Too many "white guys" talking about footy on TV?

[Golumless]

lol

Bring her back please.

Sure she's a bit dull, but at least she's not either King or Dermie.

 

[Collins-Langford-Ayres]

God the last thing we need is a push for Adam Goodes to get involved in the football media.

Are we due for another not enough indigenous captains piece too?

 

[legend166]

You see the problem is there's not a qualified woman with the right conflict of interest that is necessary to enter the AFL media.

Now, if Gilligan's wife took a TAFE media course, then we'd start seeing some female commentators.

But until then, they'll just have to learn to make they way up through sheer ability to know the right person and be a 'good bloke' like the current crop did.

 

[Tippett2Goal]

In terms of callers, many of these types have risen from covering sports on community radio. They've done hard yards. How many females have done this? I don't recall any in Perth but I've plenty of years listening to Adam Papalia, Ben Cameron and Corbin Middlemass - these are guys still quite early in their career.

Then you move onto special comments who are all specifically AFL players or ex-players - no real opportunities there, and it's not based on gender.

Finally you have media commentators, which is where we see the likes of Caroline Wilson, Sam Lane, and Rebecca Maddern. These types have come from a journalism background. They not only battle the above categories for these spots (as well as comedians), but also the media creep of contractually having a personality across multiple shows (who already fulfills one of the above, core competencies).

No doubt it's tough to break into and there's poor representation of females, but when you examine it a bit more closely, it's pretty reasonable and understandable to arrive at this point.

I'm surprised he hasn't gotten more opportunities elsewhere, really enjoy his calls

 

[MRB37]

lol

Apart from it sounding like her voice was being pushed slightly too far, there wasn't anything really wrong with that. No worse than hearing BT scream his "Boy oh boy wowee!" stuff.

 

[Ian Dunross]

I'm utterly opposed to tokenism and this PC tripe...

Unless it puts Damien Barrett out of a job, then I'm furious at how few women and minorities are involved in football media!

 

[Mitchell Madness]

Should be no ex-players in the media
They're far too bias to call the game impartially

 

[Bluelegs]

If there are nonwhite people good enough for the job then they will be hired. Forcing racial diversity on footy shows for the sake of it is ridiculous.

Not this shit again. Equality should see the best person get the job, not people getting the job for the sake of it.

Well...

We need less shit people in the media. Looking at you Dermie, Derrrwaye, Healy, Johnston and Bruce.

Yeah..

 

[NikkiNoo]

On the flip side, I would love to see a female commentator if she had the ability to engage the audience with the right experience, in depth knowledge
and the right personality.

Please explain how David King has a job then? So he played AFL and has a premiership medal. Right personality? Nope. Engage the audience? Nope. In depth knowledge? His tipping is crap, so his in depth knowledge is below par.

I can add in Chris McDermott in Adelaide. He was one of the worst coaches to ever coach the game yet has regular media gigs because he was captain of an AFL club. He is consistently wrong.

Your caveat of the "right experience" means that no woman can be qualified as none of us have played a game at AFL level. Any female journalist and especially one that loves sport and wants to work in that area has to contend with some of the worst sexist comments and denigrations that there are around on a regular basis.

 

[Sydney Bloods]

i don't know how to feel about this, on one hand enforcing qoutas and insisting people get hired for the colour of their skin seems pretty racist to me.

on the other hand, this could get luke darcy replaced with an actual commentator.

 

[Bluelegs]

lol

I'd take this over BT or Derwayne screaming their tired catch phrases over and over or Bruce's sex noises.

 

[NikkiNoo]

All I know for sure is that the Marngrook footy show beats the pants off the ch 9 Footy Show and that is even with that illiterate muppet Dipper on it. It's got black panalists and even a black woman. Is that why it's better? I am sure it is part of the reason but it's just fresher and more relaxed.

Having herd the author of the article on SEN this afternoon when I was in the car I think she wants more women on the TV and involved in the coverage than anything else. It's a fair point of view but the reality is at this stage not that many women operate in the industry.

Why do you think that there are not that many women who work in the industry? When the fan base is almost an even split between male and female, why is that not represented in other areas in the industry?

More women are starting to be involved in rehab and fitness areas finally, even though for many years there were a lot of highly qualified women in those roles, just would never even be looked at for a footy club job. Why can't women do special comments etc? I've watched the game since I was a small child. I've umpired the game. I now play the game (not well but I don't care, I get to play the game I've loved for so long). So why is a male apparently 'better' than me? You only have to come onto the Adelaide Board and see warnings for new posters to not argue with me about football unless you want a virtual black eye when they attempt it.

One only has to look at the comments about a female 'voice' being heard continually to see the comments that can devolve into ones around how it sounds like a fishwife/they can't do excitement like I normally hear. Of course not, there is a difference, and because it is different and not male it sounds 'wrong'. Kelli Underwood seems to be deliberately trying to modulate her voice to a lower register in order to make her sound more like a man, so that it can be more palpable to the male audience.

