It would be the easiest thing in the world to just sit here and bag Fox Sports after a weekend in which even more production issues spoiled an otherwise fascinating weekend of football.
Who’d be a tuba owner these days?
Less than a week after apologising to W-League fans for the technical issues that have plagued broadcasts of the women’s league this season, Friday’s clash between Adelaide United and Melbourne Victory was marred by the strangest interruption of them all.
As the clock ticked over to the 39th-minute, the broadcast inexplicably switched to vision of a young man sitting alone in a room with a tuba standing tall on a shelf in the background.
It sounds too ridiculous to even be true, but after pocketing $40 million to broadcast “women’s, niche and under-represented sports,” Foxtel’s attitude to actually broadcasting said sports deserves some scrutiny.
The Foxtel Help account on Twitter explained that what viewers “inadvertently saw (was) a quick peek behind the scenes from our team working hard to fix the (broadcast) issue”.
But after weeks of certain W-League games looking more like amateur productions, it’s hard to escape the feeling Fox Sports aren’t pocketing millions to produce broadcasts costing them thousands.
In fairness to the network, they’re broadcasting more W-League games than ever before. And if football eventually moves to a dedicated Over-the-Top streaming service, these are the sort of production woes that could just as easily follow.
But if Friday wasn’t great, Saturday wasn’t much better.
It started with Western United’s insane nil-all draw with Melbourne Victory – a game so action-packed it should become a quiz answer for the most undeserving scoreless draw of all time.
Besart Berisha’s goal against his former club being chalked off by VAR after Connor Pain strayed a millimetre offside was bad enough, but what happened to substitute Dylan Pierias in the second half was farcical.
The 20-year-old looked like he’d won the derby for Western United in the most dramatic of circumstances, only for VAR to call the action back after another offside flag in the build-up.
It might have been the correct call, but you couldn’t tell on TV because the angle of the camera and the vision it produced was so grainy you couldn’t actually see where Pierias started and the body of Victory defender Ryan Shotton ended.
So from a game in which Western United looked to have scored two expertly-taken goals, VAR sent the raucous AAMI Park crowd home believing neither team had scored any.
And when it rains it really does pour, with Brisbane Roar fans forced to wait an extra hour for their clash with Adelaide United in Redcliffe to kick off after a wild storm in Campbelltown caused a lengthy delay in the preceding match between Macarthur and Sydney FC.
Fox Sports can’t control the weather, of course, but forcing Roar fans who’ve already made the lengthy drive up to Redcliffe to sit around and wait an additional hour for another game to finish pretty much sums up where the A-League is at.
Which is annoying, because this was another weekend of gripping football and positive storylines.
From Andrew Durante’s 400th top-flight game to Milos Ninkovic’s solo goal, Alou Kuol scoring again, Brisbane’s resurgence under Warren Moon and Perth Glory’s backs-to-the-wall win over Melbourne City, so much was happening it was hard to know where to look.
It’s been a while since the A-League has felt like that, and it’s hardly a stretch to say the past few weeks have produced some of the most entertaining football in years.
The competition’s administrators just need to find a way to market that fact beyond the core of dedicated viewers still regularly tuning in.
Ongoing broadcast woes don’t help in that regard. But on a weekend in which the action on the pitch was simply too good ignore, maybe that’s the part we should all focus on.
Micko
Roar Rookie
What the hell is your issue with white people??!!! :shocked:
Skoose
Roar Rookie
I rate Daniel Stynes (Perth Glory), given opportunities I reckon he’ll keep developing to be a superb player.
Skoose
Roar Rookie
Talking of a racial issue ....Sky News Australia which has the same owners as FOXTEL and Fox News America.......why would anyone put a true multi-cultural sport on Foxtel with those sort of relatives?
Micko
Roar Rookie
Who pays for it?
Micko
Roar Rookie
Bring him back? Why did he leave?
Skoose
Roar Rookie
Agree, league is the best I’ve seen in years because of the youngsters and their no fear attitude and having more energy than the old retirees from Europe.
Skoose
Roar Rookie
Get rid of Foxtel (Emperor Murdoch doesn’t care for football) and go back to a partnership with ABC/SBS. Castro is such quality it’s sad his skills are hidden behind a paywall.
jbinnie
Guest
Tigertown - It may surprise you somewhat but after 28 games this season 79 goals have been scored in the A-League. 22 of those goals were scored in only 3 games Last season ,after 28 games 77 goals had been scored. 22 of those goals were scored in only 4 games. The average score per game is 2.83 for this season, 2.75 for last season. Very, very close. jb
Mike Tuckerman
Expert
It was a fantastic finish.
