ABC's game of the week

[Left Field]

Are you happy to see a variety of match-ups regardless of the quality of the game or do you want to see the best teams on TV each week?
If your happy for variety, do you think the quality of the 'lesser teams' is hindering the promotion the WNBL?

The reason I ask is I watched the Saturday replay of the Bendigo/Logan City match and it was one of the most frustrating and uninteresting games I've seen, even the commentators were having trouble getting enthused. If i was a first time viewer, I would have changed channels and possibly never given the WNBL another chance. The other Friday night games was the Canberra/Townsville game, which despite the Capitals early dominance was still entertaining with Townsville continually mounting comebacks only to be thwarted by a committed Canberra defence. I can understand why the ABC didn't televise this game, as the first game was shown only a few weeks ago. Maybe some thought needs to go into the draw, and allow for some flexibility, perhaps bring forward the Dandenong/Adelaide or Bulleen/Adelaide game (after giving each team a few week notice of course).

[Dunkin' Dan]

I agree.
I'd like to see every team on TV at least once in the season, but the rest of the selections weighted towards the better teams.

Generally I think the ABC get it pretty right though. Someone recently asked me to dig through my archives for Cayla Francis games, and as I searched through I was a little surprised to find that the AIS were only televised once last season.

Most televised games this season have been very watchable. Agree about last week's though ... not pretty at all to watch. On paper I would have guessed that it would be better than it was, so I can't be too hard on the ABC for that one.

[The Professor]

While on the subject of WNBL coverage, wouldn't it be great if the ABC replayed the Friday game late one mid-week evening on ABC2. I find the Saturday afternoon replays incovenient.

Why stop there? What about dear old Aunty investing a little something in to WNBL coverage? Perhaps covering a couple of games a week and/or sending someone with a camera to cover non-broadcast games and presenting the whole thing as a trans-WNBL magazine programme that gives you all the scores, gives you some visual highlights of the other games, provides all the news/gossip, and tells you what is happening next week. Again, ABC2 has heaps of spare capacity and could easily run this (and given that WNBL fans probably have set-top boxes, etc., it would get a loyal audience I'm sure). And also remember that the ABC used to put this sort of program togetther when it used to cover all the state AFL comps, so the experience and logisitics are there.

Just a thought.

[Dunkin' Dan]

They already show it live on the Friday night and replay it on a Saturday.
If you can't catch one of those then why not just record it?

We're very lucky to get a game a week as it is. You're pushing your luck IMO.

[Left Field]

Last year (or it may have been the year before) they replayed the Friday night game Saturday afternoon on ABC and Sunday afternoon on ABC2. I don't think we were told why this didn't continue, but then we almost lost WNBL coverage altogether before the start of the season. I happy with the coverage, just not excited about some of the games we've seen.

[The Professor]

Of course, Dunkin Dan is right on all counts (although I am very poor at recording things and looking back at them). Still, the ABC is a funny organisation and can sometimes respond to pressure - as was in evidence earlier this year I think when there was talk that they might drop WNBL coverage. Can I just also get you all to look at the Womens A-League soccer coverage that follows the Saturday basketball and note that they have a quasi-magazine format with multiple game coverage. I reckon this is something the basket ball league might have a think about. :sbs: