all tickets to the game were not sold out in advance.

 

[racer69]

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.

Yeah the Ch7 show had a few formats in the early-mid 90s.

It usually ran from 11am-12pm, following on from Sportsworld which ran from 9-11am. In the 1993-ish period the show was called, from memory "Sunday League" and solely about Rugby League

Around the mid-90s they changed the format for the 1hr show to cover not only league, but also AFL and Union. I think the show name became "Sunday Football" or something like that.

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

I remember watching the ABC replay of the 1994 Grand Final, someone else was in the commentary box alongside Warren Boland for that game though, not his '94 regular sidekick Peter Jackson

 

[toomuchsoup]

 

[toomuchsoup]

 

[The Mad Hatter]

I had to look up the Souths player. Danny Loftus - 8 games in 1982.

Geez I'd pay to get full copies, of at least all Souths TV games from 1980 to now. Or at least decent season and/or decade highlights packages. Even for other teams.

 

[PARRA_FAN]

I remember watching the ABC replay of the 1994 Grand Final, someone else was in the commentary box alongside Warren Boland for that game though, not his '94 regular sidekick Peter Jackson

Not sure who else would've been aside Boland apart from Jacko and maybe Artie Beetson.

Although back then there were the occasion guest commentators. Brian Smith, Paul Langmack, I think Phil Blake as well.

 

[Hawkins]

Im watching some classic games at the moment and the match up is called super laugue but its well efore the split.

 

[The Mad Hatter]

Not sure who else would've been aside Boland apart from Jacko and maybe Artie Beetson.

Although back then there were the occasion guest commentators. Brian Smith, Paul Langmack, I think Phil Blake as well.

John Peard did Saturday games too, if I remember correctly.

 

[wittyfan]

Dose any one rember a tv show called late night league on Sunday night like 10 pm

I remember it well, Ian Maurice hosted it from 1989 to 1990 then Wayne Pearce for the final year in 1991. Would show extra highlights of the games that weren't televised.

 

[Captain Apollo]

John Peard did Saturday games too, if I remember correctly.

You do remember correctly. He certainly did. His repartee from on the sideline when Boland and Beetson were in the commentary box was entertaining in itself.