Have I become a grumpy old mysoginistic buggah?

[Jerry_Atrick]

I know not too many on here like Aussie Rules, and a few less care for any primalistic sports at all (AFL, Ruggers, Soccer, etc)...

 

But I do like Aussie Rules and I caught some highlights today... and the commentary opened with a female commentator! OK.. I can't fault her technical commentary skills... She obviously knows the game, the players, and is fluent, lucid,  and contextually eloquent (fancy way of saying the language used fits the context), but, to these ears, it sounds plain awfully matched, a bit like having tuna with ice-cream - perfectly edible and apparently there are recipes for it.. but not a great taste...

 

Have I become a grumpy old mysoginistic buggah? Or should women commentators stick with calling womens' sports (AFLW, Womens Hockey, Netball, Gymnastics and the like) - where women have played at the elite level?

 

The game in question is this one - have a listen to the first few seconds. I would seriously consider switching to another game is I was watching the whole game:

 

 

 

 

A tuna and icecream feast is here:

 

 

Edited September 20, 2020 by Jerry_Atrick

[nomadpete]

Two words for you Jerry....

 

Paradigm paralysis.

 

Get over it!

[willedoo]

1 hour ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Have I become a grumpy old mysoginistic buggah? Or should women commentators stick with calling womens' sports

I thought she was.

[Jerry_Atrick]

5 hours ago, willedoo said:

I thought she was.

You quack me up 😄

 

7 hours ago, nomadpete said:

Two words for you Jerry....

 

Paradigm paralysis.

 

Get over it!

Yes.. I know.. but it still sounds carp... If it carries on, I will have to listen to the radio while watching the game. Does Aussie Rugby have women commentators?

[nomadpete]

I don't know. I don't watch sport on the TV at home. But every time I see sport on a big screen at the pub, they have the sound turned right down. Seems to be the standard. I never understood why, until I read your post. Maybe the barman can't stand the commentary???

[old man emu]

If the broadcasters don't broadcast those sports which women are playing, then women commentators have to find work somewhere. At least they bring a refreshing, cliche-free style to their descriptions. 

[nomadpete]

But can they continue our long held need for hysterical passionate commentary that seems to plague our usual male sports commenters?

[old man emu]

Female hysteria??? Oh so 19th Century.

[nomadpete]

I'm pointing out a situation whereby many of our popular male sports commentators have often risen to passionate, almost hysterical outbursts whenever something happens onfield to break the monotony of play. It's something that used to put me off watching footy. I may be guilty of stereotyping here, but I doubt that many females would be capable of voicing such passion when calling the play. They might improve the watchability, once Jerry gets accustomed to it.

Edited September 21, 2020 by nomadpete

[red750]

The sport where male commentators regularly get almost hysterical is F1 racing.It used to be Murray Walker, but now it's Martin Brundle and Johnny Herbert.

[willedoo]

9 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Does Aussie Rugby have women commentators?

Can't speak for Rugby Union (does anybody actually watch it?), but the NRL has some good female commentators. They work as commentators on the touch line or on the panel in the commentary box but don't generally call the game. Only a small percentage of commentators do the actual calling.

Edited September 21, 2020 by willedoo

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, red750 said:

The sport where male commentators regularly get almost hysterical is F1 racing.It used to be Murray Walker

Some commentators remain in control of their emotions no matter how tense the game becomes. Just think of Ted Lowe describing a game on Pot Black. 

Pot Black .

Legendary commentator Ted Lowe is credited with producing one of the most memorable British sports quotes. Aware that not all viewers had colour televisions,  he told them: “and for those of you who are watching in black and white, the pink is next to the green.”

[Yenn]

Seems appropriate to me Girly sport, girly commentator!

[willedoo]

45 minutes ago, Yenn said:

Seems appropriate to me Girly sport, girly commentator!

