April’s announcement that the long-standing SBS website The World Game would be discontinued brought no joy to anyone interested in football in Australia.
For most, images of NSL days, Les Murray and Johnny Warren at the helm of World Cup tournaments and the consistent effort to send the game into the home of as many Australians as possible, are all connected to the SBS brand.
The World Game became symbolic of a passionate and well-intentioned desire to bring the beautiful game into the hearts and minds of many curious Australians, those not yet completely infatuated with the most popular and compelling game on the planet.
SBS did a sterling job through its weekly television program of the same name launched in 2001. The website followed a year later and became the last remaining platform in what was a staple for football fans across Australia.
The national broadcaster was always there, even in the direst hour of need when Optus Sport’s streaming service blew a gasket in the early stages of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Lucy Zelic and Craig Foster steered the ship, the event came across superbly from thousands of kilometres away and the website continued to churn out story after story, image after image and drama after controversy in another gripping version of the world’s biggest sporting event.
Sadly for some and as broadcasting rights shifted around in both free-to-air and pay television realms, SBS has been effectively left out in the cold.
2021-22 will see the Special Broadcasting Service with no rights to A or W-League play and potentially no involvement in the game post the upcoming 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Network Ten and Paramount+ have swooped in a fashion so longed for by the Australian football public.
With cycling a key component in its arsenal, Mike Tomalaris and his commentary team have continued to bring informed content and stunning pictures into the homes and minds of Australian fans during SBS’s Tour de France coverage for a quarter of a century.
However, during Monday night’s broadcast, Tomalaris and his offsiders gave a cutting reminder to us all of the fickle and cut-throat nature of broadcasting rights and the ease with which an SBS allegiance to football can be jettisoned.
Harry Kane, one of the many football players to frequently play through pain. (Photo by Ali Balikci/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
After a series of horrific crashes across the opening two days of the race, amidst all the excitement and drama of Euro 2020 and just prior to a commercial break, Tomalaris turned to former cyclist David McKenzie, looking for mirth.
McKenzie is most famous for his victory on Stage 7 of the 2000 Giro d’Italia and listened intently as the host took a dig at football and the courage of the athletes that play it.
Tomalaris: “I wonder if some European footballers were able to bounce back if they were on a bike after crashing?
McKenzie: “Zero chance of that, if a clip to the heel takes them down, I think 60 kilometres per hour in lycra…….no chance.”
All the while, former Olympic representative Kate Bates chuckled away in the background.
In truth, it was pathetic and she held far more credibility than both of them in that moment.
Tomalaris could have chosen any example of something less tough, courageous and gutsy than cycling. The fact that he chose football made me wonder, reflect and become extremely cynical.
It might seem like a minor issue but one can only imagine what the late Les Murray would have thought in that moment after all the work he did to build up football on the channel.
Strangely enough, the opening image in Network Ten’s weekly quiz show Have You Been Paying Attention was one of Melbourne City celebrating its recent A-League championship.
Funny really. I can’t imagine why that was the case.
Gutfull
Guest
Just maybe, Tomalaris has had a complete gut full of the fakers, divers and cheats we see in soccer. Clearly FIFA is okay with it, they have practically legalised it. Some of us older soccer supporters still recall the days when players acted honestly and you would need to do a lot to get a free kick awarded against you. Maybe a karate chop would land you in bother, just ask Uruguay who did that to Ray Baartz in the 1970s.
Foot and Ball
Roar Rookie
Sbs do not have a Johnny Warren or Les Murray to broadcast the football anymore anyway. Tomalaris can see a taxidermist and get stuffed as well, whoever he is.
Bendtner52
Roar Pro
Love the article, and timely I’ve been having arguments myself on this matter all day, the over-reaction to Immobile is unbelievable. Why a cycling commentator feels the need for this reference is lazy But it’s driven by this strange underlying ‘us vs them’ / ‘soccer vs non-Soccer’ attitude in Australia
Micko
Roar Rookie
Hey Stuart, how quickly did Immobile become mobile after Italy scored that goal? :shocked: You'd think the bloke broke his leg the way he was carrying on! :silly: :silly: :silly:
Justin Mahon
Roar Rookie
Correlation is not the same as causation Stuart, having said that, the situation is worse than even you suggest here? Mike T a former TWG producer and a few others have been crapping on Australian football ever since they embarrassed themselves with Thursday FC and Less passed away. They are corporate shills who have always held these views and never had the courage to speak them openly in Les' lifetime. I can forgive Lucy and FOx their foibles as they are genuine football people. Make no mistake, Mike and his friends at SBS are delighted to be off the leishe..... Expect more of it as they seem relevance by my means they can find.
