What was Fox’s pecking order for NRL back in 2006? i was looking at the Roosters-Raiders match and Andy Raymond and Gary Freeman was doing the call, so it makes me wonder if they always did the 3pm Fox games while Warren Smith and Laurie Dailey did the live Fox game at 2.30pm? I know that Costo and Darryl Haligan did the NZ games and Costo did a few Fox games during City Country/ANAZAC Test weeks, etc.
While this doesn’t directly answer your question, I can remember that on Saturday nights when there were two games on at the same time, and one of them involved the Cowboys, their match would be shown live at 7:30pm.
In one instance, both the Cowboys and Broncos were playing away games in Sydney (vs the Panthers and Sharks, respectively) simultaneously, and the northern club was shown first, followed by the Broncos game.
Was this when the game went into overtime and the network ended the broadcast at the top of the hour or something?
You’d think Fox would show the Broncos game first, even the higher ratings…
Though I remember the Cowboys were coming off a phenomenal 2004 season in which they got to within a try of reaching the decider, which increased their commercial appeal.
Prior to that breakthrough season, they hadn’t had a Channel Nine game since their inaugural match in 1995.
In 2004 they had only one regular season match on FTA (vs Wests Tigers at Campbelltown), and in 2005 that increased to about seven (including one Queensland derby against the Broncos).
Also in 2005, the Melbourne Storm had only one FTA regular season match (vs Panthers in round five) though that had something to do with Nine having the AFL rights at the same time.
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Yes! Back in those days they thought three hours was enough to cover a game of football. The Jets were leading 32-29 with a minute to go and NBC just cut the coverage and went to the movie.
The ensuing furore changed the history of sports broadcasting forever.
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My recollection is Warren Smith was the no 1 caller, followed by Mark Braybrook and then Andy Raymond. Andy would usually call the 9.30pm Saturday night replay which was often a Cowboys home game in the early 2000s.
I remember he called a match between the Knights and Eels in 2005 when some idiot ran onto the field in the dying minutes as the home side copped a 50-0 hiding.
While no video footage of the actual match exists, there is news coverage from the Knights’ 2005 season on YouTube that I have found (skip to 1:49:36):
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Remember that the Fox 3pm game aired live in NZ on Sky 1 if the Warriors were in that game. Raymond did a few and so did Braybrook. Smith did the Bulldogs game in 06 where he says, “Roberts for the line…” that was the 2.30pm game then.
Raymond got a lot more promince when “Viewer’s Choice” started in 07- he did the Panthers-Warriors draw in 09 with Daley.
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Channel 7 had this same scenario in the VFL/AFL round 3 of 1985 during the Sydney Swans v Fitzroy game at the SCG. The game was delayed, and it was in the middle of the final quarter and the telecast ended abruptly at 5pm. At first I thought it was my local country TV station interrupting it for Young Talent Time (which had the 5pm Sunday timeslot in all country areas), but when I read the papers the next day it was Channel 7 that cut its telecast. It was the first time Fitzroy beat the Swans in Sydney.
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The difference here was that Fitzroy were cruising to a comfortable victory at the time Seven cut off the telecast, whereas the Raiders came from behind to beat the Jets.
The interesting thing is that when 9 did the odd live Sunday game (e.g. Warriors vs Manly Rd 1, Lockyer’s Suncorp farewell vs Manly, 2010 ANZAC game) those games got bigger ratings than the delayed telecast would usually. Lockeyer’s last match obviously did bigger numbers live than delayed and the Warriors match was due to the cricket.
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IIRC, the Titans’ debut game against the Dragons in 2007 was also live.
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With the 120th Anniversary of the Australian Open in 2025 and the final tonight, a little trip down memory lane, from a MS/broadcasting perspective…
Might need the likes of @TelevisionAU to shed further light:
1977 final (I believe the first without the great HSV Mike Williamson calling who’d gone to GTV, the iconic VFL caller from the 60s and 70s):
1974 final (apparently Seven’s 2nd broadcast but not sure if this is official footage as by most accounts the first official 7 tape archived and restored is 1975’s):
And the 1975 final and a famous one:
I think Allan Stone came on board some time in the very late 70s and Garry Wilkinson from ATN Sydney if not by then the 80s (who’d become the iconic main ‘voice’ for decades).
By the late 80s and certainly the 90s, including post aggregation and the more ‘national’ TV landscape and corporations, the ‘summer of tennis’ became very much part or mostly Sydney influenced, for Australia-wide audiences and the ratings that were starting to come in, which would be cemented by the 2000s.
The '77 footage has Australian commentators “Colin” and “John”, anybody guess who they might be? Not Colin Dibley or a younger John Alexander perhaps?
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Colin would have been Colin Long, former Australian tennis player in the 1940s and 50s and also did the tennis and golf segments on HSV7’s World of Sport throughout its run.
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That kinda sounds and looks like Mike commentating and emcee at the presentation.
That’s John Newcombe, he was knocked out in the quarter finals in the December open (after a change of scheduling, there were two AOs in 1977 this is the December one, the other was held in January).
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Earliest surviving complete Richmond H+A match has been discovered.
(details in the YT description)
I can recall in 2013 when Seven replayed a match involving Roger Federer at the Australian Open, they used the world feed rather than their local commentary team as I recall Fred Stolle commentating that match.
I also think Anthony Hudson used to work on the world feed in 2000/01, despite being contracted to Seven at the time.
Managed to snagged a few minutes of the handball game that World of Sport ran in 1967.
Does anyone recall who the main female expert was on Seven’s summer of tennis during the early-mid 2000s? If there was one. I know Wendy Turnbull and Pam Shriver featured during the 90s. I think Allan Stone called a lot of the late 70s and 1980s ones.
I know Liz Smylie called the 2003 Serena championship at the Aus Open. I’m sure John Barrett called a couple of women’s finals in the 90s. I think John Alexander and Garry Wilkinson too. Bruce McAvaney did a few, including Monica Seles’ memorable comeback in '96.
Pretty sure Sandy Roberts started calling them from about 2004, with Tracy Austin from 2006 and Sam Smith from 2011. Todd Woodbridge with Sam in 2012 and from 2014. Basil Zempilas with Sam from 2017.
Sam then became the caller at Nine from 2019 with Jelena Dokic.