20 June 2008

NO ESCAPE from the Raiders

| Andrew Zed
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Is it just me or is there no escape from continually hearing about the Raiders?

I like to watch the local news but I just have to turn off when sport comes on because every day its the same thing- this Raider signed a contract, this Raider didnt, this Raider is injured, this Raider is returning from injury………………..you get the picture.

Why is it that Win news has to include a story about the Raiders in every news broadcast? And ALL the radio stations are no better!

Is the Raiders appeal really that large?

Im a fella and I used to like footy but the preoccupation with Raiders in the local media is just unhealthy.

I understand that this is a one horse town but it really does smack of poor journalism when more or less the same story is wheeled out every day.

Im more interested in some diversity of sports being presented, however I realise that Im most likely in the minority as the average Aussie is a moron- come on, how else do you explain the popularity of Kylie Minogue, John Howard, SummerNats, Eddie Macguire, Hilltop Hoods, Kotchie (? spelling)……………………..

Why are the achievments of so many people in other fileds considered to be less worthy of attention that the focking Raiders!

Righto fire away meatheads- I’ll have ya- Im waiting for you outside in the carpark across from Mooseheads!

Z

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Overheard said :

I’m all for raiders coverage. In fact i’m seriously annoyed with Nine and the Sydney press who don’t seem to think the raiders exist.

Agh! Just fell for the old ‘posting on the wrong thread’ trick.

To repeat myself from elsewhere: I’m slightly immune to interstaters overlooking the Raiders in the media as I’m typically watching Sky News or Fox Sports when in Sydney or Brisbane (or elsewhere), and they seem to be fairly balanced in their coverage.

Nah… not enough Raiders on Fox either!

I’m all for raiders coverage. In fact i’m seriously annoyed with Nine and the Sydney press who don’t seem to think the raiders exist.

Agh! Just fell for the old ‘posting on the wrong thread’ trick.

To repeat myself from elsewhere: I’m slightly immune to interstaters overlooking the Raiders in the media as I’m typically watching Sky News or Fox Sports when in Sydney or Brisbane (or elsewhere), and they seem to be fairly balanced in their coverage.

i like they way they think… ; )

The whole role model thing is a joke, and all I do is separate the athlete and the person. As I keep telling my Dad (old school footy guy), just because someone is a good footballer doesn’t mean they aren’t a d*ckhead.

Carney is/was a nob that hopefully has learnt a lesson. Remember deep, deep down he is just a Goulburn bogan who, without the invention of Rugby League, would be cleaning toilets for a living. Despite that I would have selected him over Anasta for SOO 3. Anasta is nothing but a product of hype. Sure he’s had a good year this year, but about 10 average ones before that.

Love ’em or hate ’em there is something good about having a local team to follow in a national competition. It wasn’t so long ago when the Cannons and Raiders were both riding high. If you think the coverage of the Raiders is excessive then you are in the miserable minority

There’s not enough Canberra Raiders on the local news bulletins in my opinion! Especially on the ABC1 Canberra News. For those complaining about a “lack of diversity” of sports coverage, I suppose you are after coverage of Melbourne AFL clubs or some European soccer competition. Well, here’s news for you! This is Canberra! Rugby league is the number one sport and the Canberra Raiders are the city’s team in the National Rugby League. And there is actually a huge amount of diversity on the WIN Canberra News… they cover ice hockey and women’s basketball and all sorts of other minority sports (like rugby union)… indeed, they often run those stories before the coverage of the Raiders, and infuriatingly make me wait for the news on the Green Machine!

But, in sum, I’d say they give a fair amount of coverage to the Raiders, for one reason. Canberra people want to see it!

Hear Hear. Late 80’s early 90’s was a golden age for Canberra. The Raiders anyway.

Some of us are old enough to remember what a great place Canberra was to be for a week or so in late 1989 when we won our first premiership. Some people even went so far as to say Canberra somewhat went more on the map and far more in the nation’s subconscious in that time more than any other.

I grew up with the Raiders, played the Union style most of my life with some forays into League. I love both games. I heard it aptly described once as thus:

League is an animal’s game played by gentlemen
Union is a gentleman’s game played by animals

I love ’em both.

To whinge about this sort of thing is pathetic piffle

Im glad the Raiders get a lot of local coverage, because they get bugger all mention in the national media. Everytime the Raiders win, its not how well the Radiers played, its how poorly the other team played. The Raiders have had one free to air game this year, and it was a delayed telecast. Im a massive rugby league fan, but I get a little sick of seeing the same teams play on TV every week. I shouldnt have to shell out for foxtel just to watch my team play in a National competition. But I digress.

