This is an idea I've had for a while now, and I would love to see what people think about it.

This is how the idea occured, I work every Friday night, which of course means I miss the majority of my beloved Reds matches, and while it is easy enough to get score updates, I would love to read how the goals were scored and other chances which occur. I realise Sportal has text commentary, but it is absolutely woeful, and terribly slow. Anyone who has the Eurosport application would know how fantastic their text commentary is, and I could only dream of having something as good in the A-League.

So here's my suggestion, can us passionate members of 442 band together and somehow develop a live commentary centre for all A-League matches. All we need is 10 or so volunteers who could provide insightful commentary to the matches, and then the 442 website could make it in a readable format, with players, referees and weather conditions all shown.

From here we could get this to be stickied on the 442 home page and can be accessed easily, both from computers for the people who can't see the match, and for people on their phones who may be at the game and want description on the plays they see, overall it can be like an iPod or iPhone application, without being an official apple product.

Does it sound at all possible? Would anyone else be interested?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.


Edited by Funky Munky: 19/10/2010 11:52:10 PM

+1. Kinda like cricinfo.

we've got matchday in AF... that's what it's for

To be fair, Friday night's match contained:

TEEEEEEEEEERRRA! WHAT A GOAL
GREAT GOAL TERRA
TERRA GOOOOOOOOOOOOAL

Wasn't insightful for people who couldn't see the game.

If we could incorporate text commentary, with people providing their own analysis and opinions in the 'comments' it would be a much better that the Matchday thread.

Here is an example, this is the final 5 minutes from the Sunderland vs Arsenal EPL match a few weeks ago on Eurosports commentary.

90+5' The final whistle goes, and Arsenal are denied top spot at the death! Arsene Wenger is livid that the clock had gone over the four allotted minutes of added time, but the fact is that Sunderland have snatched a point that their performance probably deserved.

90+4' GOAL!! SUNDERLAND EQUALISE!! Andy Reid's corner is not sufficiently cleared, and Zenden hoists it back in. CLichy bungles his clearance and Darren Bent blasts the loose ball into the net from six yards out!

90+3' Denilson exploits a gap in the Sunderland back line and has a pop at goal, but it bounces wide of the post.

90+1' There are four minutes of added time signalled by the fourth official.

90' Al-Muhamadi wins a corner and elicits a big cheer from the crowd.


It captured the excitement, and I think we have passionate and knowledgable enough fans and supporters on this forum to create this for the A-League.

Totally agree.

Also a good one to look at as an example is The Guardian's Minute by Minute of EPL matches. Happy to do it for Victory away games and have been known to do it on the odd occasion on my own personal Victory blog.

I get the Sportal updates on my phone, but I have to say the HAL updates when compared to the EPL ones are shithouse and come at about 3-4 minute intervals and give no indication of the actual play.

Exactly, it's a half assed job and can be done alot better, we just need people to get involved and hope 442 get behind it.

skysports one is also awesome for epl, i cant see why FFT dont have someething like this in place already

Here is an example of something I have done after watching the Wellington vs Gold Coast match earlier this season in Wellington, bear in mind it was my first attempt so it's pretty basic.



Welcome to a very wet WestPac Stadium for this 2nd round A-League match between the Wellington Phoenix and Gold Coast United.

Here are the teams:
Gold Coast:
Moss, Van Den Brink, Djulbric, Rees, Anderson, Caravella, Culina, Thwaite, Brown, Porter, Smeltz
Wellington:
Paston, Muscat, Durante, Sigmund, Lochhead, Brown, Lia, Bertos, Ifill, Greenacre, MacAllister

Wellington Phoenix      Gold Coast
1            1

Ifill (7) Smeltz (36)

Yellow cards:         
Bertos (22)         Djulbic (17)

We are away in Wellington!

