Channel Nine went too far in showing distraught Julie Burgess as Sam lay injured
Date March 21, 2016 - 4:05PM
Andrew Webster
Chief Sports Writer, The Sydney Morning Herald
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- Burgess eases neck injury fears
Rabbitohs forward Sam Burgess has told fans he's feeling lucky after positive early scan results.
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Is too much sport barely enough? Yes. Sometimes it is.
When Sam Burgess is flat on his back on the field, with medical and coaching staff hovering over him, and we all wonder just how bad this neck injury he's suffered actually is, then is it really necessary for Channel Nine to keep panning back to his inconsolable mother, Julie, high in the stands?
No. It's not.
Nervous moments: Sam Burgess is taken from the field on a medicab.
Photo: Mark Kolbe
Take me inside the rooms. Give me the interviews with the coaches and players as they leave the field. Let Freddie place the ball for the sideline conversion if necessary.But I don't need to see Julie Burgess sobbing, with her hand over her face, as she wonders how serious this injury to her son could beLeave me out of that one, thanks Nine. The NRL's free-to-air broadcaster has come in for criticism for its coverage of the incident in the 51st minute of
the match between the Bunnies and Dragons at a saturated SCG.
Anxious: Rabbitohs co-owner Russell Crowe watches Sam Burgess receive attention during the round three NRL match between the St George Illawarra Dragons and South Sydney at Sydney Cricket Ground.For about 10 minutes, time stood still. The result didn't matter. Having ducked his head while running at the defensive line, Burgess's neck crumpled, and almost everyone knew instantly that he was in trouble.
Everyone, it seems, except Dragons fullback Josh Dugan who thought it wise to get in Burgess' face and laugh loudly … before doing it again.
We'll give Dugan the benefit of the doubt and assume he wasn't aware how serious the injury was. Replays, though, show Burgess was already wincing in pain, grabbing at his right shoulder when Dugan came in and shouted him down. Not cool.
It should also be pointed out that several Dragons players, especially prop Jack de Belin, showed immediate concern for their rival's health.
What followed then was agonising to watch, for those at the game who could see it all unfold on the big screens and those sitting at home in their ugg boots, catching the action on Nine or Fox Sports.
Within seconds, Nine's ubiquitous Spidercam hovered overhead, trained on Burgess's face and it captured every wince, every "f..k", every scared expression.
And that's where Spidercam stayed from the moment Sammy was injured, to the time when he left the field on a medicab.
That shot revealed the panic that was racing through Burgess, with Nine expert Phil Gould claiming you could see his "confusion and the fear of the unknown".
In other words, just how bad is this going to be? Thankfully, scans have revealed he will be OK.
Yet the decision from Nine that caused the most angst concerned Sam's mother, and two shots of her breaking down in one of the corporate boxes.
The first time came during a commercial break. It was shown on the two big screens at the SCG, but not on Nine's coverage.
The second came when they returned, Julie's hand over her mouth as she struggled to keep it together. It was so invasive that one of her friends, sitting behind her, tried to cover her face.
The Burgess clan are often criticised for being over-exposed. I've always found them to be genuine people.
Following the death of Sam's father, Mark, from Motor Neurone Disease when they were growing up in the north of England, they have enjoyed happier times since moving to Sydney, including a premiership and marriages to local girls and babies.
I'm sorry, beloved Nine friends and colleagues, but showing Julie bawling her eyes out was too much. In Nine's defence, it has no control what Fox Sports or the SCG shows on its big screens.
Not that long ago, a serious injury to a player would require sensitive coverage.
Indeed, the game has never been so sensitive to neck injuries following the tackle on Knights back-rower Alex McKinnon two years ago that left him a quadriplegic.
The bitter reality is any time a player goes down, clutching at his neck, we immediately recall that Monday night game against the Storm at AAMI Park and the weeks that followed.
If there was one upshot to Nine's saturation coverage of the Burgess injury, it was we could see Sammy moving his hands and legs.
Sideline eye Brad Fittler, who has a roving commission as part of Nine's new-look coverage, moved in closer. You wouldn't have known it from the broadcast, but he was slammed by Souths fans on the fence as if he was a reporter from
A Current Affair, shoving his foot in the door to get a quote from a supremo builder.
Not so.
First, Fittler understands what a player is going through as much as anybody, such is his experience in the game.
What he was trying to do was get an understanding of Sam's condition so he could take some of the mystery out of what was going on.
"The good thing is Sam's been able to communicate that he's getting a stinging pain between his shoulder blades," Fittler said. "He can move most parts of his body at the moment."
It should also be noted that Gould, Ray Warren and Andrew Johns were also respectful in their description of the incident. They are football people, so they get it. It's understood Nine is comfortable with how it covered the Burgess injury.
It's a tricky balance for Nine to strike. The need for the viewer to know what's going on and cover event - but also be provide some distance and be sensitive all involved.
It's footy. Not a car accident. We don't always have to see everything.
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