The Roar Rugby Review video
Welcome to episode four of The Roar Rugby Review video, brought to you amongst a whole gamut of tribulations behind the scenes.
Watch the fourth episode in this video series
Both Mat and I came through a number of trials on the day prior to our 6 o’clock filming date – hard drive crashes, horror meetings, missed flights, broken down taxis and printers on the blink – only to turn up at the studio and find that our regular camera and sound equipment was out on another date … we were being two-timed!
Dilemma! What to do?
As we’re learning, the old adage is completely true: “the show must go on.” So we improvised, grabbed another camera, some sound equipment, a few eight-point printed notes from you guys on the site, and away we went.
What can you expect to see?
A tighter shot (couldn’t get the camera any further away than the length of the mike cord!); a gritty Tropfest type sound (scrounged mikes from the bottom drawer); mood lighting (blown bulb); and presenters squinting at pages (faded eight point type – try it sometime, it’s hard to read!)
Is this show business? Is this TV?
I guess so, and the important thing is, we made it. Finally, we got a show in the can and, for better or for worse, it’s now on air.
In that show, there’s plenty of commentary from you - the Roarers - some pooh-poohing from us on a few contributions that deserved it, some news and views, and a little clip taken over at Coogee Oval last weekend, where Randwick put West Harbour to the sword 63-24, despite Timana Tahu making an appearance for the Wests boys.
Among the other Wallabies on stage was the veteran Peter Jorgensen who was marking Tahu, and who graciously gave me a few minutes post game on the sideline. Thanks Jorgo!
It was a great piece of grassroots rugby, just as this weeks Review is a great piece of grassroots web TV.
Like West Harbour, it didn’t all go according to plan, but we’ll both be back next week with a vastly improved performance.
Keep Roaring, Loges and Mat
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Spiro Zavos said | July 24th 2008 @ 9:13am | Report comment
Great stuff Mat and Andrew. I enjoyed seeing Jorgo again, one of my favourite players from his days at Joeys. He had an uncanny knack of scoring tries, which is always a useful skill for a back.
Andrew Marks said | July 24th 2008 @ 9:41am | Report comment
Good show guys - really enjoy your style.
It would also be good to take on a bit of controversy ie the total lack of support for Rugby in western Sydney, the NSWRU (pick any number of subjects). etc
Adz said | July 24th 2008 @ 12:05pm | Report comment
I understand that you guys aren’t responsible for the technical details of the show however if you can get a message to whoever is that would be great. My main gripe was no so much the content (which was good) but the picture. There’s no reason to use interlacing. Interlacing is used ONLY on TV and some DVDs. It makes the action parts (eg. the clips from matches) almost unwatchable with combing effects all over the place. That is, it reminds you of what a hair comb looks like. So, if that can be gotten rid of (even if you have to lower the frame rate a little although that shouldn’t be necessary) that would be great. Other than that, the picture quality is great - much better than youtube - which I applaud.
On the content, I have to agree with you about Sharpe. For the longest time I’ve been annoyed with himn and anyone who picks him. He’s good in the lineout but crap in the scrum and goes down immediately on contact when carrying the ball. I’m not a huge user of the word “seagulling”, I just expect that when a guy that big runs the ball up that he make some ground on occasion. However, in the last match, he was solid everywhere! I nearly fell off my chair. Regarding Al Baxter, I thought that he had a pretty good game. I’m not a fan of his but I’m not as hard on him as I am on Sharpe mostly because we have viable alternatives at lock but not so much at prop. I agree that we should be trying to develop new talent, I’m just not sure that the Tri Nations is the place to do it. The November tests and the Super 14 are better arenas for that. What I don’t understand is why Mark Chisolm has fallen off the radar. He’s not bad in the lineout, far superior to Sharpe or Vickerman in the scrum and superb around the field. Yet, no one is mentioning him or lamenting his absence. He had a great Super 14 and as far as I’m aware, he’s not injured. Opinions anyone? Am I so far off the mark (pun intended) here?
As for the Bledisloe, I predict a close victory to the Wallabies… With a caveat. The caveat is that that result is dependent on the Wallabies putting in two solids halves. In all of the matches this year, the Wallabies have put in a good half and a bad half. If they can eliminate the bad half then I reckon they’re home and hosed. Otherwise, it’s a toss-up.
