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There was plenty to admire from the latest round of A-League action, particularly if you happened to watch all five matches live on host broadcaster Fox Sports.
No doubt Western Sydney’s gripping 1-0 win over Central Coast in torrential rain in Gosford was the match of the round, though Melbourne Victory’s systematic 5-0 destruction of the Newcastle Jets was equalling enthralling viewing.
And booming into living rooms across Australia was a host of familiar voices – those of Fox Sports’ commentary team.
On Friday, Roarer Shaunvdl wrote an interesting piece entitled “Is Football being catered to dummies?” on the role of pundits and commentators.
His piece represented everything I like about opinion columns – it was forthright, well-written and considered, yet I disagreed with just about every single point he made.
I suspect that being an English expatriate gave Shaun a very different perspective to the average Australian fan, not least in his analysis of whether Mark Bosnich and Andy Harper constitute ‘experts.’
Shaun’s summation of Bosnich’s career was particularly harsh and what it glaringly overlooked was the fact that ‘Bozza’ was clearly one of the most talented goalkeepers to ever pull on a Socceroos jersey.
I doubt there’s a genuine football fan in Australia who isn’t glad to have seen Bosnich get his life back on track as part of the Fox team and personally I’m a big fan of his forthright delivery and willingness to speak his mind.
But if there’s one thing that particularly annoys me, it’s criticism of Harper.
I grew up watching the National Soccer League and during my teen years I more often than not found myself down at Marconi Stadium.
I wasn’t necessarily a huge Marconi fan – another reason the A-League is such a godsend – but I always appreciated Harper’s bustling industry and keen eye for goal.
Not that it ever stopped me from voicing my opinions, and while he won’t remember it himself, I once had an hilarious run-in with him down by the corner flag which ended with him barking at me to “show some respect.”
I also bailed him up on the train from Kaiserslautern after the Socceroos had beaten Japan and again, while I personally hope he doesn’t remember it, what I discovered was that he was a forthright, intelligent and thoughtful football analyst.
These days I run across Harper from time to time in a professional capacity and the same qualities are obvious whenever I strike up a conversation with him: intelligence, enthusiasm, football nous and a willingness to learn from those around him.
Who cares that he didn’t play for the Socceroos? Neither did Simon Hill, yet you rarely hear the same criticism levelled at his football knowledge.
What particularly irks me about criticism of Harper’s commentary is this niggling attitude that he’s not supposed to show enthusiasm.
He may be a bit verbose at times, but isn’t that better than listening to a commentator with no passion for the game?
Try tuning into the generic feeds of AFC Champions League games or English-language coverage of the J. League and you’ll get an idea of just how bad commentary can get.
Lest anyone accuse me of being a paid-up member of the Harper fan club, I’m also looking forward to seeing what SBS bring to the table in terms of their A-League coverage next season.
I’m a big fan of the ever-exciteable Ned Zelic, but frankly I’m mainly interested to see how the network goes about covering the A-League after so many years of playing second fiddle to pay television.
At any rate, it’s easy to criticise those who call the action but doing so often ignores the pressure of calling live events as they happen and overlooks the hard work that goes on behind the scenes.
They may not be perfect, but the A-League could do a lot worse than the pundits and commentators who currently analyse the game.