Roberto Bettega
Roar Rookie
If we're honest, it was the FFA who threw the first stone back in the day, disrespecting SBS when SBS had been football's only friend for some 40 years, AND when SBS was getting very good ratings when they had the A-League (to date. they remain far and away the very best ratings the game has ever seen).
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
that didnt bother me. what bothers me is her constant pining/crying for a country she wasnt even born in. I've noticed it in a lot of croatian australians, her antics at the world cup were cringeworthy.
Remote
Guest
Garry Jr I agree. I don’t think MC or any other cultural upbringing has anything to do with feigning injury. It’s a let down of your teammates, one of which could have broken a leg 2 minutes later. One can only imagine( in an imaginary team)the reaction in the dressing room by the late Nobby Stiles to Neymar or worse still Rivaldo.
Blood Dragon
Roar Rookie
So do I and I really hope neither of them end up at Paramount + also I'm guessing your not Lucy's biggest fan after she called Adelaide a Hole?
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
good for him, i worry about the mental health of the other 2 though :crying:
Fred Bassett
Guest
Why are soccer people so touchy? Walk it off. They do need to get rid of the divers and fakers. It is a great game being ruined by this underhand behaviour. We have VAR now, if someone is cheating they should be red carded and banned.
chris
Guest
Garry I totally agree. Feigning injury like they've been hit by a bus makes me sick to watch. That behaviour needs to be stamped out. Exaggerating a touch to get a free kick is what I was talking about and even there there is a fine line.
chris
Guest
They also can't help themselves and have to infest the football blogs like you are doing now.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
The dives that I detest are those late in the game done to slow the game down. Some teams and coaches use it deliberately, and it is so obvious, and hey get away with it too often. Some people call it gamesmanship and laugh about it. I think the refs should be more forthright in judging if a nudge or nick warrants a foul. Too often players don't go down and the ref does nothing, which only encourages them to go down next time.
Garry Jr
Guest
It's important to draw a line between exaggeration of contact or simulation on one hand, and feigning of injury on the other. Players in all sports exaggerate fouls and play for free kicks. It isn't laudable (says the muscular Christian in me), but it is understandable and tolerable. We can hope that refs are sufficiently aware to penalise players whose exaggeration amounts to diving. Feigning injury is contemptible. A player feigning injury is making a dishonest appeal to the compassion and empathy of the other players and the ref. He is saying "I am hurt, you need to stop the game so I can receive necessary treatment" or "I am hurt, you need to punish the person who hurt me". He is exploiting human decency to gain an undeserved benefit. That is not a cunning that ought to be celebrated (my MC bias again). A further, related comment. Professional footballers are tough. If they weren't they wouldn't succeed as professional footballers. They train incredibly hard and a lot of them would be playing through pain at any given time. A boot in the ankle hurts. Studs down your calf hurts. But these guys are no strangers to pain. Next time you see a player rolling on the ground in agony after having his ankle clipped, ask yourself this: would he do that at training? If not, why is he doing it in a match situation?
Stuart Thomas
Expert
I'm sorry your miffed, but now I understand why you commented at all.
Frank
Guest
Quite sad. I hope you are joking.
Frank
Guest
The difference being AFL fans have a sense of humour and would just laugh at that sort of comment.
chris
Guest
The "problem" in football though is that any slight nudge in a players back or any little nick of his ankles will cause a pass, shot etc to go way off course. So players feel that they need to exaggerate the touch on them or the ref might not give it. Its a fine line. In sports like league little nudges etc have little affect on the play. They just smash through it. Yes there are divers in football. But most times its because the foul committed on them warrants a free kick because it disrupted their pass or shot.
Tim Richardson
Guest
When I read such a defensive article, I wonder ... perhaps it only hurts because it's true. But so what? If your contract is $60m and if you play so many games, you will minimise physical risks. The aversion of top football players to injury, particularly leg injury, makes perfect sense. Peleton crashes are a spectacular part of top-tier cycling. Going down with an ACL (perhaps from a "clip of the heel") is not a spectacular part of any code of football.