WHat you have said here is spot on Brendan. I didn’t watch the AFL match between the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles but when I looked at the scores, I noticed that this was a depressing, humiliating, catastrophic, horrid, insipid, inept, shambolic performance from the West Coast Eagles. The West Coast Eagles have suffered 6 triple figure losses in its last 32 matches. As an Eagles fan, I am bitterly annoyed about their excuses they bring up after finishing the match. The complacency is evident. West Cosat’s WAFL side is much worse and have lost all 10 matches this year.

The reason why the first 2 hours of Ashes coverage was shown on 9Go in WA, is becuase of Nine having news and ACA taking priority and the NRL being shown on 9GEM. {I assume that NRL had to be screened on 9/GEM as part of its contract. This is same with AFL – 7/7mate. Normally, Perth would show the Friday Night AFL/NRL on 7mate/GEM). After 7:30pm, Ashes was moved to Nine HD and continued until End of play. I had to stream the first two hours of the game on 9Now becuase of poor quality
And yesterday, the Ashes Test was shwon on 9GEM due to 60 mins and Parental Guidance taking prioirity. As I looked at the TV ratings, I noticed that the Ashes Test ourated the 60 Minutes and Parental Guidance. I don’t watch 60 Minutes (due to crap tabloid journalism) and Parental Guidance (as it is a terrible reality show about parenting).
Mr Kerry Packer would be tossing in his grave if he saw Nine’s cricket coverage as of today – poor analysts, lack of HD broadcasts in regional areas, poor scheduling.

I have mixed reviews about Nine’s Mid-year Ashes coverage:
Ups:
– People can watch the replay of the cricket match live on 9Now. (This was a step up from the 2019 Ashes Series where 9Now uploads a mini-match).
– Good to see the return of the Nine’s Cricket Theme Music. In addition, they used the Party Rock music for the Nine’s Cricket.
– Nine uses clean graphics (albeit it’s taken on Sky Sports Feed)
Downs:
– Perth had the first two hours of coverage in blurry 9Go due to news/ACA taking priority and also the NRL shown on 9Gem. Back four years ago, Perth had first two hours of coverage on 9GEM HD, with NRL shown on 9GO. But switcheroo came and NRL moved to 9GEM, with cricket bumped to 9go. I don’t know why Perth opted to choose the NRL on 9GEM instead of the cricket on 9GEM HD.
– Aaron Finch couldn’t string sentences properly while Steve O’Keefe doesn’t use eye contact when presenting on camera. That’s the main issue.
– Whilst listening to Nasser HHussain’s commentary, I can hear the ‘We have breaking news’ – next cuts off to ad break.
– You have two feeds – one containing ROz Kelly, Aaron Finch and Steve O’Keefe from Sydney studios, while Lou Ransome and Mark Taylor are presenting in England. I get confused as who hosts the Ashes coverage out of Roz and Lou.
Can this be improved? Yep.
– 9GEM dumping SD in favour for HD-only.
– Remove the ads during telecast or at least find an option to pay to remove the ads.
– Get rid of Kevin Pietersen as commentator from SKy. When I listened to Kevin Pietersen commentating, he tries too hard and is way over the top.
– Have Lou Ransome and Mark Nicholas (as much as i’m not a fan of him) as main hosts instead of Roz Kelly, SOK and Aaron Finch
On second thought, thank goodness we don’t need to put up with James Brayshaw and Todd Woodbridge. Four years ago, we had to put up with TOdd Woodbridge shoving useless commentary down our throats on Nine’s Ashes coverage. James Brayshaw was very cringeworthy and he spouts too much propaganda and his obsession on players.

Thanks for the updates.

James Brayshaw has been very insufferable for more than 10 years now and it was so hard having to put up listening to not just his cricket commentary, but AFL calls. The problem is that his voice was too grating and it was very hard for me to listen to his commentary. I am fed up having to put up with this pointless obsessions like ‘extraordinary’, ‘unbelievable.’

Cricket commentary used to be listenable back in the days. The loss of Tony Greig and Richie Benaud has left a massive void in Nine’s Summer of Cricket commentary. What I like about Richie Benaud’s commentary was that he avoids using cliches and pronouns. As well, Richie Benaud knows when to shut up, puts his brain into gear before opening his mouth.
On the ohter hand, having to listen to Michael Clarke and Kevin Pietersen in the final 2 years of Nine’s Cricket was extremely painful. Kevin Pietersen may have been a good cricket player, but his commentary was so cringeworthy and tried too hard. Michael Clarke is insufferable with his mispronunciation of words and couldn’t string sentences properly. I feel that Michael Clarke is a low quality bloke.
When Seven/Fox took the cricket rights, we had to put up with James Brayshaw more. James Brayshaw has been extremely insufferable and I couldn’t stand his fake gravelly voice. Even when he used to call the cricket on Nine, I had to put up listening to JB’s dad jokes, stuff they did with grandma back in the days. His ego is astounding.

