The Draft Coverage

[GVGjr]

I couldn't have been more disappointed with the coverage of the draft by Foxtel.

Thursday night lacked continuity and it was very muddled and confusing. Trying to 'Americanise' it failed miserably but at least the Foxtel hosts tried to keep people informed. When I compare it though to American draft presentations our commentary teams lacks the ability to understanding and explain what is actually unfolding. They needed someone like Pelchen to better explain what the trades actually meant. He would have got it straight away.

Friday's show was some of the poorest sports broadcasting I've ever seen although Mick Ablett and Kevin Sheehan really do know their players and share some great insights. Both are there to talk about the players not to explain the machinations of the trades and positioning by the clubs which ended up being a key component of the night.
Steve Hocking though struggled in an almost deer in the headlight effort and should be banished from being a front man in the AFL if that effort is an accurate reflection of his skill set.
It's bad enough the AFL let him screw up the competition rules but it's almost criminal to see him butcher a whole coverage. Surely someone should have sent out the runner early and moved him to the bench. In Boxing parlance, the towel should have been thrown in or there should have been someone yelling out 'No Mas' to end that farce.

One other part that irritated me no end was seeing the Carlton 'war room' (Another bit of American crap) congratulating themselves on getting that last minute deal done with Adelaide. They've no doubt landed an excellent player in Liam Stocker but given they have wrecked a number of careers by not being able to develop talent in the right way it was almost sickening to see SOS and the crew getting so excited about bringing in another top end talent into the AFL's version of 'death valley'. For the sake of the player lets hope Stocker ends up being smarter than his teachers.

Dodoro's little fist pump for bringing in Irving Mosquito was at best juvenile. What a tosser

It's not all negative though just seeing Scott Clayton in the West Coast recruiting team huddle gives me hope that the Premiers might be in for a bit of a slide over time. I wonder if he added much more than "but he's too fat" to the discussions?

Seriously though, the presentation of the draft was pretty poor. It's got a lot of work to do to get it up to scratch.
They need to get significantly better at explaining what is happening with the trades and while it might be something they get better with they did have a long time to get ready and prepare for it and I think they came up well short of the mark.

[EasternWest]

Just Foxtel things.

[ratsmac]

Wow, tell us what you really think G. :)

Look on the bright side, at least that snotty nosed Barrett wasn't involved in the broadcast.

[Hotdog60]

Maybe Foxtel needed to bring in a yank from the US Foxtel sports department to give them a hand on how it should go down.
I haven't seen the US production but I would assume it's more entertaining.

[GVGjr]

Maybe Foxtel needed to bring in a yank from the US Foxtel sports department to give them a hand on how it should go down.
I haven't seen the US production but I would assume it's more entertaining.

Perhaps you're right because if you are going to model an Australian show on what works in America then maybe they should have gone all in by bringing in the experts.
You've reminded me however, about an episode of ABC's show Frontline from many years ago where management deemed it was necessary to bring in a Mr Fixit from the US to address declining ratings. New hairdo's, positivity, morning huddles, changing desk locations to improve 'the flow' and every bit of useless modern management idea's were tried and ultimately ignored.


So the AFL and their partner Foxtel have a show that sort of works and is tailored to the more footy fanatics. They have experts from the elite pathway that provide interesting insights on the type of players clubs are selecting but when live trading is introduced they don't have a list manager or a recent coach that can explain to their viewing audience with some level of accuracy what is happening with the trades and why clubs are likely making the trades that they are.
It can't be up to Ablett and Sheehan to make up that gap. That is not their area to do so.
Someone like Pelchen, Buckenara or Wallace or perhaps even a panel of them might have added a lot more to the coverage.

Did anyone think it was a good coverage from a content and information perspective? Ablett and Sheehan did their jobs but the trades that happened were really poorly explained and of course then there was Steve Hocking as well topping off the effort.

[hujsh]

If we're talking about things that were annoying the draft guy was asked who the most obvious overlooked player was and he said Jordan Clark. Jordan Clark was the next picked player and the guy gushes 'Stephen Wells is a genius isn't he?'

YOU JUST SAID HE WAS THE OBVIOUS SLIDER! He also has done nothing to prove he was a good pickup.


Gave me the shits anyway

[Scraggers]

I thought Dodoro’s fist pump was a coverup for ‘bugger ... we stuffed up’. Mosquito will be a good player, but in that draft he wasn’t worth pick 38; their first pick. They tried to make Hawthorn pay more, but it backfired.

In regard to the Foxtel coverage; I was quite pleased with it. Not for the content or the presenters. More the fact I was on camp with my school and was able to watch it on my mobile :cool:

[Twodogs]

You've reminded me however, about an episode of ABC's show Frontline from many years ago where management deemed it was necessary to bring in a Mr Fixit from the US to address declining ratings. New hairdo's, positivity, morning huddles, changing desk locations to improve 'the flow' and every bit of useless modern management idea's were tried and ultimately ignored.