1' Early corner for Gold Coast, the pitch is terribly wet with puddles beginning to appear.
2' Culina takes and finds Thwaite who header is straight at Paston.
3' Nice movement from Wellington, Ifill swings in a cross, flicked on by Greenacre who nearly finds Macallister but Moss claims.
4' Paston spills a simple ball crossed in by Anderson, falls to Culina whos shot is blocked!
New South American signing Toto starts on the pine for the Phoenix.
7' GOAL! - Bertos does well on the right and swings in a ball which is cleared by Thwaite only to find Ifill at the edge of the box who works around a few Gold Coast defenders and scores!
8' CHANCE - The dust barely settles as Caravella finds it in midfield and fires a thunderbolt from 30 yards which hits the post! Paston didnt move!
9' CHANCE - Ifill again causing problems! Finds it on the left, goes around Van den Brink and fires it at goal which is straight Moss.
Cracking start to the match!
10' Nice work from Porter on the left who finds Brown on the edge of the box, who shoots high and wide.
12' CHANCE - Nice patient play from the Gold Coast, Thwaite finds space and delivers in a quick ball into the box where Caravella side-foots wide! Perhaps he should have left it for Smeltz who was in a better position to strike!
Rain still hammering down, Gold Coast look the better of the 2 sides despite the score line.
17' Crucial slip by Djulbic in defence and he knocks the ball away with his hand as Greenacre looks to pounce! Yellow shown by Peter O'Leary.
19' CHANCE - Anderson finds space and delivers to Brown with all of the time in the world hits it straight at Paston, which rebounds to Caravella who's shot is blocked, what a chance for Gold Coast!
21' Great ball by Thwaite nearly finds Porter but ricochets of Sigmund and rolls to Paston, I don't think Sigmund knew too much about that!
Absolute domination by Gold Coast at the moment.
22' Bertos booked for a tug on Thwaite.
24' A break in play as Thwaite cops one and goes off for treatment
25' Free kick on the edge of the box for the Phoenix, massive chance!
26' Ifill blasts it over the bar.
26' Smeltz picks out Culina with a lovely cross but the Phoenix clear it out.
28' Terrible clearance by Paston sees Gold Coast have a corner.
Wellington will feel very lucky they are still ahead
36' GOAL! - There is the goal! Shane Smeltz! Culina delivers a quality free kick and Smeltz with an angled header into the top corner!



Obviously that is very basic, and the bolded parts are trying to give a brief summation of the current game trends.

The key is to present this better, especially in the scorecard above the commentary.

Thoughts?

I can set something up, but I am averse to putting it on the news pages without knowing we have a band of willing and competent people to do it and KEEP IT UP. I don't want to add a new feature and have it die a disappointing death.

However what I can maybe try to do is set up a coveritlive blog in its own thread and give wannabe commentators access to it to run for each match.

Is that something that may interest you guys?

If you can prove dedication and commitment, with every game covered, I will see about moving it onto the homepage as a feature (and possibly throw a magazine sub at the commentators...?)

Sounds good - willing to give it a shot for the next Victory away game.

BTW here is a link to what I do when covering Victory games for my own blog, like to use The Guardian's MBM as a basis for my format. As you can see it's not a direct shot by shot account of the game but you definitely get the gist of what is going on with my slant on it.

http://www.victoryinmelbourne.com/2010/08/melbourne-victory-vs-sydneyfc-minute-by-minute/

That sounds fantastic, exactly what I'm after, but I do recognise the challenge will be getting people interested to do the commentary and staying with it, but if it is a success early, I'm sure people will be very keen to volunteer.

Zizou seems keen, I would be able to a match each week (generally a Sunday game), and I'm sure we can get a few others interested.


If it proves a success with people actively watching the scores and contributing to comments, is there a chance you could make it appear on the homepage, so it's easy to get to on mobile phones?

Have to get that live chat thingy you guys were using for Socceroo games a couple years ago. That was pretty handy and refreshed itself.

I'd be willing to do this for all the games if I was needed - I'm usually sitting with my laptop in front of a game with the match-day thread open anyway. Only exceptions obviously being Roar home games and any games that immediately precede or follow those games.

So far we have 3 willing to contribute to this, maybe it is worth trialling it for 1 match and see the reviews we recieve from the forum members.

Does anyone have a screenshot of how this coveritlive could perhaps look?

http://www.coveritlive.com/

This would be epic. Especially for covering games like the recent AFC U19 game against the UAE where people has shit sreams etc.

