Black Hole discovered up Garry Lyons' Arse.

Middle East politics can do your head in after awhile. Biase, agendas, photo fixing and bare face lies. I needed a rest from it for a few days.
My way of putting my head in the sand is to indulge myself in sport. I over-indulged during the World Cup and have only just now required a sports fix. The best thing on offer for me this weekend was my old favorite Aussie Rules. I say old favorite, because I don't enjoy it as much as I used to. The quality of play has dwindled and the rules have been tweaked beyond sanity. But the worse aspect if I have to watch or listen from home is the pathetic performances of the commentary teams over the last decade or so.
Here is a brief history of the evolution ( and de-evolution) of Football commentary.

1848 to 1956. Football commentary in this time span was the domain of the newspapers. Most people would go to the game, so newspaper opinion did not matter too much. But those newspaper reports were full of color and sweeping poetic words. Words of pride and respect would blossom and you would be swept away with the reporters' article. The reporter would never be the focus of the news and the "great game" was held in high esteem. Radio was making its mark on the sport and complimented the media coverage in a straight-forward fashion, as was the style of the conservative days of radio.

1956 to 1973. The advent of television brought yet another fine enhancement to the game. Games were not shown live, so radio and television worked well together. The commentary style was straight-forward in both medians and the newspapers had changed slightly. Newspapers become a bit more "hard-hitting" in its style and the old style was fading away. Less fruity I suppose. "World of Sport" would give a comprehensive round up of the Saturday games and was compulsory viewing of a Sunday. ( Remembering that all games were played at the same time every Saturday ). Replays were on channels 2, 7 and 9 in that period and channel 0 ( now 10 ) would broadcast the VFA.

1974 to 1988. With the advent of color TV, football commentary become a bit more animated. Lou Richards and Peter Landy would get a bit more excited about their commentary work and would almost go over the edge in bias. Thankfully they didn't get into self-indulgence and though very inaccurate at times, they tried hard to cover the game properly. Radio commentary become a bit more animated and the likes of Rex Hunt would occasional make a joke or two during commentary. Quite amusing once or twice during a game, but the action was still the main focus. The newspapers became more extensive in their commentary, but with that a bit more trivial and gossip ridden.

1989 to 1999. Television coverage becomes more and more elaborate. Statistics were displayed with more frequency and more angles on the game were shown. Bruce McAveney was seen as the King of commentators, much to my annoyance. He would gush, scream, cry, pontificate and run the gamut of emotions. "World of Sport" was axed and the new King of Football television was the "Footy Show", a show dedicated to egos more so than football.
Radio coverage was going through a massive change. Commentary teams had changed completely and the commentators rather than the game, become the focus of the coverage. Rex Hunt had changed his commentary from calling the football with occasional idioms, to a stream of fabricated colloquialisms with the occasional bit of football. Other stations were splattered with ex-footballers who were honing their media skills as a path to coaching. Newspapers had officially become crap. The Age started going retro-fruity, but it comes across as wet as a Christmas Luenig cartoon.

2000 to present. With ex-footballers and their agents in complete control of football media coverage, all forms of television coverage is officially complete shit. Channel 9 takes over from 7. The likes of Garry Lyon and Brian Taylor have their heads so far up their arse they can no longer see the football. Rex Hunt is no longer a football commentator. He just happens to have a three hour show while the football is on where he just wails and shouts about nothing. Sam Newman is..um...well..no need to say anything really.

In reflection the state of football is more depressing than the Middle East crisis. A pack of power hungry idiots have hi-jacked football coverage and they must be driven out of power. ABC radio coverage will be dwindled next year, which is sad because it is the best thing that the ABC does and is the last bastion of sanity. If we do not stand up to these football terrorists we may have to live according to their rules, or is it too late?
I might read some news on the Middle East to cheer up.

Aussie Rules.
Born 1848.
Died 2006.
Rest in Peace.