I think it was ‘03 where the clock appeared permanently on screen for all three stations. Just popped up every now and then before that.
I remember the 2004 refresh of 10’s graphics as being pretty low key too. From memory it was more like a tidy up than an actual change.
2005 was when they changed it in a major way and it stayed similar to that (with a colour change) until they lost the rights.
In 2002-03, Ten and Fox Footy (the old incarnation) shared the same graphics, except Fox didn’t have the five-minute warning.
As you alluded to - in 2004 there were minor updates to Ten’s graphics while Fox Footy unveiled new ones with the score bug on the top-left before going for the bottom-of-the-screen bar scorecard in 2005.
Follow up to the 1986 NSWRL TV Games
1987 Round 1:
SAT (ABC, David Morrow/Mike Stephenson started year in commentary, ended with Warren Boland coming down from Brisbane where he was BRL coverage caller taking Stepho’s place, with a few guest commentators in the late rounds, Ian Hansen sideline reporter): Canterbury vs Norths
SUN (10, Rex Mossop replaced Warren, Graeme Hughes remained as Bill Anderson was now coaching Balmain, initially on the sideline with Mossop calling solo in the box but would eventually go into the box around mid season with David Fordham added to the sideline): Parramatta vs Balmain
RD 2
WED: Manly vs Canterbury
SAT: Wests vs Parramatta (Wests now playing full time at Campbelltown switching from Lidcombe post 1986)
SUN: Canterbury vs Balmain
RD 3
WED: Norths vs Wests
SAT: Illawarra vs Canberra
SUN: Wests vs Manly
RD 4
WED: Parramatta vs Illawarra
SAT: Cronulla vs Balmain
SUN: Manly vs Parramatta
RD 5
WED: Cronulla vs Canberra
SAT: Balmain vs Easts
SUN: Parramatta vs Canterbury
RD 6
WED: Souths vs St.George
SAT: Penrith vs Easts
SUN: Canterbury vs Manly
RD 7
WED: Penrith vs Combined Brisbane
SAT: St.George vs Norths (played at RAS Showgrounds as part of the Easter Show)
SUN: Parramatta vs Cronulla
RD 8
WED: Norths vs Parramatta (played in Newcastle. sometime in the 4th quarter Mossop suffers what turns out to be a stroke, Fordham who was calling the schoolboys game that was replayed Saturday Morning I assume, replaced him late)
SAT: Souths vs Canterbury
SUN: Norths vs Balmain (Mossop calls this game but is unwell for the next midweek cup fixture)
RD 9
WED: Balmain vs Port Moresby (called by Fordham)
SAT: Manly vs Easts
SUN: Canterbury vs Cronulla
RD 10
WED: Easts vs NSW Country
SAT: Canberra vs Manly (the infamous Mal Meninga crashing into the goalpost to break his arm game)
SUN: Easts vs Canterbury (Easts home ground this season was Henson Park rather than the SCG or the now demolished Sports Ground)
RD 11
WED: Souths vs Balmain
SAT: Parramatta vs Norths
SUN: Manly vs Illawarra (first Sunday Match of the Day for the Steelers)
RD 12
WED: Easts vs Canterbury (Played at Tweed Heads at what would later be Seagulls Stadium)
SAT: City vs Country (Played at Parramatta, first year of full Origin concept)
SUN: Easts vs Cronulla
RD 13
WED: Penrith vs Cronulla
SAT: St.George vs Canterbury
SUN: Manly vs Balmain
RD 14 (Split Round)
WED: Penrith vs Parramatta (Leichhardt, Semi Final)
SAT: Illawarra vs Souths
SUN: Cronulla vs Canberra
TUE (9, last year of the Eastlake/Maurice/Gibson trio as Bear and host Mike Gibson would move to 10 prior to the 1988 series. Brisbane had Alan Thomas and Mick Veivers): State of Origin 1 (Lang Park)
WED: Balmain vs Easts (Parramatta, Semi Final)
SAT: Norths vs Canterbury
SUN: Balmain vs Parramatta???
