Commentary Disgrace

i believe the commentary is getting worse and i'd be interested to hear what those who watched last night's game on the tele think

as well as having no idea about the technical elements of the game, it is my observation is that the commentators are only commentating the one team.  this is ongoing, but several examples that spring to mind are:

- tarek elrich makes an outstanding length of the field run, beating several players, and only eventual (phoenix) tackler gets mentioned

- on several occasions adelaide's extended periods in possession were met with commentary silence.  the silence would stop when the phoenix gained possession

- dewhurst didn't know who it was who scored adelaide's second goal.  he had to wait for a camera angle that showed pablo's number before he could name the player

- over and over again, match situations are described from a phoenix POV.  the phoenix needed to defend well here, or attack well there.  what about adelaide?  apart from several condescending mentions of their struggles, no input was provided about what they needed to do to get into the game

i wouldn't call the commentary biased, but ignorant and i think this gives a horrid impression of us from across the tasman

furthermore, for game one we had simon hill and i thought, thank god the FFA have stepped in and done something about this, but alas.

and i'm sure dewhurst is a nice fella and all, but he needs to improve

Sky love "Dewy". He's staying no matter how much we don't like him. Yes he sucks and is biased. Bring back Katsanos!

Who was it who called that game where he did not know any of the opposition players names. I think it was Dewhurst then too. They all had the names: And the player, this player, that player, the player.

ha ha, no way!

jason pine = quality

gordon irving = quality

i accept that we are stuck with dewhurst, but maybe sky can send him on a course or something, motson 101 maybe

i don't recall that, but last night several of the adelaide players were simply named 'adelaide'

and it probably didn't help that i watched the all whites reply during the day where most of the omani players were named 'oman'

To be fair, I wouldn't expect any commentator to be able to recognise the Oman players! 

But it's been well documented that Australians hate Dewhursts commentary. They keep trying to bait us by saying our commentators are shark but we just say "Yes, we absolutely agree".

But nufc is spot on, Sky love Dewy and think he's the best thing ever.

It's a shame that video streams and audio streams are always out of sync because I'd say mute Dewhurst and put on Piney who commentates on Radio Sports (has online streaming) I believe its often also broadcast on Australian radio.

Dewy tries hard - I don't mind his commentating voice; but he waffles on about things that don't matter too often.

Not that Australian commentators are any better, mind you. The only one I like to listen to is Simon Hill.

You are not one-eyed. At least the Oz ones know something about the game.

Agree, he's not great but no worse than some Aussie commentators. He probably was a bit biased last night but I think in the light of recent events a shameless pro-Nix bias for this game is excusable. Commendable even.

he is a lot worse than pretty much all the aussie commentators

Yes the in-game bias is bad. 

In saying that, if it's true that the Fox/SBS "panel" didn't mention the croud or the nix struggle to survive at all in their post-match analysis, then it starts to look like a pathetic little tit for tat thing. 

Fox Sports get Dewhurst and Ngata as well. Bias is bound to happen.
In the AFL here, we cop it as well with the commentatos as well. Clubs in Victoria (the state with Melbourne in it) get all the bias from the commentators. Pathetic, but when the non-Victorian teams win it's gold. They try to hide how deflated they are. Especially in finals.

Yes Dewy is shark but the way he commentates (focusing 99% on the Phoenix) probably in some part comes from Sky directive. Most Aussie commentators are pretty decent except for one - Cant remember his name but he's the one who said Liam Reddy showed great control when he was actually talking about Liam Rose in one of the Mariners recent games.

The issue with this lack of knowledge of other teams/players is the impact it has on viewer engagement... he adds no value at all and as a professional - really should do more. His knowledge of other teams/players is frankly embarrassing.

I love a little local commentary bias as much as the next bloke but building the profile of the Nix is almost as much about the competition as it is about our own players. This would also have a positive impact on viewership for other HAL games on Sky.

I hope Welnix, as part of their discussions with Sky (or whoever) are raising this issue/opportunity.

Will it add to the metrics though?

we need commentator free option on all games. At best they dont add a lot, and when they just chat to each other when the ball is in play,then off they go.

but that takes out the croud noise so u end up just watching pictures.

He must come cheap for SKY

But yeah, he is the worst football commentator around.  Some of the Fox guys are bad, but no one compares to Dewy.  He is dull and monotone, repeats the same crap over and over and is so damned bias it isn't funny.

I am just glad that I don't have to hear him often as I am at the games.

Interesting reading through this thread. I recall the first few years of Phoenix football, the Aussie commentators gave us no credit. The Aussie teams got all the praise. Our team were always described as poor. If we scored a beautiful goal after good build up all they would say was 'defence should have closed him down". Nothing about the goal. The Club football channels from EPL are as biaised as hell, but of course they are only supposedly broadcasting to their own fan base.

No one is as bad at being biased as the Aussie cricket commentators. Dewhurst doesn't hold a candle to those Twits.

Dewhurst is horrible but a nice revenger for Harper, Slater and Meredith who are just cocks.

Grrrrrrrrr ?

COCKerill used to be in that camp but he's sort of redeemed himself lately.

Cockerill's article are spectacularly Bi-Polar but as a general commentator he's reasonably neutral and vaguely competent unlike the three named above.

I prefer the Aussies to Dewhurst, he is truely cringeworthy

Dewhurst is considerably worse than any the aussie commentators IMO. Harper et al might be pricks but at least they actually know something about the game. Grant Nisbett who has probably never commentated football his whole life would do a better job. Glen Larmer does a much better job of the ASB premiership and he's pretty average at it, that's how bad Dewhurst is. At least he left radio sport long ago and Daniel McCardy does a much job of the football stuff now.

Yep!

I prefer Dewhurst!

Replace the word "Dewy" with the words "de Jong" and you have described him perfectly. 

Zelic is awful

Dewhurst = most Aussie Commentators

They are as band as each other.

I like listening to Simon Hill though and thought him and Harry were good together.  Give me Simon, Piney, Dennis or the TAB bloke any day over Dewhurst and the rest of the one eyed Aussies.

Surely Sky can come up with more competent people. The ones that do league, netball, rugby seem to do a good job.

Don't football followers deserve better ?

It took them a long time to find the right people for League.  Used to have some horrors like Costigan.

Andy Harper can go and Eat a Dick