Channel 7 Commentary

[NarklesHelmet]

It's a weird one. I have found myself more and more over the past couple of years complaining about the commentary and just thinking to myself "You're getting older and grumpier" but this year there is no doubt it has gotten worse.

On Fridays, Bruce is just getting plain weird. Now he has always had a tendency to say strange stuff over a season, but it is now a weekly occurrence. My favourite of the lot was last week "Wouldn't you love to be tackled by Judd?" I just don't get that at all, it is even getting embarrassing for his co-commentators. Bruce has finally lost it I think.

Lethal is fine, he hasn't changed much and is consistent at least. Still has good insights.

Dennis is being dragged down by Bruce. They are feeding off each other and trying to see who can put in the most clever pop-culture/historical references. Dennis should stay out of it as he has turned into a shadow of who he once was. I actually blame Bruce for this.

Harley is just too predictable. Adds nothing to a broadcast.

Ling shows potential but needs to be careful he isn't dragged down by the others as well.

The channel 7 Friday night coverage is getting stranger by the week.

 

[Tulip]

Bruce and Dennis still have good days now and again.

Generally enjoyed on a Sunday after watching Ham and Bas yesterday afternoon and BT the night before.

 

[Cohzee]

And yet they are still better than Brian Taylor.

The ****ed up thing about that is BT can actually call the play pretty well. Though it does help that he actually calls the play at times!

 

[Stone in sock]

Why is it unbarable and bad? What would you like to hear more/less of? Give us some details.

AFL commentators think that they are the entertainment instead of the game. No one gives a shit about their unfunny attempts at jokes, their own lives/kids/family, their own footy careers, what people are tweeting on fango, the pointless stats, or the myriad of generally irrelevant shit they go one with (players girlfriends, barrell chested goal umpires, The ****ing Weapon etc).
And there's too many of the idiots.
Get one commentator, one special comments person and one boundary rider and just Call. The. Damn. Game.

 

[Cohzee]

ABC radio shits all over the rest of the industry. TV commentators need to call the game as if they are calling for a radio station.

 

[LT Smash]

Johnson......it's a great baby powder!

**** off. Just **** OFF.

Yes that was a low point mainly because it came across as a rehearsed Cometti-ism. From Bruce.

 

[HoneyBadger35]

Turned it off at quarter time, but that was more than enough time to hear Bruce hitting his finest early - Fletcher gets the ball on the half back line: "And Fletcher is the sweeper-upperrer."

....come on man.

 

[tazaa]

AFL commentators think that they are the entertainment instead of the game. No one gives a shit about their unfunny attempts at jokes, their own lives/kids/family, their own footy careers, what people are tweeting on fango, the pointless stats, or the myriad of generally irrelevant shit they go one with (players girlfriends, barrell chested goal umpires, The ******* Weapon etc).
And there's too many of the idiots.
Get one commentator, one special comments person and one boundary rider and just Call. The. Damn. Game.

What footy watchers want more than anything is to feel like they are at the game.
To hear the crowds reaction and the roar and to have that 'at the ground' feeling.
We get the complete opposite.
When Buddy kicks that goal in the prelim or when there is a run down tackle, those moments are priceless.
Instead we get bruce and bt and more ****wits over indulging the moment and destroying it.

I actually find it quite funny that people think that attending the footy will cop a hiding from live coverage.
Laughable. There is no greater thing.

 

[Igloo]

The people who have said they just don't call the footy are spot on. The special comments guys and boundary rider can come up with that crap, but when you're one of the main commentators, call the bloody play!
Last week in our game vs Hawthorn, Bruce was talking about how neatly Sam Mitchell would have his jocks in his god damn drawer, and how even when Cyril dribbles it's delicious. What the hell is that about, honestly? Call the play, and the call will be so, so much better.

 

[LT Smash]

Somehow they'd wandered off talking about the Bond film Goldfinger. Bruce says: "Oh Miss Moneypenny, wasn't she lovely?"

First of all Bruce, no she wasn't. Moneypenny was the middle aged secretary of M, not one of the Bond girls.

Secondly Bruce, stop trying to do hetero. It doesn't suit you.

 

[gbatman]

Its tough. What options do we have?

I think if we can be astute, the best callers going around (this doesnt mean they are fantastic) would probably be Huddo and Eddie. That is my opinion.
Now why they are probably rated highly is because they call the footy in a great tone. Excited when they need to be and level when appropriate.
What makes a good caller is just to call the footy. To leave the side comments to the boundary rider or special comments bloke.

Bruce was good back in the day because he never participated in the crap that goes on outside the call. Dennis too.

They are now caught up in it, particpate in, cant bear not being involved in it- and it is at the point where it is part of the call.
That is why it is so bad.

Basically speak when it is your turn to speak. At the moment it is a free for all chatathon and it is disgusting.

Yeah I agree, Eddie and Huddo are good. Too many idiots out there who whinge when you have a commentator with an attachment to a club and they find everything that could be remotely bias but i recon he's good.

I find that the CH7 commentators attempts at humor isn't great, especially Bruce. Chatting when the game is being played isn't great, save it for the breaks. I think Bruce is great at remembering heaps of names, I think his talents come from having a great memory and Dennis is a decent caller with plenty of quick wit.

