Colour commentary is a very important role in sport broadcasting today and is generally carried out by former players of the sport.
The job of a colour commentator is to assist the play-by-play commentator by giving expert analysis from a players perspective. This has been the case in rugby league for decades now, and of course there have been highlights and lowlights during that time.
But there’s been no greater lowlight than perceived player bias.
Both Fox Sports and Channel Nine combined have more than 30 former players and coaches giving special comments and analysis of the game, and due to this sheer number, there are bound to be former players commentating on their former clubs. Naturally, through no fault of their own – particularly regarding the one-club players – there’s going to be a level of bias, especially if you’re Johnathan Thurston commentating on the North Queensland one year after retirement or Billy Slater commentating on the Melbourne Storm after winning multiple premierships and playing 300-plus games.
It’s human nature to show this kind of bias, and it can be useful in certain circumstances – State of Origin, for instance.
State of Origin is bias central for commentators. As much as New South Wales supporters hate the addition of Paul ‘Fatty’ Vautin’s commentary after the famous Mark Coyne miracle try of 1994 – not to mention that whenever Queensland win he calls it one of the “great Origin games” – his presence adds to the rivalry and the aura that of the series.
However, that aura doesn’t carry over into week after week of rugby league. To many it is infuriating. If you’re watching your team up against the Brisbane Broncos, for example, and the commentators for that match are Corey Parker and Justin Hodges, that’s not going to be fun to watch. Whether they’re being biased or not doesn’t even matter; it creates a stigma of bias because of the lengthy careers those two had with the Broncos.
It’s particularly bad for the game today, which is so stop-start with the influx of penalties and bunker decisions, tries or no tries – opinion almost counts more than fact in coverage, which can outrage viewers when Corey Parker or Justin Hodges have a differing opinion of the decision.
This has caused a problem in rugby league, where the former player’s opinion, as valid as it might be, is now looked upon with disdain by the viewer simply because they’re talking about their former club. If they compliment a try or a play, no matter how good it may be, the sad fact is the stigma of bias will always be there, so the former player suffers simply doing their job.
The simple solution to this is to restrict former players from commentating on their former club, giving them a neutral game week to week. This can’t happen for every player given some have jumped between a number of clubs, such as Braith Anasta, Brett Finch, Michael Ennis and more, which can be acceptable – former players like that tend to have less of an emotional attachment towards a certain club regardless.
This idea is obviously going to cause some headaches when selecting commentary teams for every round, and there may have to be a time or two where Greg Alexander or Phil Gould will call a Penrith Panthers game, but for the betterment of the game it needs to be as restricted as it can be.
The majority of the NRL fan-base watches on TV rather than at the game, and therefore the game relies heavily on the quality of its commentary. It’s up to the NRL to fix this issue, because the mute button is becoming too valid an option.
Michelle
Guest
I don't think State of origin coaches should be commentating any NRL games because I am sick of hearing Brad Fittler on there..
Ray Gilbert
Guest
Could someone tell Andrew Voss to shut up,his hysterical nonsense is too far over the top.
Pato08
Roar Rookie
All channels should just go back to one main commentator, one expert comments commentator and one sideline commentator. Firstly that gets 50% of the dribblers off the air, saves the TV channels a motza and would make it bearable to listen to commentary. Before Foxtel employed all the ex players the commentary was pretty good
RuffRayder
Guest
They also have bias against teams they hate..ever heard Brandy call a Raiders game? Yikes, he's annoying enough already. I nearly wish I was watching channel 9 when he's on a game...
stevesyd
Roar Rookie
Can anyone remember the last time there wasnt mention of Victor Radley being a rooster junior? Before every rooster game I tell my friends to listen for that and invariably there it comes. Is it such a great deal the roosters can finally boast a local junior in their line up?
stevesyd
Roar Rookie
Don't you mean rooster tv? I invite anyone to watch the Fox and Nine Network replay of Souths v Roosters and despite many obvious bias comments for the roosters there is one incident that confirms this greatly. When Reynolds went down after the elbow to his throat from Cordner the play stopped during which time the Fox commentators spoke about anything other than the incident. The nine network led by Fittler (surprise) made light of it with a few nervous laughs suggesting Reynolds was acting. Replace Cordner with Sam Burgess in that scenario and bet your bottom dollar calls for send offs and suspensions by the above would be in overdrive.
Zlatan
Roar Rookie
i’m always happy when I find Blocker is commentating on the Sharkies games.
Cadfael
Roar Guru
Mick, I remember the old days on 7 when the Moose called the games with one offsider and that was it.
Ian_
Roar Rookie
Even so, you'd think Nine would push them to develop a higher level of professionalism in their work. Stuff like enunciating words clearly, using decent grammar, not dropping "h's" and "g"s in every sentence ...
Ian_
Roar Rookie
This, and subtitles during half time player interviews. Is there anything more pointless in the history of broadcasting than an ex-player intercepting a player coming off at half time and asking a couple of inane questions?
Ian_
Roar Rookie
I wonder if they are actually watching the same game half the time. How often do they say something happened, yet to everyone else watching, it was something completely different. It happens especially on penalties, but also with forward passes, knock ons, strips, etc. I'd have thought if you're paid to commentate on games, you'd at least stay focused and watch them.
Rellum
Roar Guru
I am not fussed on on club bias in commentary if there is a genuine effort to show professionalism. My beef with bias goes much deeper. The media corporations that support league has a certain set of "star" players that they are pushed as the players we can talk about. We talk about them not matter what they do. Some players are stars, others are anointed for no reason other than hype. I wan't us to be talking about performances short term and long of everyone not just the select few the media companies what us to focus on, the ones they are using to flog their products and the game.
Birdy
Roar Rookie
Reincarnate Rex, add Blocker, Sterlo, Fatty and Slater to the team. Most important dump 9.
Sideline Eye
Guest
SBS have "subtitles" when shows are in a foreign language. Fox should have "subtitles" when Justin Hodges is mumbling as I can't understand a word he says.
Noosa Duck
Roar Rookie
How about, "there's a penalty" but they have no idea what it was for nor do they try to find out , both Fox & 9 have at least 8 sets of eyes on a game and no one asks "does anyone know what that penalty was for "????.... Half the time you me & the gate post have no idea what the penalty was for and those clods are no help either ....
Noosa Duck
Roar Rookie
His rant at Paul Kent defending the Storm wrestling tactics did me in....
Peter Piper
Guest
The thing I really really hate is the subliminal advertising in the commentary like Slater last night "....... as you can see here on the Harvey norman D max replay ......." This make me want to wretch. Then there are the more obvious ones where one of the commentators will suddenly break into an ad with it appearing on the bottom 1/3 rd of the screen while the game is going on. Ads after points is bad enough but this sickens me.
Chris.P.Bacon
Guest
A very good first article Jake, well done mate. :thumbup:
Chris.P.Bacon
Guest
"Dan Ginanne should be calling park football in Bourke" ....what did Bourke ever do to you? ;)
Noosa Duck
Roar Rookie
Regardless of which channel, none of them call the game anymore most try to referee it from the commentary box. The constant babble between so called experts is driving most of us nuts. Yes we all have different likes and dislike as far as commentators go but regardless of that we want them to actually follow proceedings as they happen. Funny how many below comment that they mute the TV sound and listen on ABC Grandstand digital........yeah funny that ...Two blokes in the commentary box and someone on the sideline and it works a treat....a cast of 30,000 so called ex-player experts not needed....