Mike Tuckerman
Expert
Couldn't agree more, Geoff.
NoMates
Guest
What's the go with the new transfer window from 16th Feb - 15th Mar? Is it legit?. Anyway AUFC and Victory would want to strengthen there sides. Same goes with the Nixs we need a good defender maybe bring back Steve Taylor?
Samuel Power
Roar Rookie
Weather has now changed to 'Showers'... Gotta love the weather predictions :stoked:
Nick Symonds
Guest
The A-League and National Curriculum have also received a lot of criticism from supporters of the old NSL clubs as the national team has fallen in the rankings since 2006. If there's another golden generation and the Socceroos start to move up the rankings again as their performances improve, the criticism will reduce. Then people will focus more on the football. A national second division would also help, both to get the old NSL fans on board and also as a pathway and talent identification league for young players. Having 90 clubs spread over 8 geographic divisions dilutes the talent and isn't a very good format for a second tier.
lesterlike
Roar Rookie
It's mostly because A-League owners don't want to set up scouting networks in Asia. It's far easier for them to pick up a couple of reliable players from the Segunda or 2. Bundesliga.
RbbAnonymous
Roar Rookie
This season has been superb. I don't think I have ever witnessed a season of so many intriguing matches. Even the nil-nil draws have been entertaining. All the doom and gloom of losing a whole raft of players to the Indian Super League and elsewhere and the A-league is better than ever. Imagine how good it will be when all we focus on is the football. When we have a fully integrated competition. As I keep saying it does not matter what teams are in the competition all that matters is that the sport is run with the utmost integrity and is RUN TO APPEAL TO FOOTBALL FANS, everything else with take care of itself. In saying that the first course of business is to get rid of the VAR. This is the biggest blight on our game today. It has literally sucked the joy out of football and is one of the single biggest issues which has caused our sport to regress. Yet we still persist with this abomination. We still cant accept that we should be having one human in charge in the middle(who will make mistakes) rather than two (who will still make mistakes). The next issue is the need for an NSD and for this NSD to go NATIONAL. I do not want to hear about the problems I want solutions. The clubs have costed this out and they have said they can afford it, yet we still want to water this down and turn this into NPL Mk2. We need a National competition simply to make the identification of players easier, so that they can filter to the A-league. It has been proven already that the young players are stepping up. Will their be gaps, sure there will be. Happy to live with those gaps and allow our young players to develop. This is what it is about. The NSD is not supposed to be the same quality as the A-league, you are supposed to cherry pick the best of it and the A-league clubs need to pay for it (if player is under contract). Get on with it already, the amount of dilly dallying on this issue is doing my head on. Dont get me started on pro/rel and transfer fees which I alluded to already. All this is the genuine football experience that the fooball fans want. if you do it this way, you will also get the casuals that the our suits are craving for without upsetting their bread and butter supporters. The sooner the better.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Why is it assumed Qatar can't host it?
Micko
Roar Rookie
Presumably they'll postpone if thunderstorms are around.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Good quality and quite competitive. :thumbup:
Micko
Roar Rookie
Maybe they can commit to it and rename themselves Redcliffe Roar?
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
I can only give my opinion. Even though I lived in Redcliffe a while, not far from Dolphins I moved to the other end of Moreton Bay, so I have about an hours drive to get there, actually quicker than Suncorp because I was dependent on public transport. For the 8pm game, we stayed overnight. Redcliffe has a lot of very decent casual dining options on the waterfront so that's a bonus for me, and I have relatives there. The atmosphere is much better, smaller and there's no stadium security checking if you're in he right seat. I think there's been a shift in the support base. I may be wrong but the bus I used to catch was filled with fans from the far sdouth of Brisbane, and the Gold Coast. They have to drive now, or very long train trip and I suspect a lot have dropped out, but more from the north side are coming, I think. It's cheaper and it's fairly comfortable, won't be as good if it rains, there's limited cover. If the team plays well, less people will complain. But Roar need their own stadium - rugby league is making all the money out of our game days. And we are a Brisbane team, not Redcliffe.