Changing the Face of Current Affairs, excellent episode and a very good comparison:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tOD64o3uqNU

[bulldogtragic]

If we're talking about things that were annoying the draft guy was asked who the most obvious overlooked player was and he said Jordan Clark. Jordan Clark was the next picked player and the guy gushes 'Stephen Wells is a genius isn't he?'

YOU JUST SAID HE WAS THE OBVIOUS SLIDER! He also has done nothing to prove he was a good pickup.


Gave me the shits anyway

That gave me the shits. All Wells did was not trade the pick away and pick the next best available with it. How does that qualify for genius status?

[hujsh]

That gave me the shits. All Wells did was not trade the pick away and pick the next best available with it. How does that qualify for genius status?

Apparently I'm a genius too because I'd have made the same choice based on nothing but the discussion here.

[Doc26]

I thought Dodoro’s fist pump was a coverup for ‘bugger ... we stuffed up’. Mosquito will be a good player, but in that draft he wasn’t worth pick 38; their first pick. They tried to make Hawthorn pay more, but it backfired.

That was my thought at the time as well. The fist pump appeared awfully contrived.

[Doc26]

I couldn't have been more disappointed with the coverage of the draft by Foxtel.

There is no doubt much room for improvement from a production viewpoint and with their presenters being better prepared on the nuances, tactics and loopholes of the points system and how Clubs were endeavouring to better their position.

I can recall David King being asked what was behind Sydney’s first trade with West Coast and he had no idea, admitting as much on screen.

Also, there was an awful amount of viewing time just spent looking at a different room of blokes in some discussion, with muted sound to the viewing audience making for terrible TV viewing.

The forever over used and and boring worshipping of Stephen Wells, Graham Wright and Dodo being the recruiting messiahs was in full force by the presenters, almost matching it with what we’ve come to expect with Channel 7’s bland, rhetorical commentary team in this regard. However I did feel that Michael Ablett was the stand out presenter and did a great job himself.

And as you commented on, and as we’ve come to expect, anything that involves Gil, Hocking and co taking centre stage is akin to the worst performances of Red Faces and should be avoided at all costs.

[Sedat]

That was my thought at the time as well. The fist pump appeared awfully contrived.
For a bloke who manages recruiting and list management for a team that hasn't won a final in 14 years (and counting), this deadshit sure gets a lot of bouquets from the meedya.

[Remi Moses]

The big difference is that there just isn’t the interest of lower levels like the Americans have
I mean the league like the college system and the interest and coverage is just on a different scale .
I like Ablett there , and have say a pelchen or a credentialed list manager there .Stephen Hocking was god awful and Gilligan coming in and out from behind a curtain was something from a year 10 drama production .
We have a dedicated footy channel yet we still don’t see any of these kids play ! Do we really need to see quality tv like bounce 15 times a week? They could just do it so much better .
On a side note great to see Johnno’s new do and conceding finally to male pattern baldness

[hujsh]

The big difference is that there just isn’t the interest of lower levels like the Americans have
I mean the league like the college system and the interest and coverage is just on a different scale .
I like Ablett there , and have say a pelchen or a credentialed list manager there .Stephen Hocking was god awful and Gilligan coming in and out from behind a curtain was something from a year 10 drama production .
We have a dedicated footy channel yet we still don’t see any of these kids play ! Do we really need to see quality tv like bounce 15 times a week? They could just do it so much better .
On a side note great to see Johnno’s new do and conceding finally to male pattern baldness

Agree with that. I do wonder what the costs would be in bringing coverage of state/junior football and if it would rate better than repeats of their prime time shows from the night before (I'd hope more people would watch it but many people are... less discerning than some of us here)

[Go_Dogs]

I didn't watch any of the coverage this year because I don't enjoy it. I'm happy to follow on the tracker and read about what's happening here on WOOF during and after the fact.

It's a shame, because I love draft, but the whole orchestrated ordeal of the night (and now day) doesn't appeal.

[GVGjr]

I didn't watch any of the coverage this year because I don't enjoy it. I'm happy to follow on the tracker and read about what's happening here on WOOF during and after the fact.

It's a shame, because I love draft, but the whole orchestrated ordeal of the night (and now day) doesn't appeal.

You didn't miss much, I recorded but it's a struggle to watch even with the ability to fast forward.
I'm not sure if the volume of trades caught them out or if they thought they could wing it but they struggled right through the night.

I suspect that the tracker and maybe the SEN coverage would have been better

[Twodogs]

You didn't miss much, I recorded but it's a struggle to watch even with the ability to fast forward.
I'm not sure if the volume of trades caught them out or if they thought they could wing it but they struggled right through the night.

