AFL commentators strike right note for first time in a long time

Australia has been blessed with some world class sports broadcasters. Whether it’s Bruce McAvaney at the Olympics, Bill Collins calling the final furlong of a Cox Plate or Richie Benaud describing a Shane Warne leg break, they’ve been masters of their craft, and they’ve enriched our experience as fans.

In recent years however, the quality of AFL commentary, particularly on Channel Seven, has plummeted. Dennis Cometti hung up the binoculars, and Bruce followed suit a couple of years later. We were left with witless, mind numbing prattle. They were shouting at us, not calling the game. They were hyperventilating when nothing was really happening, and half asleep when someone pulled down the mark of the year. As footy was becoming more congested, they were striving for superlatives, and straying into vaudeville. For a multitude of reasons, ratings were low. Given the quality of repartee, it was no surprise people were tuning out in droves. The sport had never taken itself more seriously. But footy on Seven had become a caricature of itself.

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Twitter is hardly a reliable barometer of public opinion, particularly when it comes to politics. Nor is it renowned for its joie de vie. But if there was one thing that could unite footy fans on social media, it was the dire state of Channel Seven’s commentary. For a while, it seemed the only solution lay in the mute button, or in pooling our life savings and paying Anthony Hudson $10m a year to call every game on the fixture.

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