Those wishing to be commentators, please PM me your email addresses...

It appears we can't embed the coveritlive into forum posts, but what I will do is add it to the bottom of each Match preview for each game. It will be the same coveritlive for each game, just put into suspension at the end of each game, then restarted for each new game.

We'll give it a shot and see how we go...it will also take in tweets with the #aleague hashtag.

Commentators will need to get accustomed to the software first - I'll set up a test one for you to play with to get the hang of it.

Edited by Kevin Airs: 13/10/2010 02:21:20 PM

Like zizou, I am committed in doing Victory away games.

the matchday thread is good, but not great.


would really love to see a matchday thing similar to what the bbc do on epl days. like dt, i am committed to doing brisbane roar games.

Edited by zimbos_05: 13/10/2010 02:45:49 PM

I would do Sydney F.C away games, but I am not always available.

Putting myself out of the running as I rarely watch any games sober.

have you had a look at the bbc model for their games when they cover epl. its pretty good and quite neat too.

I would probably rather not do Adelaide matches as I would probably rather sit and watch (considering I don't get to see many due to working Friday nights) the games rather than commentate them.

I am willing to do a match each Sunday, for instance this week, Wellington vs Melbourne Heart, I could do that one.

I'm assuming we will need to set up a roster of some-sort, or just consult weekly as to who can do what game.

If you can sort out among yourselves who's doing what by assigning yourselves to a set game each week, that would probably be the best way.

Week by week is probably best for the moment - no need for long-term commitment yet until we all see how it goes.

Im happy to do Brisbane Roar home games. travelling can be quite difficult.

one other note. how would we be watching these games. would we be at the stadiums or just doing it from home.

if its stadium, would we not need media clearance.

if its from home, its probably easy for anyone to do it then.

Edited by zimbos_05: 13/10/2010 03:24:21 PM

Happy with that.

Purely for a draft of this week's game (if this is going to be up and running by then), let's get some names to the games.

Note: All times are venue time-zones.


Friday Night 7:30pm- North Queensland vs Perth @ Dairy Farmers -
Saturday Night 6:45pm - Melbourne Victory vs Sydney FC @ Etihad -
Saturday Night 7:45pm - Brisbane Roar vs Newcastle Jets @ Suncorp -
Sunday 4:00pm - Gold Coast vs Adelaide United @ Skilled -
Sunday 5:00pm - Wellington Phoenix vs Melbourne Heart @ Westpac - mizza

Only nominate if you can 100% do this match, if we want this to be a success people can't be pulling out just for shits and giggles.

Home, then you can relay stats from the television coverage and it just becomes alot easier in every aspect.

I would suggest only doing it from the couch in front of a TV. You get a MUCH better idea of what happening when you have access to the TV replays that you don't see in the stadium.

Additionally, mobile broadband tends not to cope well with 10k people all txt'ing within a confined area...

thats probably best.

was going to say saturday would be difficult for me as this is short notice and ive got a comittment on early sunday.

however, if we at home, im happy to pencil in my name for the roar game this weekend. once we get this more concrete closer to the date, ill be more certain whats going on.

Would it only be for A-League KA? Could you also make it available for Socceroos and the U23 + U19 games? Could even throw the Matildas in there too.

Sure - it can be used for all Australian-related games that anyone can reliably supply commentary for. The key thing is to be in a position to see the game live though (not always possible with non-A-League, non-Socceroos games...)

If we are interested did you still want our emails KA?

Nevermind

Edited by zimbos_05: 13/10/2010 05:49:01 PM

Awesome idea! I would volunteer but I get far to absorbed in the game to pay attention to anything else that's going on.

that was awesome... remember the one on Australia vs Uzbekistan away and Adelaide vs Buykendor or whatever over there

That's awesome :D Hopefully we'll get lucky with being able to watch games live.

so i was thinking, if we going to be doing the live online text commentary from our homes, thats fine. however, we would only need 5 of us per weekend to do this. no point having a specific guy per club and then letting two people cover one match.

so if we get a solid list of about 10-12 guys who are keen and willing and committed to do this, we can work out a roster per week. that way everyone gets a chance and it gives everyone a chance to have some weekends off.

im happy to workout the roster, but it would need the co-operation of all 10/12 people who are involved.

