50,000 watch wrong game
By Richard Clune
October 08, 2006 12:00
FIFTY thousand Australians watched the AFL grand final last weekend and saw Barry Hall play a blinder.
They cheered the Sydney Swans to a second narrow victory over the West Coast Eagles, sealed amazingly by yet another match-saving mark in the last second by Leo Barry. But their parallel universe was exposed when they rang their mates to celebrate, or commiserate, after the game.
It was then they discovered thegrand final they thought they were watching was the 2005 version _ not the 2006 thriller, which West Coast won by a point. The replay was screened by pay-TV channel Fox Footy at the same time the real thing was being shown live on Channel 10.
About 50,000 viewers who tuned in to Fox Footy's coverage were miffed at being duped. Fan Chris Graham, who watched the entire 2005 replay with a "Swans-mad mate'', said he was annoyed with the channel, which has since ceased operations after failing to obtain a new AFL rights agreement.
"What they did was a disgrace,'' Mr Graham said. "They promoted it as the grand-final edition the entire day. They just forgot to add 2006.'' Mr Graham admitted that at one point during the telecast, he questioned whether he was watching a replay of 2005.
"I thought at times that it looked familiar, but I just put that down to the fact the same two teams were playing.''
Another viewer, Andrew Hagger, said he was overseas for last year's grand final and tuned into Fox Footy thinking he was watching this season's decider. "Given that Fox Footy is no more, maybe this was their attempt at a humorous parting gesture? Problem is, I really wasn't amused once I learned I'd been watching the wrong game.''
His confusion was mirrored by a sports editor at a Tasmanian newspaper who confirmed he, too, had been caught out watching the wrong game. "It was a busy day in the office. I had my head down and wasn't really concentrating on the game.
"When I saw West Coast interchange (former ruckman) Michael Gardiner, I realised my mistake and quickly turned over.''
Several callers to post-game radio shows said they had also watched the entire replay, even though they were listening to live radio coverage of the 2006 game. "I just thought it was different because of satellite delay or something,'' one caller said.
A Foxtel spokesman said there had been "no malicious intent to confuse audiences'', despite Fox Footy screening its own live preamble, hosted by Matthew Campbell and Wayne Carey. "It was listed as a replay in our programming guides,'' he told The Sunday Telegraph.
Foxtel football executive Peter Campbell was unapologetic. "We've got to show something. I would have thought Ten made it clear they were the premiership network and it was live and exclusive,'' he said.