The other thing with Australian Open TV Audience decline is due to people streaming the tennis on Stan Sport. With tennis on Stan Sport, people can access to all tennis matches (live or on replay). As well, having the tennis on Stan Sport mean that you don’t need to put up with commercials and the annoying veteran voiceover guy promoting MAFS, the 100 with Andy Lee and other tv shows.

Recently I watched the match between the scorchers and the 6ers. When Stephen eskinazi took thr catch, the camera panned towards the crowd. It was very hard to track the ball as the ball travelled up in the air.

I would like to see Ellyse Perry put on the statue in Sydney – represented in both soccer and cricket. Ellyse Perry had some achievements:
– became the first Australian to score a double century. Ellyse Perry’s 213* was the third highest individual score in Women’s Test history.
– Taken 315 international wickets.

Very good memories Stuart. May Pele rest in peace.

However, the problem is that during that weekend, MCG will also host two AFL matches (Blues-Pies, Tigers-Demons). THe AFL hasn’t decided what matches they would use. Certainly, they would use Friday Night at the MCG and Sunday afternoon at the MCG.

If Channel 7 retain the rights, I think they will beam all their test matches on the digital platform, 7+. However, what ires me is that Perth viewerse have the first couple of hours on the 7Mate channel (with Sunrise taking priority on the main channel). When Nine previously had the cricket, Nine Perth would show the Today SHow at an earlier time before the cricket starts.

I think money trumps fans. As much as I don’t watch the A-League, I found it to be a traversty for the NSW to host the A-League Final. This is not right.

What you have said here is spot on. Until 2005, many English fans were able to access to watch the cricket for free via BBC and Channel4. And look what happened in 2006 – the cricket was shown exclusively live behind a Pay TV. When they moved the cricket to Sky Sports, the cricket sport would suffer and that people without access losing interest. And this was why money puts ahead of fans. As what I heard on the ABC radio, greed will kill sport and many fans will walk away from the sport they love.

Cricket used to be good to watch back in the days, but going into 2010, Australian cricket is slowly on the wane. The problem is that the cricket australia only cares of making money than fans. When Foxtel/Seven replaced Nine as the cricket broadcaster, crowd numbers were down as well as attendances. The problem was that Limited overs Internatinals are shown behind a paywall. Unfortunately, not everyone has Foxtel and cost of subscribing to Pay TV is very high. This was exactly what happened back in UK in 2005. The sport will decline without free access.
A few months ago, I heard on the ABC radio that someone mentioned about Greed in sport. Greed will kill sport. Many sporting organisations puts profits first than fans. When greed happens, sport will suffer and fans will lose interest with this code.

Think about this. 2023 will be a very big year of sport in AUstralia with the AFL, NRL, FIFA Women’s World Cup and also the Rugby Championship. Unfortunately, some venues will not be available due to the FIFA soccer game. Broncos had to play their home game at the Gabba, while the Melbourne Storm will have to shift to other places. Docklands Stadium is an option for the Storm. However, some AFL clubs like Essendon, Kangaroos, Saints, Bulldogs, and even Carlton would use the stadium. GMHBA Stadium is another option, but the Cats will still use the ground. Worst possible scenario will be that Storm may have to play in Ballarat or even Sunshine Coast (As they have a strong connnection with the Sunshine Coast Lightning.)

There are a lot of diffrences bewtween Test Cricket, ODI and T20
Test Cricket typically consists of two inninsg per team with unlimited number of overs, until batting team loses all 10 wickets or team capitan declares to finish the innings, while an ODI match consists of a maximum of 50 overs per side. T20 matches contains a maximum of 20 overs per side (obviously). Typically, T20 matches run for about 3 hours, ODI matches last around 10 hours, while the Test matches lsat for about 5 days (unless game finishes early).
Personally, I think the beginning of the end for Test Cricket was back in 1999-2001 when West Indies’s form deteriorated and went on a downward spiral. Unfortunately, West Indies Test side never recuperated after 2003, and instead they only played a few Test matches. Ban
Limited overs came in the 1971 and this helped to revitalise the cricket. But since the start of 2000s, many cricket authorities were finding an alternate format to increase the game’s popularity with the young generation. T20 became a hit in 2010s with more countries playing this sort of format including Scotland, Netherlands, Afghanistan, Nepal. Even China, United states, Canada, germany, Papua New Guinea, Kenya, Hong Kong and Singapore played some T20s.