The local sports coverage is just fine, yes the Raiders get coverage every day, but thats because we are in the middle of the Rugby league season. Plenty of other Canberra sports teams get coverage as well. The Gunners get a mention almost everyday, I always seem to hear quite a lot about mountain biking, netball, the canberra capitals, orienteering just to name a few. If you dont like the local news, dont watch it. Read a paper instead.

Oh and as for the real Rugby players crack, I made a post earlier this year, saying the Radiers were playing better football than the Brumbies, and I got a lot of replies informing me that they cant compare because they are different sports, and thats what im saying to you now. Both codes are equally as good as each other, and bagging out one code over another proves nothing.

I will now go back “playing online bridge in my underpants” however I wont be alone as your wife will be on her knees ready to please- shes had enough of the Raiders too!

Sums it all up there. Just an idiot having a good old raiders bash. Good on ya Ned, you’re a tool.

No-one’s ever truly alone in ‘Second Life’, are they Zed?

The closest you’ll get to a wife is a ‘date’ on the said game or rolling A 7 in D&D and hooking up with the Queen of the Fairies.

There is plenty of sports besides League covered in the local press. You just need to have your head out of your posterior for the rest of the broadcast.

One of the more pathetic threads and even sadder justifications I have ever read. Send a letter to Dolly, this is right up their alley

Keep a look out for her Adams Apple.

Well it looks like the League fans enjoy the way things currently are which is what I expected.
Im not suprised that the League fans cant even seem to read the previous posts or appear to comprehend the validity of alternative arguments given or that there are other sports worthy of reporting.

I will now go back “playing online bridge in my underpants” however I wont be alone as your wife will be on her knees ready to please- shes had enough of the Raiders too!

Z

Ever heard of a remote where you can change the channel?

Its the Local News why wouldnt they report on local news and sport. What next you want the local news to report what the weather will be in Cairns?

What a pathetic thread, absolutely pathetic.

We live in Canberra, there is a team called the Canberra Raiders. Deal with it or go back to playing online bridge in your underpants by yourself every night of the week

But I think you get overkill in whatever 1 or 2 team city you’re in. I’m sure if you were in Perth you’d be hearing about the boil on Ben Cousin’s backside in every newspaper and TV news bulletin.

* struck down by a *

Bungle said :

I agree with your statement “It defies logic how stupid some people can be sometimes…..”. there is a special subset of society to which these people conform. They are easily identifiable by the special green clothes they wear.

Also identifiable by people who complain about the local national sport team being reported on by a local sports bulletin.

I could understand your complaining if the Brumbies or the Capitals were going around at the moment. And WIN usually have a few local sports stories about the local Rugby, League and AFL competitions.

So what kind of diversity are you after? The Marist Under 14s netball team beating St Eddies on the playground last Thursday afternoon???

I think you missed the point, Bungle. The complaint is about the overkill, not the fact that the reportage is there at all.

I guess you see what you’re looking for, but after I weighed in to this debate, the next thing I saw was a headline on a news page informing me that the Raiders were being stuck down a plague of boils (very biblical). I deadset had to pinch myself; I thought I’d nodded off and was having some sort of comic dream.

I agree with your statement “It defies logic how stupid some people can be sometimes…..”. there is a special subset of society to which these people conform. They are easily identifiable by the special green clothes they wear.

Also identifiable by people who complain about the local national sport team being reported on by a local sports bulletin.

I could understand your complaining if the Brumbies or the Capitals were going around at the moment. And WIN usually have a few local sports stories about the local Rugby, League and AFL competitions.

So what kind of diversity are you after? The Marist Under 14s netball team beating St Eddies on the playground last Thursday afternoon???

Hey VictorTheViking, this is exactly what I do- I turn the TV and radio off.

My real concern and reason for posting this thread may have escaped you, which is the lack of diversity of sports coverage offered by the local media.
Whilst some people may like the same thing day after day with all the intricate and meaningless details reported each day, I do not.
I believe we would have a richer culture if a greater diversity of sports were covered. Unfortunately there is little diversity of sports covered.

We appear to have differing opinions which is a good demonstration of diversity. I expect you probably enjoy the diversity of our opinions or would you rather that there was no diversity and that only one way of thinking was allowed?