Maybe a better way of doing it would be to at the start of the week having all involved nominate which matches they are able to do, and create the roster from there. Then start sharing around if 2 people are available for the same match and 1 has covered 4 matches and the other person has done 1.

Has anyone had a play around on the coveritlive blog that KA set up?

Yes.

ive had a play on Coveritlive. its pretty easy to use. it does not take long to get used to it.

Just had a play on CIL. Looks nifty.

Sorry I havn't posted in this thread - didn't have net for a little while and then got caught up in the LFC case.

I now have foxtel in my new residence so I'd definitely be keen on doing this.

No preference on day or team as I'm usually on for everything, so whatever isn't taken I can jump on.

Awesome idea too.

Just a note to those commentating - do NOT end the coveritlive at the conclusion of your match.

I intend to try keeping the same one active for ALL the matches. At the end of your match coverage, simply SUSPEND the event. This will leave it ready for the next game without having to create a new one and inviting everyone in again.

In short: don't end, suspend. Okay? Ta!

So are we going to attempt to do a roster on who's doing what?

Just sent you a PM KA.

I think that's what will happen Imno

This is the roster so far, obviously we are cutting it a bit fine for this week but the interest in people helping out is growing.

Note: All times are venue time-zones.

Friday Night 7:30pm- North Queensland vs Perth @ Dairy Farmers -
Saturday Night 6:45pm - Melbourne Victory vs Sydney FC @ Etihad -
Saturday Night 7:45pm - Brisbane Roar vs Newcastle Jets @ Suncorp -
Sunday 4:00pm - Gold Coast vs Adelaide United @ Skilled -
Sunday 5:00pm - Wellington Phoenix vs Melbourne Heart @ Westpac - mizza

Only nominate if you can 100% do this match, if we want this to be a success people can't be pulling out just for shits and giggles.


A couple of questions to KA, is it as simple as just opening the Matchday blog page and begin typing? What happens to the text commentary from previous games? For instance, if someone does the Perth vs Nth Qld match tomorrow will the text of us practising still be visible?

Also, how do you suspend the blog? When you exit out it mentions that it won't end the ticker, it's just navigating you away from the screen, or is there a 'suspend' option that I'm not seeing?

Cheers

lets have a cap on who is allowed to be part. no point having 30 people because not everyone will get time.

i say we cap it at 12.

so like mizza says, only in if you committed. you wont have to do everyweek, but you must be committed.

so far, i think weve got:

davidtorres
buddha69
mizza
zimbos_05 (cant even get my own name right ](*,) )
imnofreak
scouse_roar


if there is anyone else im sorry i missed you. imno can just edit the list. moderator priviliges.

can we also have a briefing on how we access the games. do we need to create one from our coveritlive accounts or does KA set up something for us to access through our accounts?

Edited by zimbos_05: 14/10/2010 04:06:21 PM

Edited by zimbos_05: 14/10/2010 04:23:12 PM

Just hold on till KA drops in... I'm sure once he has a list he'll start sorting it out... don't forget to check your emails, I'm sure he didn't ask for them for nothing ;)

Preference for me would be Friday or Sat night games.

I'm good to do the Friday night game and Sunday games this week - but can't do the Saturday night games as I'll be at the Roar.

i think like imno said...lets wait for KA to come on and tell us who is on the roster. we can then take it from there.

might be a good idea to have each others numbers or emails in case you need a replacement for a game you rostered on. ofcourse that can be done once we know our roster list

So "Close My Console"?

It's a nice little system, I like it.

It seems we have a good spread at the moment, good to see some advertising in the 442 squads article.

How do we access the game and commentate on it.

I should be good for the roar this weekend.

Once KA sends the invite to your email, go to that and enter your display name and the blog should begin. Watch all the videos on the home page detailing how to do the finer details.

I think KA is going to give us more information shortly, and then we can begin rostering.

