Here's the thing - the first and most important role a broadcast commentator has is to call what is happening as it happens. With remote calling - whether from Melbourne, Adelaide or Sydney - the game callers are basically working from the same vision that the viewers are getting. If you can't see a player's number from any of the fixed camera positions used at a ground nor can the commentators. It bugs the hell out of me when a caller mistakes one player for another in a call - but the growing habit is for a remote commentator to just mention the team and avoid naming a player.
Last night was particularly bad - especially with the Brisbane players, the ones that don't necessarily have any distinguishing features (like a top-knot, weird beard or wee arms) - players like Bailey, Starcevich, Lyons etc. I'm not blind, I know it was a Brisbane player, i know his picture doesn't show up on my Gatorade bottle, I just wouldn't mind knowing who the heck kicked that ball to that other Brisbane player I'm not familiar with.
Remote calling off of monitors in Melbourne is nothing more than the blind leading the blind - get it together Fox and get these blokes through Queensland quarantine before the Prelims. Sure, I'm kind of interested in what frock Abby has decided to wear, what trouble Hodge had with getting through traffic on the night, etc - but what I am really interested in is who the players are during the game.
And DON'T tell me that switching off the sound and listening to the near-Alzheimers rants of Mark Maclure with the sneering jaundice of Brendon Goddard adding expert commentary on Aunty's overblown wireless calls is a viable alternative or even a partially pleasant experience. It isn't - even if you would remotely be interested in the woes of Carlton in the post-WW2 period, what the broadcast booth is like, or even what the golf scores during the weekly downtime were. I'm not interested with that stuff at all - some may be, but most want to hear about what is happening on the paddock.
