Bruce McAvaney | PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
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Bruce McAvaney

ToraToraTora said:
Would I be right in saying MMM radio started the rot? Back slapping boys club? Who will try to out do each other today with some over the top statement?
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I reckon Rex Hunt did with his attention seeking drivel. Couldn’t call a game of football to save himself for being, quite possibly, Australian entertainment’s most un funny person.
 
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Dyer'ere said:
I just press the button. I dunno what the channel is. Anyway, Channel Whatever hired and promoted somebody called 'Duck' to call football games. At his most urbane this Duck fellow is mute. (It doesn't happen often enough but it will happen.) The genius who hired Duck to express endless *smile* bitterness retained Bruce to add some class to the commentary. And maybe to try to teach some class the this Duck gibberer.

What evolved, and will continue, is that Duck talked less.

And this other bitter creep. This BT, with his endless snivelling and negativity, was to be elevated by the presence of somebody who can read and write. This BT sniveller will deadset *smile* on the windows of the commentary box because he thinks that's the contest.

This Duck and this BT. If you or I were in the commentary box with them we might just douse em with the fire extinguisher. Then get some HazMat specialist to take em away. Bruce couldn't do that. He had to carry them.

Ibsen died with Alzheimers. I read once that not long before he died a family member found him at a typewriter, pressing random keys. And Ibsen looked up and said "I used to be a great writer, you know."

It doesn't matter who you are, God's gunna cut you down. But it was men who set the dying Bruce impossible tasks when he was at his weakest. And the poetry is in that - he went okay.
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Well said, Jack.

Muhammad Ali was a punching bag at the end of his career, and a shuffling, shaking, slurring, shell for the last three decades of his life. But we can remember him as young and beautiful and fast of hand, mind, feet and tongue. Because that was the real him.

Few people in any endeavour are as good at what they do as Ali was, and McAvaney certainly wasn't. But for a long time he was the best we had, and I think the best athletics commentator in the world. Like Ali, he went too long, and like Ali, people who made money from his talents should have told him to stop.

I did a bit of ghostwriting for Bruce about a decade ago. We had coffee and a chat and I found him to be a lovely and generous man.

Gerard Whately's been positioning himself as Bruce's heir apparent for 20 years. I'd be surprised if he's not offered the gig. But it is Channel 7, they are *smile*. It will probably be Hame.
 
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Sintiger said:
Yeah he was in decline but was one of the best in the past

this is one of my favourites

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I was born around the time of our 1980 Premiership. So until the last few seasons, 1995 was about the only season I could hang my hat on as being generally enjoyable.

The only season where we got to scream our lungs out in pure ecstasy, knowing we were a competitive outfit. The only season where one didn’t feel despair.

Played some cracking and exciting big matches that season. This one was a draw. Then the Semi Final we met Essendon again and roared the house down in the second half.

Two disappointing aspects. Going out in the Prelim, mauled by the Cats. And losing Richo for most of the season with a knee injury, when he was hitting invincible form. Thinking what could have been.
 
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Granland is good. Bennet ok but lacks a bit of polish. Grybas taken too soon.

Few other great overseas sports callers - Bob Costas, Peter Allis (departed), Phil Ligget (big ego though), Martin Tyler, Brian Moore (departed), Tony Cozier, Al Michaels.
 
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I think Bruce was working, spook. Perhaps extravagant. But he was trying to achieve. I think Whateley is obsequious. A big improvement on a girlfriend glasser but uninteresting. Whateley lacks judgement.
 
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Redford said:
Granland is good. Bennet ok but lacks a bit of polish. Grybas taken too soon.

Few other great overseas sports callers - Bob Costas, Peter Allis (departed), Phil Ligget (big ego though), Martin Tyler, Brian Moore (departed), Tony Cozier, Al Michaels.
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Grybas was a top caller.

Huge loss Fox Footy was being built around him.
 
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Gerard “Mince” Whateley.

I can hear Chumpley Chimpley Ridley coming right now to endorse his all time favourite media personality. Loves him.
 
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Best thing about our current supremacy is that Donk Russell is far far away from RFC games.
 
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ToraToraTora said:
That's about 15 goals every week.
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Mind you, that Lambert goal. I and hundreds of thousands of Richmond faithful, from the MCG to every corner of the country and indeed the world, creamed our pants even more than Bruce when Lambert snapped that one through.
 
Dyer'ere said:
I think Bruce was working, spook. Perhaps extravagant. But he was trying to achieve. I think Whateley is obsequious. A big improvement on a girlfriend glasser but uninteresting. Whateley lacks judgement.
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I agree.
 
can 7 use this as a springboard to somehow get rid of Brayshaw ?
 
I like Whateley, Spook and Jack. Compare his radio call of Dusty’s fourth goal to the CH7 call. Gerard can string em together with more class than most going round at the moment.

The real danger is getting boofhead Brayshaw alongside boofhead BT.

What a decrepit carousel footy calling has become.
 
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Carter said:
I like Whateley, Spook and Jack. Compare his radio call of Dusty’s fourth goal to the CH7 call. Gerard can string em together with more class than most going round at the moment.

The real danger is getting boofhead Brayshaw alongside boofhead BT.

What a decrepit carousel footy calling has become.
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Good call.

A left field choice is Quentin Hull. Excellent ABC caller.
His call of the Grand Final on Grandstand was absolutely sensational.

 
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tigerman said:
I'd like to see Adam Papalia replace McAvaney, he flies under the radar a bit, but is a good commentator and doesn't waffle on like the other flogs.

www.afl.com.au

Dazzling Castagna bursts past all, including ump

Jason Castagna turns on the jets and scores a tremendous goal after skipping past everyone
www.afl.com.au www.afl.com.au
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I remember that goal like it was yesterday, but not for the goal.

I still have dreams about that goal umpire signaling a goal. Front and center, straight down the ground.
 
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