After watching the All Australian, the WAFL Grand Final and the Brownlow in the past week, and on the back of the Olympics, I've noticed that sportsmen and women are no longer permitted to give a speech. If you won something or lost something you'd get to the microphone with some scribbled notes, thank some people, congratulate some people and occasionally say something funny or profound or embarrassing and that would be the end of it.
But now you've got these excruciating interviews where complete hacks ask the most idiotic questions then stand back and expect a long, articulate response. Or, in the case of Steve Quartermain, they take one of the greatest players ever and then try to chat up his wife.
What I'll remember most about the Brownlow this year, long after I've forgotten who won it, is the winner being presented with the award, striding to the microphone to say his bit and then being hijacked by that buffoon with the words 'tell us about your childhood?'
I dragged Pride of the Yankees out after what passed for Peter Bell's send off the other other week. Obviously Hollywood tidied up the speech a bit but it was a good one to start with and it would be nice to get a bit more of this back in sport. (click twice if it doesn't play)
I can see the closing scene when they make the movie about Robert Harvey. The crowd hushes, the players form a guard of honour, his parents shedding a tear, then up pops Ricky Olarenshaw to ask his wife if she thinks Robert will help out more around the house in retirement.
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