Try this quick quiz.
Here is a list of relatively recent iconic commentators from Australian sport: Rex Mossop, Ray Warren, Frank Hyde, Dennis Cometti, Darrell Eastlake, Norman May, Richie Benaud, Gordon Bray, Bruce McAvaney.
Now, quickly, name their heirs and spares …
Quickly, I said!
Oh, come on. Most of the above left our screens yonks back.
Their replacements have all had time to settle in. So how can it be that their names don’t instantly come to you?
Rex Mossop and Frank Hyde share a laugh in 1991.Credit: Steven Siewert
Which is my point, exactly.
I think something has happened in Australian sports media while we were … looking.
See? It wasn’t that all of the above were defined by the sports they called, they were so big their calls helped to define the sports themselves.
See how effortlessly you can recount some of their more famous utterances. And, tell you what, I’ll mix up the order to see if that makes it more difficult:
See?
You can effortlessly put all those quotes with their commentators.
Now go again, and see if you can put famous quotes against the current crop of commentators. Like me, I bet you got nuttin‘.
Do I have to rest my case, or will you come out with your hands up?
Richie Benaud at the MCG.Credit: Pat Scala
It seems incontrovertible to me that we are in a new age, when the commentators we have are more of an “off-the-shelf” variety, providing fine calls without necessarily becoming outsize personalities in their own right.
The question is, why? Is it them or us? Or is it, in fact, caused by the diktats of TV execs, a bastard breed by nature.
It ain’t the commentators. To my eyes and ears, the current generation are at least as knowledgeable as their forebears and at least as skilled in describing the play. In rugby league, the standout is probably Dan Ginnane as a pure caller, while in rugby union it is Sean Maloney; in AFL, Gerard Whateley; in cricket, Ricky Ponting. In athletics … we will find out in a couple of months at the Olympics.
Is it us, then? Has something changed in our tastes and viewing habits, whereby we no longer exult about various commentators the way we used to? Maybe. If you think about the number of things competing for our eyeballs and ears these days, it makes a certain amount of sense that sports commentators don’t necessarily make the front row of public figures, but are more likely sixth row back, fourth from the left.
Ricky Ponting is almost as good with a microphone as he was with a bat.Credit: Reuters
TV execs? Perhaps they have decided that the problem with having ultra-famous commentators is that you have to pay them ultra-big bucks, even though they are not what is bringing the mob into the tent – that is the games themselves. So instead of promoting their on-air talent, they exclusively promote the game itself? Surely this would make financial sense?
Better call Saul.
My erstwhile sports TV boss, Saul Shtein – with a résumé that includes Channel Nine, Fox, Channel Seven and now Gravity Media – is close to the doyen of sports producers in the country.
He agrees that the commentators are no longer front and centre, but is quick to add: “As commentators, they are every bit as good as they ever were, if not better. The difference is just how much is broadcast now. Before pay television, everybody was going to the one broadcast at the one time, and so whoever was calling it became famous. Now, every professional game of football and more cricket than was ever thought possible is broadcast – and it means everyone can see their own club play every game, but inevitably with a mix of commentators, so they don’t come to love the same one.”
And of course, it’s not just a splintering in Australia.
“Now, a lot of eyeballs are going to broadcasts from overseas. You don’t get a critical mass of fans behind one or two games a week, they are spread out over many matches, and many from all over the world.”
And what of colour, Saul? Can we agree that one of the things that made the likes of Rex Mossop and Dennis Cometti, particularly, so beloved was the edginess of their quotes. Rex’s issue with nude bathing was that it shouldn’t be “rammed down people’s throats”.
Dennis said of Adelaide’s Rory Sloane, “It’s like finding fault with Miss Venezuela”. Of Anthony Rocca’s need for room, he said: “Rocca, like my wife driving, needs a fair bit of lane”. Would you get away with such comments now?
“Not necessarily, and that too is a factor,” Saul says. “The game has changed across all levels, and so has the broadcasting of the games. Ideally, the sports themselves are so spectacular, there is less focus on the personality of the commentator.”
Which is as well, ’cos let’s face it – they just don’t make ’em like Darrell Eastlake any more anyway!
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