Foxtel Commentary

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Don't want a token SA identity. Would rather just good commentators. Matt Campbell is South Australian and I can't stand his comentary.

Seems though that they are going down the path of 'colour men' and manufactured rivalries between commentators to make things more interesting. Has the reverse effect.

What used to come naturally for guys like Commetti and Taylor now seems very forced and there is a new generation trying to follow suit. If you're trying to create chemistry then you don't have it.

The simple set up of two guys sharing the play by play and one special comments guy making the higher-level observations worked fine. There's about six different guys piping up now at various times.
 
James_37 said:
I think Fox would be better off finding an ex-Crow for crows games and similar for the Power. Nothing else would really keep each supporter base happy.
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To save money they could employ someone who played for both clubs. Symes will need a job next year...
 

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I don't mind Dwayne Russell commentating so much. Sure, he's biased as hell but he knows who the players are and gets his facts right for the most part. Also probably goes a fair way towards reinforcing the intrastate rivalry between us and Port.

Roos on the other hand is just unashamedly spiteful and should not be allowed to call Crows nor Swans games. His respect in the football community will have plummeted since he became a commentator.

Hudson is alright, apart from that Essendon game where he actively barracked towards the end. Very unprofessional.

I like what Roo has to say, but I cannot stand his voice so I'd rather read what he has to say than here.

How about getting Fitzy commentating? The man can talk :D
 
I like Matthews and Harley, they have no on-air bias really. It gets pretty thin after that, and they are just backup commentators. Gerard Whateley and Brashaw would be good if they commentated for Fox.

I can't think of anyone South Australian that would be good, but we need one, desperately. I think Fitzy would be worth a go but could be a major flop as well.

Carl Spakler worth a shot, Vader to be tea lady.
 
Vader said:
OK, we all love to bitch and moan about the Foxtel commentary team. Yes, we all hate Dwayne Russell (and yes, he hates the Crows). Having him share the box with Roos & Lynch is pretty close to the definition of a nightmare scenario for most Crows fans.

But what do Fox need to do to balance things up?

I'm thinking not much. They just need to find a commentator from SA who is prepared to support both South Australian teams, against the other 16 opponents.

Take Glen Jakovich as an example. He's barely coherent and can't construct a sentence with more than 3 words without losing his train of thought, but he backs both of the WA sides to the hilt. He played for West Coast, but you wouldn't know it to hear him calling a Fremantle game (Derbies excluded). For him, Freo are "the other WA team", but he calls their games with passion because they're from his home state of WA.

On the other hand, Fox's only regular SA-based commentator is Dwayne Russell, who is very much pro-Port and anti-Adelaide, even when calling an Adelaide vs Vic (or Adelaide vs Qld) game. Sorry Fox, but that's not good enough. You need to find someone who is prepared to back both SA teams to the hilt, only showing their true colours during the Showdowns.

Who could/should Fox target, in order to bring a bit of balance to their commentary team as far as Adelaide fans are concerned?
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What a load of rubbish (IMO). For me Russell was clearly pro-Adelaide on Saturday night. I don't buy into this "Dwayne hates Crows" twaddle. Never have. It's typical Big footy group think that this view keeps pervading. Have another listen and try to be non-prejudicial about his calling. His knowledge of our players, our state is frankly very refreshing when compared to the verbal spew from Roos, Lynch, Johnson and Jackovich.
 
Agree porpoise. I don't midn Russell and a lot of the things he gets bagged for (like pointing out that a young Crows star hails from some suburb of Melbourne) he does for players of every team.

Also it is normal for commentators to 'side' with the underdog or the team that is behind. It is only natural, it isn't personal.

That said, there is a percentage of Victorian commentators who just don't know anything about us or our players and don't care. They call the game purely from the Victorian team's perspective - what they need to do, what they should have done.

Any Crows goals are opposition mistakes, any goals against us are opposition brilliance.
 
fabs33 said:
I don't mind Lynch, to people who aren't Lions' supporters what he says is actually quite informative and I don't detect any over the top bias from him either. As for the other two; Roos I can tolerate, Dwayne on the other hand...
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Lynch was the only commentator at the Brisbane game who even attempted to hide their personal bias. I was surprised how fair he was considering he played for Brisbane.
 
porpoise said:
What a load of rubbish (IMO). For me Russell was clearly pro-Adelaide on Saturday night. I don't buy into this "Dwayne hates Crows" twaddle. Never have. It's typical Big footy group think that this view keeps pervading. Have another listen and try to be non-prejudicial about his calling. His knowledge of our players, our state is frankly very refreshing when compared to the verbal spew from Roos, Lynch, Johnson and Jackovich.
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That was Dwayne's best call of an Adelaide game for a long time - he couldn't show any anti-bias towards Adelaide as Roos had an absolute mortgage on that.

By the way, you're wrong about "Dwayne hates Crows" being twaddle. I've known the whole family including Dwayne on a personal basis for at least 30 years. A Port Adelaide fanatic and has always hated the Crows since our inception.

Fact, not Big Footy group thinking.
 
