As I said in my opening post, Fitzmaurice was my first real awareness of someone commentating a game of cricket or football.
He wasnât so much a caller,but was a very insightful special comments man,and was revered as probably the doyen of WA footy journalism,the Great Geoff Christian,and i always enjoyed listening to his great fountain of Western Australian football knowledge.and he also left us at the relatively young age of 64.
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Remember Tim well he was the 6NR caller for many years.
Remember him at 6PM with John OâConnell,Jack Sweet and Geoff Christian,bringing the audience -
6PM Total Football
we have lost our ability to reproduce new callers of football
probable reasons for this was the introduction of a false era of football
it calls itself AFL (and that is the VFL just look at the business register of Australia)
anything outside of Victoria has been gradually eradicated
there are no radio stations who brodcast anything other than VFL
Going back to our WANFL - we had a dynasty of superb coverage
five radio stations
calls that didnât need Televison they were so high quality and precision
people who actually played the game called the game
maybe I am parochial and spoilt by the greats gone past
but you can keep this so called AFL
it is a pile of contrived rubbish that is biased toward Eastern Australia to itâs very core
and will never again allow another âoutsiderâ to call a football game
PS: before you mention a Brian Taylor as an example - this guy is a Victorian , after all he deliberately bypassed our state for the almighty dollar and didnât give one fifth of a fuck for WA ever since
I have mourned our once magnificent game for more than two decades - weâve lost something bloody special along with our bloody happy knack of producing excellent commentators
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Great post Southerner.
I myself have mentioned ex-pat Taylor as one of the worst callers of our game alongside the other ex-pat, Brayshaw who I think regards himself as more South Australian than West.
The strange thing is that last season Ch.7 rewarded them both by putting them on Friday night, normally reserved for the best callers.
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Good points Southerner.
Do you also remember the extensive radio coverage of not only WAFL but Sunday League as well. The Sunday League was broadcast live on 6NR with Tim Flynn and Col Minson the day after they had covered a WAFL game.
That was when we had all four games broadcast live on four different stations, 6WF 6PR 6IX 6NR, Plus Ch 2 and Ch 7 on TV - I think that has reduced the talent pool of commentators as there are no longer the stations our outlets broadcasting live league games.
Also only RADIO did a live broadcast direct to the punters, and you had to be good to describe the ACTIONâŚ
The exception being Ch 2âs TV Country broadcast, later Ch 7 would introduce a live final qrt into the metro area, that would have been 1986 or so.
Ch 7 departed WAFL after 1987.
Eventually Ch 2 in the later 90s would do a full live WAFL Game into both City and Country.
Cannot stand BRAYSHAW, his old man was not bad and did stints on Ch 2 WAFL Coverage before landing as the lead sports news reader for the new CH 10 Perth.
Then Vlahos did Sunday for a few years.
Our John Lennon also did Sunday League as well,but I think for Fremantle FM,or 6RTR in a Caravan,which was quite commendable for anyone that does so.
The main commentator for the 6NR Sunday FL broadcasts was Kim Hagdorn, which Steven âChookyâ Fowles and Peter Ensel contributing.
They also used to do a half hour Sunday FL preview show on 6NR on Saturday mornings. Would love to get hold of some audio cassettes and digitise them.
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From memory, I think Vlahos began his career at Curtin radio. They were running as a sports type station way back, before switching to the 40s,50s, 60s etc.
He used to do Saturday mornings.
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6KY as well - we had a game every round that had two stations covering it
basically we got fucked up the arse by John Walker the Victorian stooge
entrusted with stitching up expansion that saved the way past broke VFL
since that 1986 day football was eradicated and replaced with excrement
excrement designed to eliminate all rival leagues by stealth
Victoria was so paranoid about their competition failing
they openly encouraged break away clubs to lodge submissions to get licences
eg: Port Adelaide and East Perth
it was only when SANFL & WANFL lawyers knocked on their toilet doors
that the slimy cockroaches backed off
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Add another Ron Halcombe.
Dick Buchanan.
Anyone mention Oliver Drake-Brockman.
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@Jimmbo Welcome. I think he cracked a mention.
Probably the biggest flow on effect of totally losing our great callers
is the low quality reporter group
most particularly in The West Australian newspaper
Woodcock , Barrett & Quartermain are so deplorably biased toward everything WCE
itâs just a waste of time even bothering to read that shit product
I skim over that rag and havenât bothered with sport section in a couple of years
a far cry from the days of Christian , Cassellas , East , Burns and co
itâs just trash now - embarrassing refuse
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Barrett is a dead dick. He wrote a very scathing article on the Dockers in the Herald Sun around 1996. It was total crap.
I was in Melbourne at the time. I was able to contact him and I let him into some home truths about the WAFL. I asked if he had ever been to WA to see a WAFL game. He had never been to WA let alone been to a WAFL. I said could you possibly know anything about WA football if you have never been there.
Of course I was not all that nice. I told him to do some research before writing such shit about WA footy again.Yeah, he is a dick. Full of himself.
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The Barrett Iâm posting about wasnât even a station wagon premature jack then
let alone born in 1996
yet somehow is a senior âjournalistâ
and I use that term less than favourably
this one is the sicko with the infatuation on a incredibly over rated VFL draftee
Thought you were referring to Damian Barrett.