RD 15
WED: Balmain vs Penrith (Cup Final, Parramatta)
SAT: St.George vs Souths
SUN: Balmain vs Canterbury
RD 16
TUE: State of Origin 2 (SCG)
SAT: Canterbury vs Penrith
SUN: ??? (Either Easts vs Norths or Manly vs Wests I imagine)
MON: Souths vs Balmain
RD 17
SAT: Balmain vs Cronulla
SUN: Parramatta vs Manly
MON: Easts vs St.George (SCG)
RD 18
SAT: Cronulla vs Penrith
SUN: Canterbury vs Parramatta
MON: Souths vs Wests
RD 19
SAT: Balmain vs Canberra
SUN: Manly vs Canterbury
MON: Parramatta vs Souths
RD 20
WED: State of Origin 3 (Lang Park)
SAT: Cronulla vs Parramatta
SUN: Souths vs Manly
MON: Illawarra vs Balmain (Belmore)
RD 21
TUE: Australia vs New Zealand Test Match (Lang Park)
SAT: Parramatta vs Easts
SUN: Manly vs Cronulla
MON: Canterbury vs Souths
RD 22
SAT: Cronulla vs Canterbury
SUN: Easts vs Manly
MON: St.George vs Balmain
RD 23
THU: Exhibition State of Origin (Long Beach)
SAT: Penrith vs St.George
SUN: Souths vs Cronulla
MON: Canterbury vs Easts
RD 24
SAT: Canberra vs Canterbury
SUN: Easts vs Souths
MON: Balmain vs Penrith
RD 25
SAT: Cronulla vs Easts
SUN: Souths vs Canberra
MON: Canterbury vs Illawarra
RD 26
SAT: Easts vs Canberra
SUN: Balmain vs Manly
MON: Penrith vs Parramatta (at Penrith under dodgy lighting, last Monday Night TV club game for 9 years)
Never knew Mossop commentated on 10, I always thought he was only ever on Channel 7.
Thanks for the list/research!
Today marks 50 years since Tim Lane’s broadcasting career began.
Were these midweek games friendly (eg. non competitive) matches?
National Panasonic Cup
They were certainly competitive, so much so that the teams that played mid week usually lost their next NSWRL game just a few days later.
Thanks! I did some reading about this after y’all told me what the comp was.
I guess I never watched it in my youth because my dad hated League. I managed to watch a few of the weekend NSWRL matches on the TV upstairs…
Prior to that it started out as the Amco Cup on channel 10 with caller a young Ray Warren. The TV coverage was quite innovative for the time including the first slow motion replay technology via some sort of laser disc (according to the commentary). Prior it was just normal speed replays.
Here’s a network sharing one of their old coverage openers and describing it as “elite”.
A 5 minute opener? Bloody hell
Haven’t seen too many C7 games/ graphics from the 2000 AFL season, but here’s one.
This channel has a few other interesting videos too. Here’s Seven’s farewell to the AFL at the end of their 2001 GF telecast.
Wow. Had no idea John Longmire hosted the C7 coverage.
Seven’s farewell to AFL coverage in 2001 also makes me wonder how they re-entered theAFL broadcasting arena in 2007 (in particular, how they opened the coverage of the Melbourne vs St Kilda match in round one, which was their first broadcast of an AFL premiership match since the 2001 Grand Final).
I can’t remember that and can’t find any videos either unfortunately.
Seven’s first telecast after winning back the rights was North v Collingwood from Carrara in the NAB Cup iirc. From memory Bruce opened from down on the ground, quickly acknowledged Seven were back and then threw to Tim Watson who had some breaking news. Could be misremembering a bit of that though and unfortunately can’t find a video either.
I remember after that first match Seven copped a lot of flack for underwhelming commentary and technical issues. If you listen to the early 2007 matches, it’s really only Commetti who’s ‘match fit’, which is pretty understandable. The technical issues were blamed on the facilities at Carrara.
That would’ve been because Dennis Cometti had just returned to Seven from Nine, where he was the chief caller alongside Eddie McGuire (Friday nights between 2002-05) and Dwayne Russell (Sunday afternoons between 2002-06 and Friday nights in 2006).
In contrast, Bruce hadn’t called any footy in that period, though covered other Seven sporting events in that period including the 2002 Commonwealth Games, 2003 Rugby World Cup, the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
Yup makes sense.
Bruce also had that Sportswatch show he hosted in '02 (can’t remember how long it lasted but I don’t think it was too long). Ten and Nine were ropable about it because it was airing highlights before the host network had actually shown the footage themselves.
He hosted regular Wallabies matches and horse racing during that 02-06 period as well.
Longmire did GameDay in 2000 on Sundays with Tony Shaw and Todd Viney in an attempt to transform that from a pre-game Sunday (mostly) preview and puff piece to something akin to what we see in the NFL.