Andrew Logan said | July 24th 2008 @ 12:37pm | Report comment
Spiro, you’re right about Jorgo. He is playing a Terry Lamb style of game at the moment - scored a try with excellent backing up, and also played the crucial link man for several other tries…..Randwick scored about 8 or 9 on the day. The big thing for me was the crowd….sizeable and vocal. It made such a difference having the Wallabies there and Coogee Oval is a great place for a good club game with a good crowd.
The interesting thing was the standard of play too. Naysayers who said that club rugby was not of a sufficiently high standard to develop elite players, ignore the effect of the presence of those players on the standard of the game. The presence of Tahu, Jorgensen, Chisholm, Freier along with Waratahs signing Ratu Nasiganyavi (who scored 4 tries) lifted the standard to a tough level of hard hitting rugby. Obviously in semi=pro rugby defensive patterns are not as functional (hence the 63-24 scoreline), but the hits are still pretty hard.
It was a great day out and I’m looking forward to future expeditions. For those out there who haven’t seen a club game for a while…get along and check it out. It’s good stuff. And if you see me out at a game with my camera…come and say g’day, it would be good to meet some Roarers in person.
Cheers…
fillbee said | July 24th 2008 @ 3:16pm | Report comment
Good work Andrew and Mat. Club rugby is in good shape with what looked like a very decent crowd out at Coogee. What you are doing here is giving the game a good kick along. Sure, your program preeches to the converted but it is publicity, for club footy, and that is what we want.
I see in another blog, Andrew, that you are going for a 15 point victory to the Wallabies. Do you think that maybe the Boks were a bit tired after being beaten up upon by the All Blacks in two torrid tests, and then doing the hell trip from Dunedin to Perth?
Another comment. Matt Goddard and Stu Dickenson copped some terrible press from around the globe on their ref’ing over in Kiwiland. However Bryce Lawrence got off scot free in what was the worst international referee performance of the year. At most tackles he was 5 metres from the point of contact, leading to many incorrect decisions. There were more stoppages in the test at Perth than in Wellington and in Dunedin.
We all love to hate the bloke with the whistle, however the ref is in an invideous position because what is in front of him is infringements. Anyway maybe on a show of yours coming up you could get either Peter Marshall from the Australian Rugby Union (Referee Manager) or George Ayoub who has retired from internation rugby ref’ing (apart from some TMO duties) but is still going around in the club scene. Both these guys are approachable and I am sure the roarers will get a lot of benefit from getting another view from a whistle blower.
Andrew Logan said | July 24th 2008 @ 4:20pm | Report comment
Filbee - I like it. I’ll get in touch with the refs and see if we can get someone to come into the studio and give us some pointers.
Cheers…
El Capitan said | July 24th 2008 @ 7:46pm | Report comment
Andrew and Matt,
Great show. Was good to hear about club footy, and I agree wholeheartedly with fillbe as thats what club rugby needs.
I’ll ask a few mates of mine that still play out at Mt Isa, Cairns, Mackay, Rocky, Emerald and Toowomba to see if they can get some results and email them into either the Roar! or to myself to post. Willl be good to organise the QRU to get this rolling.
Keep up the good work.
Yikes said | July 25th 2008 @ 3:02pm | Report comment
Andrew, love the show - and this from a critic! I was at WH vs Randwick also, didn’t see you there unfortunately. Ratu had a great game, but I felt he was a bit slack in a few places. He’s a destructive finisher, but goes missing at times.
Glad to see you enjoyed the club rugby - I see on the Thursday Subbies circular “list” that you won’t be playing for Old Ignations for a few weeks, so you should get to a couple more games!!
Andrew Logan said | July 27th 2008 @ 10:16pm | Report comment
Yikes…..dead right on Ratu….he is huge, fast and dare I say it…a bit lazy? Scary from 20 out with ball in hand, but does a bit too much cruising up and down the tram tracks waiting for the pill for mine. Hopefully some time in pro-footy with the Waratahs next year will impress upon him the need to do some work off the ball as well as just finishing.
I will be aiming to get to a few more games in the next few weeks…so keep an eye out and come and say g’day.
Cheers….
PS What were you doing at Randwick? I thought you were a Merrylands man, but I guess WH is your equivalent grade club.