The highs and lows of AFL round 7’s commentary
DID Robert Walls break new ground with his votes? Is Nat Fyfe really as nasty as Kane Cornes says? Here are the highs and lows of footy commentary in round 7.
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KANE Cornes’ torrid afternoon with Nat Fyfe, Robert Walls blinded by the purple haze and the stroll and chat.
Here are the highs and lows of footy commentary from round 7.
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Tell us what you did and didn’t like from the weekend’s footy calls in the comment section below.
Lost in a purple haze
ROBERT Walls may have set a new record in the commentary box on Sunday when he snubbed Richmond in the votes after its crushing victory over the Dockers.
Walls, calling on AFL Nation, awarded the 3, 2 and 1 votes to Fremantle players despite the team kicking just 4 goals in a 77-point loss.
It raises the question: Has a team ever ended the game with more votes than goals?
Walls’ votes were:
3: N. Fyfe
2: A. Sandilands
1: L. Neale
All three were good — Fyfe was excellent — but it’s rare indeed when a team that kicks 8.4 to 0.1 in the final quarter doesn’t have a player in the top three on the ground.
SEN’s old, skinny expert
DO you need to have played the game at the top level to provide true insight?
It’s a question that has divided commentators and fans for years.
But a former player can really earn their dollars when they offer anecdotes like the one Kane Cornes dropped on SEN’s Crunch Time on Saturday.
“I remember playing on Nat Fyfe one day at Adelaide Oval and I was like, there’s nothing I can do to stop this guy.
“He was at one stage looking at me laughing and he actually said to me, ‘What are you going to do you old, skinny man?’.”
Cornes is articulate and prepared to ruffle feathers among the playing fraternity, two things some former stars struggle with when they move into the media.
Why stand when you can walk?
CHANNEL 7 has seemingly decided that interviewing a stationary coach is too boring.
So they’ve introduced the stroll and chat.
They employed this revolutionary new technique in an interview with St Kilda coach Alan Richardson before Sunday’s game against Melbourne.
Brian Taylor and Tim Watson sauntered through the centre of Etihad Stadium with Richardson like three old chums waxing lyrical about life and footy.
Sound forced and awkward? ‘At least it wasn’t boring’, I can almost hear a Channel 7 executive responding.
It also offered the viewer some interesting camera angles, as seen below.
BT’s chair brigade
TAYLOR’S ability to give the viewer insight into the non-essential side of footy is unprecedented.
A couple of weeks ago, Taylor brought the ups and downs of a seagull entangled in a passage of play into loungerooms across the nation.
This weekend he was discussing the plastic chairs the players sit on in the rooms during the halftime break.
“I’m fascinated by the chairs,” Taylor said. “It’s the white chair brigade.”
Co-commentator Tim Watson spoke for at least a section of the viewing public when he replied: “I haven’t become quite as fascinated by the chairs as you.”
Taylor would’ve made a great script writer on Seinfeld in another life.
Hawkins candid on camera
CREDIT to Channel 7’s Matthew Richardson for asking the hard question in the post-game interview with Tom Hawkins on Friday night.
Hawkins was reported for making contact with an umpire and after the usual perfunctory interview questions, Richardson quizzed him on exactly what happened.
A candid Hawkins gave his version of events — admitting he’d apologised to the umpire after the incident — removing the need for the uncomfortable doorstop interview outside Kardinia Park the next morning.
It was a win for fans, journos and the player involved. Why doesn’t it happen more often?
.@tomhawkins_ says him touching the umpire was just a reflex action. #AFLCatsGiants pic.twitter.com/JMPCIIYyP7
— 7AFL (@7AFL) May 4, 2018
The winter of Nat’s discontent
A COUPLE of Fox Footy callers got creative over the weekend.
Sandy Roberts invented a new word to describe Gold Coast ruckman Jarrod Witts, who weighs in at 208cm and 113kg: “He’s mountstrous.”
And when Dustin Martin shrugged off a Nat Fyfe tackle, Jason Dunstall said he treated the Dockers star “with discontent”.
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