I agree with your statement “It defies logic how stupid some people can be sometimes…..”. there is a special subset of society to which these people conform. They are easily identifiable by the special green clothes they wear.

Z

working Australians said :

The reason that the rest of Australia thinks Canberra is a waste of space is just shown here by the attitude of the peopel who think they are better than the rest of the country, you hate sport, turn it off and go and look in the mirror at someone that gives aflying fig about what you think

I would respond to this if I understood what it meant.

I’m not trying to be smart, WA, I just really don’t understand what you’re saying.

To pick up on a few phrases (not having a victim complex here, just I wrote 3/26 posts, so am taking a punt I’m one of the people referred to above): I don’t think I’m better than anyone else (Canberran or other) and I LOVE sport.

Somewhere in a box I think I’ve still got the tix to the first ever Raiders home game which I won off the radio.

VictorTheViking10:45 pm 20 Jun 08

If you dont like hearing about them, or watching the news and seeing them…turn the tele off? It defies logic how stupid some people can be sometimes…..

As for the hero who bragged about his son getting into a fight with Todd Carney and beating him? Some role model you are, your worse than half the footy players out there with behaviour like that…shame shame shame

Hey working Australians, I guess Im not the only one who gives a flying fig about what I think- you have shown you care by taking the time to comment- thanks!

I dont hate sport- never said I did and I dont think Im any better than other people in other cities.

Im glad to hear from the spokesperson for the rest of Australia- I will direct all my further enquiries directly to you when I need to know why I dont seem to understand whats going on in our society.

Z

working Australians4:35 pm 20 Jun 08

The reason that the rest of Australia thinks Canberra is a waste of space is just shown here by the attitude of the peopel who think they are better than the rest of the country, you hate sport, turn it off and go and look in the mirror at someone that gives aflying fig about what you think

Zed said :

Yesterday afternoon I heard a presenter mention the station ID and their name 4 times in less than 16 minutes “Your’e tuned to ZZZ with ZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZ”.

Im expecting too much once again, lucky the off button works well!

Z

That’s the beauty of community radio, Z. It’s mostly about the message, the music and the artists, and against the cult of personality for presenters. You do want to inform station-flickers which station they’re listening to, mind, but not every four minutes.

Hey unfortunately its not just Tv (which also shits me!) but its the radio and newspapers too.

I guess it must be true that there are PR machines working at full steam to produce this crap. Its dissapointing that the media takes the easy route instead of looking further afield but not hard to understand given the levels of funding, however I would have hoped for better.

It sounds like some presenters have been taking a leaf out of the Raiders PR book of self promotion- yesterday afternoon I heard a presenter mention the station ID and their name 4 times in less than 16 minutes “Your’e tuned to ZZZ with ZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZ”.

Im expecting too much once again, lucky the off button works well!

Z

i have an anecdote not for public consumption, well publication, about a bloke called kevin walters used to be a raider… might tell it at breakfast.

and i get peeved when even radio national starts its sprts wrap each day with [insert expletive here] warwick hatfield says, “and let’s start with rugby league…” why? there are global and national sports more prominent than that. sad. but he’s a [insert similar expletive] and i try to ignore him. tosser.

My son got in a fight with the said Todd Carney. Managed to land quite a few from all reports before the bouncers dragged them apart and Carney didn’t get the chance to kill the little bloke 😉

He’s joining 4RAR soon….

Thank god 😉

Thank your son for me, Thumper, I like to hear about the times todd carney didn’t manage to win…. though, he is nothing compared to the earlier raiders, especially when they took over bobby mcgees through brute force, and treated everyone else like garbage at the bar…

lux said :

TV shits me, i haven’t watched it in months.

I didn’t realise we had an Armish community in Canberra.

> Nothing wrong with the Hilltop Hoods!

Matter of opinion. I think they’re awful.

Nothing wrong with the Hilltop Hoods!

I’m not a Raiders fan, but many in the city are. News programs run two things primarily – what their viewers are interested in, and what they get fed information about.
There are plenty of fans here, and the Raiders probably have a team of promotion staff feeding pre-cooked stories to the news rooms. Result: plenty of stories.
If you want your kid’s under 12’s ice hockey results on, feed the newsrooms. If you don’t like what you’re watching, turn it off (or have a whine in RiotACT).