Edited by SCR48: 15/10/2010 10:37:14 AM

Not much more to add, to be honest - mizza's pretty well summed it up. I'll start the event later at which point you can just log in, you should see the Matchday event, resume the coverage and begin commentating. The interface is pretty much the same as any IM system.

You will see comments from readers on the right - it up to you if you want to start authorising them...I'd suggest you don't until you're more comfortable with the software and the commentating - it becomes a bit of a two man operation then.

I'll have the matchday event box at the bottom of each match preview this weekend so look out for it there - it's also at the bottom of this week's squads page too.

I'm leaving it up to you guys to work out who's on when and get yourself sorted on that score.

Any other questions, lemme know ASAP.

You ripper, sounds good KA, and just 1 final request, are we fine to put the coveritlive link in the Matchday thread to make sure people are aware of it?

To the commentators, I've searched through the thread to suss out everyone's availability (obviously it will change week to week), and this is what I have so far, let me know if anything has changed.

scouse_roar = Friday & Sunday matches
imnofreak = Friday & Saturday matches
zimbos_05 = Brisbane home matches
Buddha69 = Sydney away matches
davidtorres = Victory away matches
mizza = Sunday matches
zizou = Victory away matches.

From that, here is a roster I have designed:

Note: All times are venue time-zones.

Friday Night 7:30pm- North Queensland vs Perth @ Dairy Farmers - imnofreak
Saturday Night 6:45pm - Melbourne Victory vs Sydney FC @ Etihad - buddha69
Saturday Night 7:45pm - Brisbane Roar vs Newcastle Jets @ Suncorp - zimbos_05
Sunday 4:00pm - Gold Coast vs Adelaide United @ Skilled - scouse_roar
Sunday 5:00pm - Wellington Phoenix vs Melbourne Heart @ Westpac - mizza


How does that sound?

Can ALL INVOLVED let me know ASAP if this is good for this one.

If it is, good luck imnofreak tonight, I'll be tuning in!

Sounds good.

Fixed

:lol:

Would love to see the commentary when/if Brosque scores.

Would it be alright if I had this week off and do it next week?

seeing as we doing from home, im happy to do brisbane roar home and away games, if im available on that day. like i said im ok for this weekend for now.

can we get a contacts list done up incase we need to find a replacement or something.

if everyone wants to PM their details i can compile the list and send it out to you guys if thats ok?

What do you want.
Facebook?
Mobile?

I'd love to do as many Sydney games as possible. :D

Also, buddha, I can't do that Saturday night game, but if Imno is happy to do the commentary for the Big Blue I'm happy to do tonight's game as well.

whatever would be the easiest way to contact you guys. something you will have at hand or you check often.

Edited by zimbos_05: 15/10/2010 12:39:42 PM

Yeah ok. Sounds good.

Zimbos, I will give you my Facebook link because that is connected to my ipod and gives me notifications

Just sent you a PM Zimbos with my details. I did forget my email so I will give you that as well because that might be handy with rosters and stuff

ok sweet. put your proper names as well...

Do I have to be the first cab off the rank!? PRESSURE.

:P

Nah no worries, I'm all good for it. Hopefully it all runs smoothly.

Yeah that might be better. You step in tonight and i'll cover the Big Blue?

That works out well, so at the moment it is:

Friday Night 7:30pm- North Queensland vs Perth @ Dairy Farmers - scouse_roar
Saturday Night 6:45pm - Melbourne Victory vs Sydney FC @ Etihad - imnofreak
Saturday Night 7:45pm - Brisbane Roar vs Newcastle Jets @ Suncorp - zimbos_05
Sunday 4:00pm - Gold Coast vs Adelaide United @ Skilled - scouse_roar
Sunday 5:00pm - Wellington Phoenix vs Melbourne Heart @ Westpac - mizza

I think we all know there will be teething problems early, so far we have 7 people interested, but I'm very confident that will grow in the coming weeks.

Dejan may be hovering around as well and may jump in to help at any stage...

Dejan may be hovering around as well and may jump in to help at any stage...oh and yes, of course, it's fine to put a link wherever you like.