Dwayne "50 shades of teal" is cringeworthy, barracking for the lions or who ever is playing the crows. During the power eagles game on no less than 5 occasions did he say things along the lines of "well the power fans are happy, with the crows going down last night , they've already had a win". Another Irritant is Geelong playing 75% of Friday night games and having to listen to Harley and Ling gush about their impact on "the group" vom!
 

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It's strange I've never hated Dwayne's commentary,I know his background (Port) and have accepted that. He does at least do some research on players and will expand on their origins, clubs they played for pre AFL, teams they grew up barracking for.He does give some insight into the players and he doesn't make too many mistakes in calling.

Roos on the other hand is darn right painful to listen to. I really haven't heard a commentator who dresses up 'sniping' as analysis as much as him. Games he's called so far this year involving us have for me been painful to listen too. Yes the man knows his stuff,is a great coach and highly respected but its like he can't keep his emotional baggage locked up when were involved. I really cringe now when he does our games, highlights ever tackle like its an automatic tribunal appearance,comments on every free kick we receive as questionable, while pointing out every missed 50/50 free kick our opponents should have got as somehow being hard done by.Not a fan at all as you can ascertain.Our record against Sydney and Porps goals I think maybe scarred Roos more than he would care to admit.
I see no other conclusion concerning his 'balanced' commentary involving us.

Is that better!
 
Roos commentary about the Crows is a disgrace. It's patently obvious that he hates us and wants nothing more than for us to fail at whatever we do. I think it's actually physically impossible for him to give us any credit, ever, regardless of how well we play.

Not that we deserved any on the weekend, mind you.
 
Interceptor said:
Yep that's Michael Christian with the main call in that Fev clip.
Sure he made a slight mistake (saying initially it was a goal), but how he didn't get another tv gig after ten lost the rights has me beat.
Was easily in the top 3 commentators up to that point.

There's some pretty ordinary callers and even worse comments guys these days, who needlessly over-comment during play.
Unless a LOT of people complain, I doubt the bozos who produce and hire them will change their ways.
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I clearly remember Michael Christian yelling out "Go the Hawks" during our 2007 elimination final. Hardly someone that would fix the bias problem.
 
asdfasd said:
I clearly remember Michael Christian yelling out "Go the Hawks" during our 2007 elimination final. Hardly someone that would fix the bias problem.
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Really? Don't recall that, pretty shocking if true.
He's originally from WA and played for Collingwood.
I'd still be happy to have him over some of the other duds.
 
cmndstab said:
Fair comments m23 :thumbsu: I actually have a lot of time for Russell because he clearly cares about the game, does his research and really wants to be a great caller. And he has the talent and the voice to do it.

If he could just leave his ridiculous catchphrases out and check his bias at the door he'd be right up there as one of the best callers in my opinion. Not that it's a particularly strong field.....
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This x1000 shots from the paint.

Russell's got the ammo to be among the best if he stopped being:
* A comedian. He ain't one. But then again, neither is anyone else behind an AFL microphone.
* Clever. These basketballisms that he's tried to bring into the game are just tripe. Derwayne, you want to realise how bad it sounds when you come up with this crap? Listen to Basil or RompingWins McLachlan because they're copying you. And it sucks.
* So rabidly anti-Crows. We get it big fella. You've got the Port chip on both shoulders. But professionals don't let that on.
* Port's saviour. He thinks Port needs support and PR, so he mentions them every ****ing week.

Be professional. Do your research. Call the game. Add some value to the telecast.

It ain't that hard is it?
 
Punchy Bassett said:
Michael Christian was a terrible commentator, and a biased prick as well.
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You're entitled to that option, but I disagree.

Christian wasn't terrible at all.
He called the game with measured emotion without trying to be a comedian, a statistician or being riddled with cliches or other crap.
If some bias was his weakness, then so be it.
 
smoovy said:
There is literally no media talent in SA in the sporting world, how else would you explain Rowe and Cornes still being on air.
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Quoted for stunning truth.

There is also a complete lack of brains by the SA footy public because they still listen to Stephen 'kick him in his floobodydoobas' Rowe and Graham 'if you played less than 317 SANFL games you don't know shit' Cornes.
 
Let you in on a little secret - they ALL hate us.
Gerard Healy is the only one who doesn't.

Even going on the " bad old days " of Drew Morphett , Don Scott , Ian Robertson etc etc ,saturday night was a DISGRACE....at least Lynchy had the excuse of having actually played for Brisbane.
Yeah Dwayne's dad died last week....didn't stop him from being a smug campaigner though did it.

FF may be run out of Melbourne but FOX is run from Sydney....and i'm not holding my breath waiting for the suits up here to think to themselves - " Geez , we'd better tell these cowboys to rain themselves in a bit "
 
Eh, it's not so bad listening to Russell this year since the Crows are winning.

Tony Shaw is another foxtel guy the Crows get with whom I don't think is all that great. Do enjoy Harley and Healy and have no problem with Lynch. If they had a 3 man team of Russell, Healy and then had Lynch or Dermo as the 3rd guy then I'd be OK with that. No Roos or Shaw, once you get 2 or 3 guys in the box with their biases it gets a bit much.
 

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