TV shits me, i haven’t watched it in months. Mostly because of the reasons outlined above by Z. We live in a bogan popular culture, and i find it tiresome beyond belief. I hate sport, i hate inane breakfast show chatter, i hate “reality” programmes. So there’s not much left for me, aside from Spicks and Specks, Gruen and occasionally South Park repeats. I could watch an American crime show, but the sheer number to choose from boggles the mind, so i choose none. I am a hard-to-please consumer.

> Did we all catch the thrilling update on 666 this morning about the state of several rugby players boils!?!?!?

Rugby LEAGUE players, different to real Rugby players.

miz said :

I hold sim views x 100, as I detest almost all sport and detest the way it is reported even more! Some radio stations, for example, seem to think sport is actually news. Bah.

Miz, I don’t know if they still do it, but when I was in the USA (gulp!) 17 years ago, a really noticeable difference about the local news half hours (the ones I was watching) was that they relegated the sport to the very last item on the bulletin, after the weather but before the inevitable ‘fluffy dog’ story.

I think that’s appropriate placing (and I’m a sports nut), unless it’s something like a grand final or the FA Cup Final/World Cup/Wimbeldon final/etc. in which case those stories get bumped up the order of the bulletin anyway.

Did we all catch the thrilling update on 666 this morning about the state of several rugby players boils!?!?!? Weeheeheeee!

I don’t mind hearing the scores, but when you start hearing stuff like “Joe Nobody is considering an offer from…” and “Bill Whatshisname’s left testicle is still slightly swollen…” then it’s gone too far.

Absent Diane, I appreciate what you’re saying, but the truth is that there IS interesting things happening in Canberra, but the media have their heads shoved so far up their bum…

Besides, change the channel and you’re 89% likely to be accosted by yet another add for Harvey Norman or Domain!!! AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Hamilton- yeah I get your point.

I wont be suckinging it up though- I will just be switching off.

Z

Well considering you are in a one league-team town and it IS the middle of the NRL season, with few other national competitions taking place locally (bar the Swans match this weeekend)…

Your options are to change the chanel or suck it up.

Go Raiders!

I thought i had finally escaped hearing about the raiders until you put this bloody post up!!

Absent Diane7:50 am 20 Jun 08

easy stop listening and watching local news – its garbage anyway so you won’t miss a thing. far more interesting things happening in the rest of the world than pissant canberra.

I hold sim views x 100, as I detest almost all sport and detest the way it is reported even more! Some radio stations, for example, seem to think sport is actually news. Bah.

I think the key word in your post, Zed, is ‘diversity’. To that end, I too would like to see more recognition given to a wide range of sports, interests, people’s stories. I don’t get to watch a lot of television (and rarely if ever get to see the local evening news bulletins on Channel 2 and WIN), but I understand that there’s an over-abundance of Raiders’ news.

In the heady days of the late 80s and early 90s when the team really was a glamour side and we were going through the euphoria of that first premiership win (which due to circumstances, I watched on a dodgy TV with the cable pinched from a satellite next door in a beach house on the north coast of PNG — AND got better reception than my then Kambah residence!) I reckon that a bit of over-indulgence THEN was probably understandable.

Now I don’t get it.

Just on the sports diversity thing, the second biggest TV sporting event in the world (maybe third, I don’t have current stats to hand) is currently taking place in Austria and Switzerland and yet some news bulletins (e.g. on the apoocraphyl breakfast TV shows) don’t seem to know it exists.

At the other end of the spectrum, Channel Vision (whose logo currently appears below this as I type) do a superb job in covering at least some of the lesser football leagues in this town. Just a shame it’s not more widely accessible.

Agh! Just switched on the TV and flicked on to ‘The Footy Show’ for a nano-second, so now I need to go and vomit. (I loves me football, I mean, rubgy league, but TFS is not about football.)

I think it’s because they are the CANBERRA Raiders. And you are watching the CANBERRA local news.
Not too many other national teams that play around here.

Holden Caulfield9:58 pm 19 Jun 08

Well, this is going to be a fun election campaign if Zed is already here warming up the crowd.

Thats cool. I have no idea how to react to that, so I’ll just chuckle to myself…

When I moved up here from Melbourne in January last year, for about 6 weeks every ABC news break began with “Lohdi taquiri (sp?) is still considering his future” I have no idea if he was raiders or not, I just remember thinking what a waste of oxygen from the reporters. It wasn’t news, it was olds…

Later it was “Todd Carney has been bad, but we shouldn’t sack him”, even though we sacked others for less. That went on for weeks and weeks, too…

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