I remember one time having dinner at the Gap View Hotel in Alice Springs. There was a group of Victorian tourists watching the AFL grand final on the big screen and an American lady tourist had struck up a conversation with them. She was gobsmacked at how rough the game was and that the players were not wearing body armour like the gridiron players do. I remember thinking that if she thought AFL was a rough game, she'd probably feint if she saw an NRL Origin match. It's hard to visualise how big the gridiron players really are with all the added padding.

 

As a kid at school, the football pants were a boxer short style with square pockets on the inside of the thigh. A square piece of foam about the size of a sandwich fitted into them. They didn't do much good as the school fields were more dirt and prickles than grass. The main football field was on the side of a hill so everyone would tend to grab the ball and run across the lower side rather than try to run uphill. It doubled as the cricket field so the worst scenario was to get tackled on the hard cricket pitch. And the prickles were a challenge as well playing in bare feet. After a match, we'd be full of khaki burr and bullheads, but it was all good fun.

Edited September 21, 2020 by willedoo

[nomadpete]

Is it any wonder that modern kids roll their eyes when you start talking about the 'fun' you had when you were their age?

[Jerry_Atrick]

To the QLD'ers who seem to think anything other than RL is a sissy sport, the following vid as some bumps handed out by AFL players - most of which are legal, and unlike Ruggers, most of which are hits in fulll sprinting flight....

 

 

Yes, a game that has poise, skill and grace can also be physical... and then there's rugby... where the games I went to, they stand around a lot, gather in packs and fall down. Very masculin... No need to be too jealous fellas..

 

But, you can consider it a legendary game in your own minds...

 

Women calling the game still sounds unnatural...

 

Edited September 21, 2020 by Jerry_Atrick

[Bruce Tuncks]

When I was in the US, I met a guy who wore a North Melbourne T-shirt. I thought he wore it to please me, but in fact he was a tv watcher and of all the sports in the world, he reckoned that AFL was the best to watch.

One check you can do is measure the % of time the ball is in play. It is miniscule for American football...  they apparently have different teams for different  circumstances , plus they stop for ad breaks.

[willedoo]

I remember watching the Canadian football grand final in Alberta one year and it was very similar to, if not the same as American football. There was four minutes to go on the clock but it took more than twenty minutes as they kept stopping the clock and doing the huddle thing. That night I learned a few of the rules and it made the game more understandable and enjoyable.

 

With plans to move interstate to AFL territory, the same thing might happen if I can learn some rules and figure out what the players are doing. At the moment it looks like a pile of startled chooks running around in circles but the secret to appreciating any game is knowing it and knowing the rules of play. But Jerry must be right about AFL being a rough game. They've all ripped each others sleeves off and you don't even see that in League or the other unmentionable Rugby code.

[Jerry_Atrick]

I didn't mean for this thread to be a promo for AFL.. more that, even though I am for equal opportuity and equal pay for equal work, there are times where men should be left to do what men do and women left to do what they do..

 

However, I am always happy to plug Aussie rules in the UK, and by and large, when I do, it is received well, but will never supplant what the population has grown up with.. nor should it... Other games have their own skillset, their own spectacles (overhead bicycle kicks in soccer, the long runs or jumping lineouts in ruuggers, unbelievable stops made by hockey goalkeepers, etc, and it is not for one sport to try and takeover another...

 

But, since you asked 😁

 

Here is a youtube clip made for the US market, so the voiceover is grating. It is shorter and misses a bit, but a good brief intro:

 

 

Here is a longer one, that goes into more detail -= the first 15 mins is about the game; then there is a run through of the team and then some player quotes about why being part of Aussie rules is so great, but to be honest, everything they say is transferrable to any team sport.