I suspect that the tracker and maybe the SEN coverage would have been better


I started out with the Foxtel coverage on Thursday night but I only lasted until they had called out our player because it was sooooo boring. Then I just kept up with the tracker.

[bulldogtragic]

Another big failure from the AFEL this year. I hope they reverse course next year. But if they made $1 extra from this horrible tv event/s, then it's going to stay. I give Foxtel some credit for bringing in non-bogan junior footy experts in Abblett & Shifter, but with so many list management nuances & live trading etc. in the draft, I can't believe they couldn't find one person to put on the panel that had some understanding what was going on and could then explain it to the viewers. Now I think more about it, I was getting annoyed after every boring interview hearing a panelist say 'this is what people want to see. This is what people want'. Last time I checked, I'm a people and I don't want it. It was almost like the first Day/Night test where every commentator every sentence had to say "this is what the fans want". Manipulating viewers into believing they like the draft coverage they're seeing and laying the ground work for next year. If all youse people had a people congress about what people wanted and didn't invite me and passed a binding people-wanting motion without me I will be barely close to being upset.

This is the thing with the AFEL. If they put all their efforts into getting the basic things right with our game and took being the custodians of the game more seriously instead of chasing the next bullshit thing to do (AFEL X), everyone would be happier and arguably more profitable. But they won't, so maybe the game can follow other great WWE moves like playing in Saudi Arabia. But maybe we can tell our journo's not to write anything critical.

[ledge]

I think I they said “ he could have gone top ten” about every Player from picks 1 to 50.

[Remi Moses]

Agree with that. I do wonder what the costs would be in bringing coverage of state/junior football and if it would rate better than repeats of their prime time shows from the night before (I'd hope more people would watch it but many people are... less discerning than some of us here)

Not seeing these kids play when you have a dedicated channel is just wrong .

[Remi Moses]

They could stick a vfl game on for during the week . A WAFL game , a SANFL game

[Twodogs]

They could stick a vfl game on for during the week . A WAFL game , a SANFL game


Or some TAC cup for us tragics. It would be better than the endless replays of 360.

[mjp]

Not seeing these kids play when you have a dedicated channel is just wrong .

All the games are recorded...I guess it isn't broadcast quality though and the commentary would be an issue though...

One game per week SHOULD be possible.

[Twodogs]

All the games are recorded...I guess it isn't broadcast quality though and the commentary would be an issue though...

One game per week SHOULD be possible.

Is the footage from the goal ends? It's like coaching video?

Not exactly broadcast quality.

[bornadog]

Apparently Gilligan thought it was great

[The Doctor]

Apparently Gilligan thought it was great

well pickle my onions! who would have thought.

[Twodogs]

Apparently Gilligan thought it was great



Even the bit on the first night where he walked out, frowned at somebody from behind the podium and then walked back behind the curtain without saying anything?

[hujsh]

Even the bit on the first night where he walked out, frowned at somebody from behind the podium and then walked back behind the curtain without saying anything?

http://www.phcs.org.uk/_assets/img/Curric/drama.jpg

[mjp]

Is the footage from the goal ends? It's like coaching video?

Not exactly broadcast quality.

Umm. I need to be careful how I say this but 'in my experience' (read into that what you will) there are multiple cameras at each game. One takes a side-on view of the play and moves with the ball as a typical broadcast does. The other is behind the goals and works as a 'fixed' camera - it follows the path of the ball via a joystick control but doesn't zoom in/out. Some grounds have these at each end (so you get 3x feeds to integrate into sportscode) others have only 1x and you just combine the 2x feeds (side on + btg).

There is a company in WA that does broadcasts of all of the WAFL colts games so it would be a relatively straight-forward process to combine this with the side-to-side vision for re-broadcast if they wanted too...or could certainly simply make available to subscribers. I can no longer comment on exactly what the TAC Cup has with regards commentary etc. Good spot for aspiring broadcasters to gain experience though.

[Twodogs]

Umm. I need to be careful how I say this but 'in my experience' (read into that what you will) there are multiple cameras at each game. One takes a side-on view of the play and moves with the ball as a typical broadcast does. The other is behind the goals and works as a 'fixed' camera - it follows the path of the ball via a joystick control but doesn't zoom in/out. Some grounds have these at each end (so you get 3x feeds to integrate into sportscode) others have only 1x and you just combine the 2x feeds (side on + btg).

There is a company in WA that does broadcasts of all of the WAFL colts games so it would be a relatively straight-forward process to combine this with the side-to-side vision for re-broadcast if they wanted too...or could certainly simply make available to subscribers. I can no longer comment on exactly what the TAC Cup has with regards commentary etc. Good spot for aspiring broadcasters to gain experience though.


Brilliant stuff. I'm more confused now than when we started.