“Oh my word, you beauty!” Dave Feltscheer scores a 50-metre screamer against the Eagles on Thursday. Photo: Karen Watson.

by Brendan Bradford –

On Thursday night I was fortunate enough to be given access to the Fox Sports commentary box while Sean Maloney and George Gregan called North Harbour Rays vs New South Wales Country Eagles. Here’s just a little bit of what went down.

It’s a cold, wet night at Brookvale Oval and North Harbour Rays’ speedster Dave Feltscheer latches onto a long cut-out pass from Cam Crawford. He tears off downfield and scores next to the posts to give his side a 21-16 lead shortly after halftime in the Rays’ Round 3 NRC match against New South Wales Country Eagles.

The parochial home-crowd goes up in unison as another sheet of rain washes over the ground.

The natural ebb and flow of a pulsating contest keeps the crowd of nearly 2000 hardy fans entertained, but at home, where the immediacy of live sport is sacrificed in favour of the comfort of your lounge-room and convenience of an instant replay, the commentary team comes into its own.

“That’s a pearler of a pass from Cam Crawford,” shouts play-by-play caller Sean Maloney who stands throughout the match. His voice rises in tone and excitement as Feltscheer leaves more and more defenders in his wake.  

“Feltscheer in a bit of open room and Oh My Word, YOU BEAUTY! Dave Feltscheer, chalk him up, George Gregan.”

Andrew “The Fire” Kellaway scores one of his two tries. Photo: AJF Photography

The former Wallaby halfback picks up the cue.

“What a fantastic bit of skill there, wonderful pass from Cam Crawford to release him, but geez he had some work to do…”

There’s not much time to catch your breath in the high-tempo encounter and you wouldn’t know it’s Gregan’s NRC commentary debut. As talkative as he was on the field in his playing days, Gregan is a perfect fit in the commentary box and never stumbles when prompted by Maloney with a tap on the shoulder.

“The Fire! The Fire,” they shouted together when Eagles winger Andrew Kellaway powered over for his first try of the night – his fifth in three matches.

“The Fire with five,” laughs Gregan.

Just like that they’ve coined a nickname for the red-headed Kellaway. They do the same for the tenacious Country flanker, Will Miller, who starts out as ‘The Ferret’ and ends up as ‘Mad Dog Miller’.

While the NRC’s innovative new law variations provide a more thrilling spectacle on the pitch, it also offers the commentary team some freedom, says Maloney.

“We can kind of tear up the playbook and have a bit of fun with it,” he tells me after the match.

“There are key things with commentary that are non-negotiable and you have to stick to, but in and around that, there’s a real chance to give it some colour. I love the game as well and if you love the game, it makes it so much easier and one of the things I want to try and do is make it great for people who might not watch a lot of rugby.”

As well as being Gregan’s first match in the box, it’s the first time in Australian rugby history that interviews have been conducted with try-scorers while a conversion is being taken. It’s met with mixed reviews on Twitter – what isn’t – but the crew is pleased for the most part.

“One bloke sledged me though, saying ‘get off the field, it isn’t cricket,’” laughed Gerrard Middleton who was charged with conducting the in-match interviews.

“Those interviews with try-scorers were phenomenal,” Maloney enthuses.

Man of the Match Sam Windsor, as selected by Maloney and Gregan. Photo: Karen Watson.

“I think we got two nicknames out of the game tonight as well – The Fire and Mad Dog Miller – so I think all the guys are enjoying it.”

The lead caller of Fox Sports’ NRC coverage and the presenter of Rugby HQ’s popular ‘Top Five’ segment, Maloney has – considering the lack of marketing done by those in charge – become the public face of the competition.

He’s good with that.

“The ultimate is to be the next Greg Clarke,” he says.

“I want to get where he is whenever he’s had enough of it – that’s the dream. You’ve gotta have goals and chase them and when Clarkie’s had enough, I want to try and fill in.”

Not bad for a bloke who started out at Fox Sports on $17 an hour logging equestrian stats on the nightshift.

“I knew a long time ago what I wanted to do – probably in my teens – but it was a hard road getting here,” he says.

“I had to go through some pretty hard work to be able to sit in that chair and that’s what I tell people who want to get in the media: you’ve gotta put your hand up to go through some garbage. When I started at Fox I’d be sitting there watching a live feed coming in from anywhere in the world and I’d be making notes on people going over jumps. It was horrendous.”

A former Manly Marlin forward, he says the nervous tension of fronting a live call is comparable to his playing days (“you’re snapping at the missus a bit, giving her a hard time on the day of the game”) but the exhilaration makes it all worthwhile.

There’s laughter and banter in the minutes before the broadcast as Maloney whips out a steady stream of Will Ferrell quotes as a kind-of warm-up.

“Hey, Blue, how come there’s no ice in my lemonade? Drop down and you give me ten, now…you my boy, Blue!”

It has the four or five people in the commentary box, and whoever’s on the other end of the microphone, in stitches.

Inside the OB truck – the control room for the Fox Sports broadcast.

“It gives you that same rush as when you’re playing, you finish and you’re absolutely buzzed. That’s the other really appealing aspect, just the rush of it – and as an aside, the camaraderie. It’s completely a team thing and you saw that before from the guys in the OB truck to the guys on the field, if someone drops the ball, you’re really cactus.”

The OB, or outside broadcasting truck, is the control-centre. All vision and audio is funnelled through there and organised on a mind-boggling wall of screens by a production team crammed in side-by-side. There are 12 screens, numerous switchboards, flashing lights, headphones, microphones and what seems like eight different conversations buzzing around the claustrophobic confines of the truck. It looks like something out of NASA, but Maloney says it’s only half the size of the control room they use for Test matches.

“Everyone’s got their job in there – there’s Slats (Paul Slater) who’s the director, he’s looking at all the camera angles, then there’s Toby (Sinclair) who’s the boss of everyone, he’s the producer,” Maloney explains.

“He would be the quarterback, that’s how I’d describe it, because he’s marshalling everyone in different areas.”

“So what does that make you?”

“Well, I guess if the producer’s trying to send you long to make it work, I guess I’m the wide receiver. That’s almost how it works, you’ve gotta be racking up the points on the frontline. It lives and dies on you.”

That kind of pressure isn’t for the faint hearted, but if the producer is the quarterback and Maloney is the wide receiver, there’s a team of offensive linemen, a tight end and a couple of running backs who man the cameras, record stats and pass information during the match. Like he says, it’s a team effort.

“It’s a passion and you’ve gotta work hard, but I love it. I love it.”