 

Of course, not all about AFL is great (some here will say nothing about it is great - got in before you ;-)). 9 umpires (plus the off-field officials they neglected to mention).. That is nuts. When I was a kid, it was 1 field ump, 2 boundary umps and 2 goal umps.. Why a boundary ump can;t cover an entire side in a game is beyind me. I get the increase in field umps, because the game is about 30% faster than it was in my day and they can kick longer. But 3 is too many.. the decision incosistency as a result is a real off-putter. Also the rules have changed to the point where there is a lot of discretion (this vid is 9 years old, and covers the core rules still in place - so you will understand the more modern game), which also leads to inconsistency. Also, the wost kept secret is that the AFL will direct the umpiring department to focus on some rules and be lenient with others - again resulting in off-putting inconsistency.. There was an example this where the Hawks coach, Alastair Clarkson lamented (or lambasted) the league for not paying holding the man/dropping the ball free kicks; the next week the count more than doubled - resulting in dubious decision where they did call it.

 

Should be enough for those with the incilination or who are bored to understand it...

 

Noted that AFL is one of hte highest, on average, attended sports in the world... Mainly in Vic.. fishing isn't as good as it is elsewhere.

[pmccarthy]

I have preserved a part of my brain for creative thinking by never paying the slightest attention to football.

[Marty_d]

What amuses me - and it's probably all high profile team sports - is your heavily overweight blokes talking about their favourite teams.

 

"We won" or "We lost badly"...  What is this "we"?  You weren't there on the field!

[octave]

22 minutes ago, Marty_d said:

"We won" or "We lost badly"...  What is this "we"?  You weren't there on the field!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN1WN0YMWZU

[Yenn]

Back in the sixties I worked in Melbourne and employed construction workers. I made the mistake of employing a few who were avid Aussie rules fans, in fact most of the crew were. They spent Monday to Wednesday inclusive, talking about how they thrashed or were robbed by another team on the weekend. They spent Wednesday to Saturday talking about how they were going to thrash some team. On Saturday they may or may not turn up to work. Even when they were at work, they were not fully with us on the job. I swore never to employ Aussie rules fans again. Never had that problem with the other codes. I must admit that Aussie rules players seem to have more idea of how to behave than AFL.

[willedoo]

2 hours ago, Yenn said:

I must admit that Aussie rules players seem to have more idea of how to behave than AFL.

I'm guessing a typo meant to read NRL.

[Jerry_Atrick]

I wouldn't bet on AFL players knowing how to behave better.. A Sydney player, Ellijah Taylor has just been stood down for charges of aggravated assault.

 

@Yenn, I hear you. I love the game, but it doesn't consume me. I left Aus at the end of '96. We used to get a game on Friday nights (free to air) and World of Sport on Sunday Mornmings (we may have got the interstate games on as well.. can't remember)... But when I returned, it was 7 days a week; if not games, then chat shows, topical shows, etc.. And at work one couldn't get away from it...  It took about 3 weeks for my partner to dislike it as she is English and a rugby supporter and didn't believe me when I said, as we moved to Bendigo from London, that they won't air the 2003 Rugby world cup there because country Victorial is pure Aussie rules.. and they didn't... yet we could get the local VFL team on the telly. And of course, coming up to finals season for AFL.. well..

 

It took me a bit longer... when we moved to Melb in January, but about June, I was done with it... When moving back to Aus, I was looking forward to going to all home and a number of away games... But despite my team membership (which I only surrendered a couple of years ago), I stopped going and I even stopped watching the games as I could get all the granular detail I wanted in social and work settings.

 

@Marty_d, yes... a lot are like that... But a lot also play on well past platers retire from AFL... I crossed over to soccer when I was younger as I was getting knocked out every second game (short fella, sent into the packs to get the ball and then handball it to a running winger would often be met with an elbow to the head).. so to preserve what was left of the grey matter, I crossed over (got a red card in my first ever soccer game). However, at the age of 39, I played in a social Aussie ruiles match and then joined  a "mature" leageue after that... and played until I was 45 - some back in the UK... I have since gained weight, but I would say that I could say "we" as I was a fully paid up member.. remember, there are many people involved in sport that don't play the game but have an effect (nor matter how small) on the outcome. (though, I did like the vid).