 

[The 747]

It maybe that not many women or indigenous want to share a work environment with stupid boys club yobbos.

 

[Cudi_420]

Harsh reality is that to commentate a game you need a strong, booming voice. Most women have higher voices that crackle when amplified at high volume and pace. We saw that with Underwood who sounded like a 12-year-old teenage boy going through puberty. This is why Terry Wallace never lasted as a television commentator or special comments because his voice is irritating and high-pitched. It's not suitable for radio let alone television but, eh, amongst the potatoes at SEN and 3AW I guess he fits in.

Anyway, my general rule of thumb is that anyone who has "white men" in their headline in a serious manner doesn't deserve attention. It's malicious in intent and attempts to use the modern narrative of third-wave feminism as a means to devalue someone's merit.

"Oh look, a white man is telling me about *insert social injustice*"
"Why are so many white men doing *insert thing*"

Commentators are mostly "white men" for a few reasons.

1. The majority of AFL footballers are white and, evidently, male.
2. From the AFL fraternity, some men choose to have media training to pave out a media career post-football. Considering the ratio of white to non-white men in the AFL, the figure of men having media training is most likely going to be made up predominately of white men.
3. Most indigenous players in major media markets tend to return home at the end of their football careers, particularly those that play in Melbourne and Sydney.
4. You need a good balance of experienced football knowledge and layman interpretations of the game. Former AFL players (experience) and commentators (layman) make up these commentating teams. The "layman" commentators tend to be professional media personalities with years of experience primarily in sport commentary (Commetti, McAvaney etc etc).

Unfortunately, the talent pool in both fields is thin, and that includes women.

I am so sick to death of this rampaging "inclusivity" and "diversity" debate. Just stfu, take the media training yourself and do it? Empower others instead of standing on a soapbox and making us all feel like racist/sexist pigs because we watch a support that doesn't reach your social expectations.

 

[Feerits Elf]

1. The majority of AFL footballs are white and, evidently, male.

The majority are red.

Next closest is yellow.

It's a good thing they're male because I enjoy kicking the shit out of them.

 

[Haggard H]

Yep, bring in a bird with no game time field experience and put her behind the mike alongside some former greats of the game. Now, i think it has worked rather well in T20, i am open minded on these things, but surely the job should go on merit, knowledge and experience of the game first and foremost?

Like Bruce McAvaney, Anthony Hudson, Gerard Whately, Eddie Maguire, Tim Lane, James Brayshaw, etc.

We all know plenty about football, hence why we think our opinion is worth posting on Bigfooty. It's quite possible the most intelligent posts on here are by women - you just don't know it because of neutral usernames and avatars (you can be sure any avatar of a good looking woman is representing a male).

I was never a fan of Kelli Underwood but if she can take Dermie's spot then yes please.

 

[NikkiNoo]

The majority are red.

Next closest is yellow.

I also thought they were like tribbles - asexual.

 

[MarkT2]

Why do you think that there are not that many women who work in the industry? When the fan base is almost an even split between male and female, why is that not represented in other areas in the industry?

I was referring to the football media/broadcast industry as whole - not the AFL industry. I forget the number of accredited AFL journalists but it is a huge number. Women make up a small minority in number of those. In any case women are a minority in all aspects of AFL. That may well be changing to a degree but it's still true.

 

[NikkiNoo]

I forget the number of accredited AFL journalists but it is a huge number. Women make up a small minority in number of those.

That's not answering my question as to why those numbers are small. Care to take an educated guess?

 

[StevenwellerHFC]

Slow news day I see.

 

[Sydney Bloods]

Kelli Underwood seems to be deliberately trying to modulate her voice to a lower register in order to make her sound more like a man, so that it can be more palpable to the male audience.

plenty of chicks can commentate, soccer, cricket and basketball are proof of this. Kelli Underwood however is a terrible commentator for the same reason Darren Lockyer is a terrible commentator, their voices are grating as **** and they need to be tested for throat cancer.

 

[Scotland]

Why are there only white people as umpires?

White maggots!

 

[Cursed Cat]

sounds familiar, we had that article in the Age last year: "who do the white men think will win?"

https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/who-do-the-white-men-think-will-win.1078556/

 

[dogs105]

In terms of callers, many of these types have risen from covering sports on community radio. They've done hard yards. How many females have done this? I don't recall any in Perth but I've plenty of years listening to Adam Papalia, Ben Cameron and Corbin Middlemass - these are guys still quite early in their career.

No doubt it's tough to break into and there's poor representation of females, but when you examine it a bit more closely, it's pretty reasonable and understandable to arrive at this point.

So it's understandable that they can't make the top level, because they don't get an opportunity at any level?

Yep, let's all believe that they always choose the best man for the job, regardless of his gender.


We'll keep ending up with the cream of the crop, like Anthony Hudson, who screams out "Tay Tay" when Taylor Walker takes a mark.

 

[clivenator26]

Didn't Kelli Underwood call games for Channel 10?

We've all been tyring to forget that happened.