Serving up the obvious
The Age
Thursday January 7, 2010
AUSTRALIAN football is a particularly difficult sport to cover because much of the action takes place off the ball. The producers and commentators who set themselves apart are those able to relay in the clearest terms what has happened beyond the viewers' vision €” or what might be about to take place €” on a vast sporting canvas.Tennis, in its tight and confined space, presents a different challenge. One that, in an era where the ranks of the verbose, excitable and downright hysterical commentator are starting to outnumber the subtle and understated, is not always met or even attempted.The solution? Perhaps during this brief but saturated season of tennis, someone could take a sheet of A4, write the words "Can the viewer already see that?" and stick it to the commentary box window where the vast array of callers assigned to cover the Brisbane International, Medibank International, AAMI Kooyong Classic and Australian Open for Seven could not miss it. (To be fair, a Post-it note containing a similar sentiment for the ABC team at the Hopman Cup, which finishes this weekend, would also be worthwhile.) Given the continued presence of an array of shot-callers whose banal recitation of the blindingly obvious has not stopped Seven providing the type of job security that would make even Tony Greig and Ian Chappell envious, we doubt this rhetorical question would prompt a major improvement in the standard of the network's coverage.As Vera Zvonareva and Katarina Srebotnik slugged it out in the type of mid-afternoon second rounder your mum used to watch over the ironing board during the frilly-knickered '70s, there would still be plenty of "That's a great forehand!", "No, just long!", "Oh, into the net!" and €” the personal favourite of one sports presenter turned "expert" who seems to think that the game's basic scoring system is too complicated for his audience €” "That's 0-30. Just two points from a vital break of serve!"But you could only hope that it at least kept the minds of Seven's major callers focused in the brief moments they abandon their main duty cross-promoting the network's forthcoming line-up €” "Are you a Desperate Housewives fan, Jim?" "Gee, I could get into trouble answering that one!" Ha ha ha ha €” and call the blockbuster night matches.Last year, the commentators barely had time to pledge their eternal devotion to Better Homes and Gardens before being shuffled out of the court-side bunker as part of the disconcerting rotation policy that meant any sense of continuity was lost. Hopefully, Seven will choose and stick with its chosen few for the big matches rather than acting like an under-11 cricket coach who is obliged to give everyone on the team a bat and bowl.But with a captive audience for the two weeks of the Australian Open, in particular, and massive ratings that were predictably boosted by the first night women's final last year, Seven might suggest that these few quibbling complaints with its second-tier commentators, the frequency of its cross-promotions €” now equalled, if not exceeded on Nine's cricket coverage €” and its musical chairs policy can be considered a ringing endorsement for what is an exhaustive, and occasionally exhausting, coverage.Seven's virtually unchanged commentary line-up this summer suggests it believes the coverage ain't broke, so it is not going to pay bucks for more foreign imports or big-name locals to fix it. The prime-time regulars €” Jim Courier, Bruce McAvaney, Tracy Austin, Todd Woodbridge, Roger Rasheed, John Alexander and Kerryn Pratt €” won't require name tags. Most will probably even recall Chris Dittmar, who made a somewhat shaky start last year as an on-court interviewer €” a role admittedly made difficult by the talk show bonhomie perfected by John McEnroe and successfully mimicked by Courier, whose in-your-face style tends to divide viewers' opinions.The work of veteran Alexander will also be interesting given he was recently endorsed as the Liberal Party candidate for Bennelong. Is the cross-promotional line drawn at party political advertisements? And can we now draw comparisons between Alexander's work at the tennis and John Howard's lame efforts with the Nine/ABC radio cricket commentary teams?Of course, the success of the tennis coverage lives and dies by the product.This year the lead-up events have strong fields and the Australian Open several compelling plot-lines: the return of Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin, the fitness of Rafael Nadal, the emergence of US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro and Serena Williams' first grand slam appearance since her US Open meltdown.So much will be said.But how much that we could not already see for ourselves?
© 2010 The Age
Share This