For many years there has been a radio station in Perth that has called itself the “Sports Leader” yet its behaviour in recent times has dragged sport back in time, rather than carried it forward into the future.
This station is a “broadcast partner” to two major sporting clubs in Perth, namely The Emirates Western Force and the Perth Glory. A very privileged position and one that carries with it a great deal of responsibility.
Rugby Union fans are about to witness a similar fate to Perth Glory fans where this station opts to pick and choose which games it covers, and if they clash with ‘the sport that we don’t mention’ then the best you can hope for are updates.
This year they have not even sent a commentator interstate, using the Glory’s new media manager for the game against Melbourne Victory and Newcastle Jets. Instead they choose to sit in a studio in Perth and call the action off the Fox Sports television coverage.
This is not good enough, and sports fans in Perth deserve better. The Minister for Sport should step in and make sure that rugby and football fans are able to listen to games in their entirety across the metropolitan area. However, as much as that would be a vote grabber, he is unlikely to take such a stance.
So the only way fans can gain some parity with the ‘sport we don’t mention’ is to find a voice and use it. Or we will see a similar situation to the one that football suffered with Channel Seven in the ‘90’s where they bought the rights but chose not to broadcast the games.
To make matters worse the governing bodies of these codes based on the East Coast do not monitor the coverage, and so when it comes to the big games, they once again get the nod even though they have done the sport a disservice.
Absolute disgrace, you are right and so is Q ball. Rugby and Football should combine and work together to obtain better more informed balanced coverage. If they are not screaming at you from the radio then they are boring you to sleep
You’re right – it’s not good enough. But then again the public just accept oh-so average coverage. However if a station is to cover a sport then all I ask for is decent commentary but there is little chance of that as the commentary in general for rugby union and football is so dire in this country anyway.