Just had a play around, seems fine.

So, for clarification, what do we press when we finish our commentary?

And did you say we weren't allowed to put user comments in the comm.?

Pretty sure he said at first if you were not used to it.
IIRC

Im fairly sure you go to 'Tools' then 'Close my Console', just don't click permanently end ticker!

As buddah mention, it's a matter of getting the hang of it first, then incorporating the user comments, but if you're feeling very confident then you could give it a try.



Edited by mizza: 15/10/2010 04:13:43 PM

Can those who havnt given me their details, please get them to me

is it to late to be a text commentator?
because i really want to be a commentator for the forum.
Could you fill me in for a match next week say? Please?

A bit more time on the forum first, I think. Thanks for the enthusiasm though.

well when will i get a go ,which round do you think?
as you can see i REALLY want to be a text commentator. I am really good at this kind of stuff.

So the user comments that come in - I can select which ones are published or not? I'm not sure how that aspect of it works, so it may not be a big part of tonight's commentary. I might have a tinker at half-time or something. That's one thing the practice console didn't really cover.

Yup, you can selectthose to publish and those not to - I've also set it up to automatically take in certain twitter comments too.

I've just activated it but put it straight into standby mode - to do that yourself, just go into Tools (in the left hand column), then select Put event into standby mode. Do NOT close the event and don't just close the console please. You will be given an option to leave a message for readers - can you please just say that it will start again at kick off for the next match, state what that is and when.

Lovely - thanks.

It's pretty basic. On the practice console you can see some comments on the left hand side - that is where you will see the comments coming in from users. There is a little button that you press to approve the comment and put it in.

I've got the hang of it :P Gonna do a poll too ;)

EDIT: Got ya, KA.

Edited by imnofreak: 15/10/2010 05:59:28 PM

Where exactly will this live text be linked to?
If that makes sense.

In the bottom of the Match preview article I think

mizza i want to be commentator no.8

Yep. Take a look here: http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/185943,preview-north-queensland-fury-v-perth-glory.aspx

Obviously not at this stage while we're all still learning the ropes, but if it all goes off without a hitch this weekend you should mention where it is somewhere on the main page, KA - I'm not sure many people will realise it's even happening at this stage.

Somebody want to start a thread in AF about it? Just where to find it, etc.

Well, good luck for tonight Scouse!

I suggest posting in the Match Day thread what you are doing - or just starting a new thread. But wait till it's close to KO time.

That's actually the idea for the moment! Once you've got the hang of it and you are all fully committed after having done a few, then we'll let more people know.

I don't want to advertise something that could still be a car crash, or commit us to something that ends after a couple of weeks...

Fair enough! I kinda figured that.

I'm in for the rest of the season, personally, and I guess we'll know after this week whether it'll be a car crash or not. ;)

would I be able to access the text commentary from my iPod touch?

can you pm me all your contact details, we will add you to our contact list.

no gurantee on doing games at the moment, but once weve got this going a few weeks, youll definitely be in.

like KA said, get a bit more active on the forums and be a regular, as we need people who are committed.

Scouse is doing a great job

It's great at the moment I am really loving it. I'd love to get involved when I return from Europe at the end of November.

I can see myself using this to keep up to date while in Europe if I am online while an A-league match is on.

Edited by anth: 15/10/2010 09:00:25 PM

+1

Shame about all the twitter comments clogging it up, especially the spanish commentary ](*,)

We could do with less of the twitter comments. I am really loving the job scouse is doing at the moment.

Ben for PM.

EDIT: I also like the poll option. It feels good to have a poll around again!

Edited by anth: 15/10/2010 09:08:11 PM

killed the #aleague feed - running great otherwise...

Did you want us to create our accounts using real our real names like Scouse has done, or using our usernames?

Don't mind, to be honest

Porn names would be far better, Jack Hammer or Randy Roughrider......just throwing it out there.

Awesome. I registered under imnofreak.

Great work scouse - you just set the standard.

Thanks...very well done.

(It was also a huge help too, as for some reason my Fox 1HD crapped out for the last few minutes of the game, even though the other channels were fine)