Origin coverage: Bring back the Gus monologues, kill the cringe

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, Channel Nine’s coverage of rugby league is lamentable.

Exacerbating matters is that I, like many NRL fanatics, have taken advantage of Fox Sports coverage of every game so that up until State of Origin their call was but a distant memory.

What were we treated to? There was awful direction, including spider cam being used for the opening hit up, resultantly removing all impact from the opening blows.

A cameraman lost the ball and instead remained fixed on NSW’s goal posts in the second half as Queensland nearly scored (Matt Moylan managed to knock the ball dead – we found out 30 seconds later).

And another completely missed one of the “moments of the game” as called by Gus Gould when Dane Gagai managed to ensure Queensland kept possession from a goal-line drop out that looked destined to force a scrum in the dying stages.

It’s not good enough and is more of a schoolboy error than Josh Morris dropping the ball from a restart, the director/producer of the coverage needs to go and several cameramen with them. Origin is a pressure cauldron and these people buckled under it.

I won’t spend much time ripping into the incessant promotion of Channel Nine’s programs throughout the coverage but it does not matter how many times you bash me over the head with the sob story of a 16-year-old who was ‘diagnosed’ with the flu but beat that great piece of ‘adversity’ to be on stage tonight – I will not watch The Voice!

Shifting more specifically to the commentary, it was once again more of the same inane comments from supposed experts. Paul Vautin refused to open his mouth unless it was something in Queensland’s favour. While I agree that Morris did not ground the ball in the second half the moment replays began ‘Fatty’ was on the offensive: “he hasn’t grounded it, he’s nowhere near it”.

It might be true but we haven’t even reached this point visually Fatty, calm down and ease off the pro-Maroons throttle. Peter Sterling, to his credit, attempted to analyse the call frame by frame – of course this is typical of Sterling who remains one of the sharper and more impartial minds of the game.

As for the rest of the supporting cast, it was more of the same snore fest, cringeworthy unprofessionalism. Wally Lewis shakes the pom poms like a cheerleader whenever Queensland has possession let alone looks like scoring – it was reminiscent of FIFA 11 when Cristiano Ronaldo has the ball in the six-yard box and the game’s commentators act as if he’s an inch from an open goal.

Brad Fittler and Brett Finch weren’t awful but they were unnecessary. Those half-time ‘interviews’ as players are purposefully dodging the media in the hopes of getting into the sheds to focus on the game – oh yeah, we need those.

We would be better served perhaps interviewing one of the many assistant coaches on how they believe the first half has unfolded instead of the clichéd question and answer we are treated to.

Love or hate Fox Sports’ Andy Raymond, his reintroductions to the second half of NRL fixtures are typically excellent. We find out exactly what the thoughts of each coach is, how they plan to improve things and he provides context going forward into the next 40. It’s informative, professional and journalistic as opposed to a sideshow. But as mentioned, that’s a structural fault more than that of Fittler or Finch.

As for the hosting and pre-game, it was slow and without any build-up, despite the best efforts of the typical standouts Yvonne Sampson and Andrew Johns. Gus Gould used to have a penchant for brilliant pre-game monologues but this seems to have been scrapped for a faltering voiceover – the coverage needs a change but this was one of the few things that had some magic left to it.

I had several people over my house and my father took control of the remote as fathers do. We ended up watching a show on the CI channel that focused on an anorexic woman compounding her own problems by taking laxatives – ironically that was rather similar to the coverage that would unfold and further to the point probably had more substance to it, pun intended.

As for the legend that is Ray ‘Rabbits’ Warren, I’m not going to go in on him purely due to the incredible career he has had. We all know he is not as sharp as he once was and these days his Origin calls seem to have drifted away from impartiality and instead sit firmly in the region of hoping for a Blues victory.

This has in turn impacted the drama of the action. When Dane Gagai scored his try there did not appear to be any looming danger, when he crossed the line I was half expecting (perhaps due to the forward pass that led to it – but beggars can’t be choosers given James Maloney’s pass to Boyd Cordner was also forward) the play to be brought back as it just seemed like nothing had happened.

And ultimately that kind of sums up the supposed spectacle of Origin as it stands. It’s much ado about nothing, or at least it feels that way until some sweeping changes, increased professionalism, reduction of ads and promotion and some improved production quality occurs.