I like Matthews, I recon he has a real simplistic view to the game and how it should be played and that was why he was a great coach. He picks up on the obvious things that are going right and wrong which adds something else to everything. He also sticks to the role of special commentator and is heard briefly and rarely.

 

[Sidebottom2Beams]

Bring back Kelli Underwood .

 

[Terex8]

The difference in Nathan Buckley commentating in 2008/09 in Collingwood games compared to Harley now on Geelong games says a lot about the professionalism of them/or not in Harley's case.

 

[Bell Ringer]

Count how many times Bruce starts a sentence with, "I mean...".

Final tally will be higher than Joe Cocker.

 

[Happy_Neale]

It's not even that bad.

 

[soyouthink10]

nah there fine. i like bruce...his good, isnt he?

 

[soyouthink10]

The Channel 10 team was always much better. I still have no idea why posters were pleased to see them lose the rights.

Ch10's coverage was always awful except huddo and quarters. there special comments people were always disgraceful..lloyd, voss, walls, silvarni horrible just horrible though the years..their actual play by play callers were good but not much better than Ch7... Tim lane (awful) as well

 

[Gasometer]

Suppose the Friday night team will call the Grand Final?

 

[Swooper18]

Absolutely Igloo. They commentate like an average group of fans like ourselves. It is across the board on Fox Sports & Fox Footy as well.

 

[Smoooothy]

Don't know how many saw the classic games on fox footy today, they had the 93 prelim. The thing I noticed apart from how depressing the 2nd half was was how good a caller Bruce used to be.

Its time Bruce, it really is. I've been one of your biggest fans for years. But please bow out with some dignity...

 

[Dirty Bird]

They're all terrible, but compared to Brian Taylor they're brilliant.

I used to like BT
Then Rd 1 2010 came along.
The orgasm over Barlow pissed me off that I havn't been able to enjoy a game of his since.

 

[Skerret]

It's not even that bad.

What isn't? You can't mean the commentary.

 

[Adam Selwood]

It's a weird one. I have found myself more and more over the past couple of years complaining about the commentary and just thinking to myself "You're getting older and grumpier" but this year there is no doubt it has gotten worse.

On Fridays, Bruce is just getting plain weird. Now he has always had a tendency to say strange stuff over a season, but it is now a weekly occurrence. My favourite of the lot was last week "Wouldn't you love to be tackled by Judd?" I just don't get that at all, it is even getting embarrassing for his co-commentators. Bruce has finally lost it I think.

Lethal is fine, he hasn't changed much and is consistent at least. Still has good insights.

Dennis is being dragged down by Bruce. They are feeding off each other and trying to see who can put in the most clever pop-culture/historical references. Dennis should stay out of it as he has turned into a shadow of who he once was. I actually blame Bruce for this.

Harley is just too predictable. Adds nothing to a broadcast.

Ling shows potential but needs to be careful he isn't dragged down by the others as well.

The channel 7 Friday night coverage is getting stranger by the week.

LOL that was almost the worst in a long line of awful commentary moments by Bruce this year. It's a shame how far he has fallen. His call of the 2010 GF (Part I) was magnificent - he called the game, and called it very well. This year he has been absolutely unbearable. In the Hawks/Dogs game last Sunday, every time Cyril went near it was cringeworthy. What makes it worse is that Dennis or another of the team will make reference to Bruce's love for Cyril. JUST STFU. His reference tonight to the saying in Goldfinger was another example of him taking on some of Dennis's worst mannerisms.

Dennis has been awful for years. Easily the most overrated commentator going around. His love for obscure references and "witty" remarks combined with his bland commentary style makes him one of the worst in the business. He has a complete inability to capture excitement with his call (something Bruce actually does well).

The best commentary team of the last decade or so was the circa 2004-7 Channel 10 team. Unfairly hated on just because people didn't like the personalities of Walls and Lane. They called the game professionally and didn't get sidetracked into stupid bullshit like Bruce and Dennis do now.

Even someone like Dwayne Russell is more palatable than Bruce and Dennis at the moment. He isn't great at all, but for the most part he calls the game without too many unnecessary theatrics

 

[rickyp]

The fact is that they're the only option we've got, and they know it. Thus, they turn their appeal to the other demographics that don't watch for the football, but for the social commentary.

 

[Soul_Pie]

For me it's becoming nails on a blackboard type stuff, I can't listen to them. If there was somehow an option just to have crowd noise I would change it over in a flash. I used to like Commetti and Bruce (Bruce less so) but they are past it now, they've just got to the point where they've become so stuck in their own ways that they've forgotten how to actually call the game properly. At the very least though it encourages me to go the footy and not have to listen to their mindless chattering.

I don't mind Huddo or Eddie, and for radio the ABC crew are quality, but bloody hell it seems like there's nobody around who will just give us a reasonable account of what's going on in the game. everyone seems to have an ego, or a novelty or a bias or some kind of act. Every commentator also wants to be a "personality". Boy do I miss Clinton Grybas, it's only after he died that I realised how damn good he was and how he was a cut above the rest of the jokers on television.