johntheclaret wrote:
When North was on the Radio I had a routine. Up at 5:00am, on a Sunday more often than not, write out today’s teams in their likely positions and research the opposition to guess who would likely match up on who. You had to visualise where the ball was during the game, you got to know the opposition as well as you own fringe players, the youngsters given a chance at league level, players coming back from injury an so on.
Great post JTC.
The above, in particular, reminds me of when I first discovered footy was on the radio, back in the early 80's.
The Advertiser, or The News, used to have a little diagram of the teams named in their positions, inside an oval. I used to have that page spread on the kitchen table, with the game going. When I heard a player's name on the radio, I would find that name on the team sheet and imagine him with the ball in that part of the field, and follow the ebb and flow of the game that way. If it was in the last minute, and Sturt was less than a goal up, and you heard Colin Casey had the ball, I would yell and urge him onto greater deeds, as in my mind's eye, the full back would be right in front of the goals and turn overs can happen at anytime.
Likewise, whenever you heard the name Hollis or Davies you would brace yourself for the commentator to announce the ball "going straight through the center".
Of course players get moved by the coach, and drift out of position, and all that, but it helped build the suspense, imagining them all in the position named in that little diagram.
It is probably a silly story to read now, maybe one for the "who gives a ..." category, but it is how I was introduced to live SANFL league footy, and we are talking about the radio, and I used to get so bloody excited listening to commentator and the crowd issuing out of that little box.
Footy is not the same without it.
Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2018 2:46 pm
... but my commentary duties weren't