The West Tigers have had a disastrous season, languishing to its first ever wooden spoon as a merged club. The West Tigers have had very limited success in hte past 12 seasons and have had a lot of coaching changes. They haven’t made the finals since 2011. West Tigers will get off the wooden spoon, however they will still struggle. With the Dolphins joining the comp in March 2023, I have a feeling that the Dolphins will win the spoon.
Next year, every round will have a bye. This is similar to what the AFL did in 2011 season where they had the GOld Coast SUns. The AFL extended the season to 24 rounds where every team must have two byes. I have a gut feeling that they will extend the season to 27 rounds during the home-and-away season. This is coinciding with the new NRL broadcasting deal (starts from 2023 and runs to 2027) which was announced at the end of last year.

I was inexplicably sad to hear the shock passing of Asad Rauf. May he rest in peace.

I am in two minds of having the McIntyre Final Eight system. Back in the days, the AFL used this type of system from 1994-1999, while NRL used it from 1999 through to end of 2011 season. I know this sounds good with the differnet combination of teams that could make the final match of the season. However, two of the 28 possible combinations (1v7 and 2v8) are impossible in the Grand Final. For example, in 2008, the 8th placed Warriors upset Top ladder Melbourne Storm. NZ Warriors had a home semi-final, while the Melbourne Storm had to win two matches to qualify to the Grand Final.

I find the Brisbane’s win over Melbourne to be great. Brisbane Lions have won at the MCG for the first time since 2014. AFter a slow start, Brisbane was able to gain more momentum during the match.

Not to mention that Collingwood have won 22 out of 25 games this year (with losses to Geelong in Round 8 (by 3 points), Round 24 (by 96 points) and the Grand Final (by 38 points) at the MCG). As well, this was Mick Malthouse final match as coach of Collingwood. Chris Scott became the first coach since Alan Joyce in 1988 to win the premiership in first year as senior coach at a club.

I don’t watch NRLW but when I heard the news about Caitlin Moran’s post on the queen, I felt absolutley disgusted. Her comments towards the Queen were absolutley horrendous. I have a feeling that she should have been suspended from the match. This match has turned into a disrepute. How could you make hateful stupid comments about the Queen with no respect? That NRLW player deserved to be suspended and given a harsh penalty.

My tips:
I think Geelong Cats will get the job done easily over the Brisbane Lions, while the Collingwood Magpies will edge the Swans in a thriller at the SCG. However, the problem is that Pies have never won a finals match in NSW.
If this happens, this will be the 7th Grand Final meeting during these two sides. Last time these two sides met in the Grand Final was back in 2011. (This Grand Final was a notable match becuase it was Network Ten’s final match to be televised on the network.)

I have heard AFL commentaotrs talk some non-football related things like player’s hairstyles, their looks, clothing and other things. Seven’s AFL commentary standards have hit a new low when BT, Darce, Richo, and Lingy arrived at Seven in late 2011. Even when BT was back at FOxtel in 2010, he is obsessed with the term, ‘Wowee’ and “Oh boy’. This made it hard for me to concentrate. And the fact that BT doesnt have any clue, instead he mouths off with his barracking and pronounces players names in a weird and unprofessional way. BT gets facts and player names wrong. He only cares about his own ego than the fans. Luke Darcy is just as bad and he simply continued on with his mindless banter towards Richo, Lingy. It is very hard for me to suffer through these blokes in the commentary. And don’t get me started on JB. I cannot stand James Brayshaw because his calls were too excruciating, and it makes me hard for me to listen to. Even when he was back on Nine’s Cricket coverage – he continued on with his smug talk and mentioning about stuff he enjoyed with his parents and grandparents back in the days. I am very sick to death of the obsession of ‘Unbelievable’ form James Brayshaw. This made it hard for me to listen in the commentary, particularly with his voice.
If you think Seven’s AFL commentary was just as bad, I would probably compare it to Nine’s NRL commentary. Nine’s NRL commentary was just as horrible as Seven – commentators mouthing off their own self-indulgent talk.