RNZ still bowing to the bullying of John “Possumhead” O’Neill (Aug. 28, 2013)

28 August 2013 at 6:59 am

Still bowing to the bullying of John “Possumhead” O’Neill
Radio New Zealand National: Doesn’t “Sound Like Us”
Radio New Zealand National, Wednesday 28 August 2013, 6.10 a.m.

The Essendon Football Club has been stripped of its points and heavily fined following a drug investigation. That’s important news, and rightly was the first thing on this morning’s National Radio sports bulletin. However, poor old Gary Ahern was clearly under some awkward riding instructions.

In 2004, an absurd directive was issued by the then Australian soccer CEO John O’Neill—Yes, THAT John O’Neill—that the game everyone in Australia and New Zealand calls “soccer” was henceforth to be called “football”, in spite of the fact that name was already taken by Australian football and Rugby football. Most news organisations, especially in the always compliant New Zealand, obeyed O’Neill’s spurious directive, but the general public of course continued to ignore it. Several years later, even the Herald has reverted to popular usage, but Radio New Zealand’s employees are clearly still obliged to persist with the practice. That’s obvious when you consider the absurdly convoluted wording of Ahern’s script this morning.

I sent those hapless slaves the following email….

It’s the Essendon FOOTBALL Club, not “Australian Rules” Club

Dear Simon and Geoff,

First item on your sports news this morning was about the “Essendon Australian Rules Club”. There is no such entity. Obviously the sports reporter meant the famous Essendon Football Club, but for some ridiculous reason, felt compelled to make up another name for the club.

That reason was made perfectly clear in the very next item, which was about “the Australian footballer Andrew Durante”. A quick check of the Australian Football League rosters reveals no such player, and there was no Australian footballer of that name playing against the All Blacks on Saturday evening. Turns out this Andrew Durante is an Australian soccer pkayer, but because of this absurd Radio New Zealand directive, he has to be called a “footballer”, in defiance of common practice in both Australia and New Zealand.

Your sports reporter Gary Ahern knows better, of course, but obviously felt compelled to follow this absurd directive.

Just another example of Radio New Zealand not sounding anything “like us.”

Yours in bemusement,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point

• tc1.1

  28 August 2013 at 9:17 am

  yes what muppetts these morning RNZ jocks are, O’Neill would be pissing himslef as he left that post over 5 years ago as proof of what dweebs we are following 03 co hosting fiasco.

  In Aussie AFL is mostly referred to as Footy or Rules, League is League, soccer is soccer and rugby rugby. You could just call them sportspeople given the way some swap codes.
• Te Reo Putake1.2

  28 August 2013 at 9:53 am

  I’m not sure why RNZ making it clear for the listeners that the Bombers are an Aussie Rules club is a problem. If they’d just said Essendon Football Club, most kiwis would have thought that meant football, not rules. btw, they haven’t been stripped of any points, but they aren’t allowed to play in the finals series despite qualifying in the top eight.
  • tc1.2.1

    28 August 2013 at 11:51 am

    yes very lazy sloppy jonolism from RNZ they will officially finish the season in ninth place regardless of their points tally, and copped a $2m fine, lost draft picks etc
    • Te Reo Putake1.2.1.1

      28 August 2013 at 5:37 pm

      The sloppy jonolism was from Moz, not RNZ. They reported the sanctions correctly, Moz, reported their report incorrectly.
      • Morrissey1.2.1.1.1

        28 August 2013 at 7:55 pm

        They reported the sanctions correctly…

        The poor obedient slaves couldn’t even get the name of the club right. It’s not that Gary Ahern doesn’t know how stupid he sounds by making up a name for the club, it’s that he is constrained by the foolish policy of Radio NZ National to disregard popular usage and obey a long-defunct directive issued by a discredited and malicious sports administrator.

        Whether or not the Bombers lost all their points or not, the outcome is the same: they have been shamed and disgraced for their systematic abuse of drugs.
  • Morrissey1.2.2

    28 August 2013 at 4:06 pm

    Our good friend Te Reo Putake has, not for the first time, pretended to be obtuse….

    If they’d just said Essendon Football Club, most kiwis would have thought that meant football, not rules.

    I don’t know anyone who is so ignorant as to imagine the Essendon Bombers play in the Super 15. So we know it’s not rugby football. It’s not association football. It’s Essendon Football Club. The name kind of clues you in, even if you know nothing about Melbourne, Australia or sport. Anyone who doesn’t know Essendon Football Club plays football should not be living unsupervised in the community.
    • Te Reo Putake1.2.2.1

      28 August 2013 at 5:33 pm

      Well, as you know, Moz, for most Kiwis, football is the round ball game. We also play rugby and league. So it makes sense for RNZ to clarify that the Bombers are an Auusie rules club. Otherwise, the listeners would have been left wondering how this affects the Nix’s chances in the upcoming season. Like it or not RNZ can’t tailor their sports bulletins to fit the anachronistic pedantry of one gripper in Northcote.

      Yours in football,
      Te reonaldinho.
      • Morrissey1.2.2.1.1

        28 August 2013 at 7:46 pm

        Well, as you know, Moz, for most Kiwis, football is the round ball game.

        No it’s not, and you know it. Football is a generic name, of course, but it usually means rugby football. That’s why Gary Ahern and his colleagues not so subtly undermine the directibe by almost always saying “uh, football” when they dutifully read out their scripts, which until Possumhead’s mischievous joke directive in 2004, always used the word “soccer”. As I mentioned earlier, the print media have lapsed back to the popular usage, but Radio NZ National doggedly persists, just like they do with “1800s” instead of “nineteenth century” and “Fanganui” instead of the correct local pronunciation.

        So it makes sense for RNZ to clarify that the Bombers are an Auusie rules club.

        It’s the Essendon Football Club. The Bombers play football. There is no entity known as the Essendon Australian Rules Club.
        • Te Reo Putake1.2.2.1.1.1

          28 August 2013 at 8:37 pm

          Now who’s being willfully obtuse? Nobody said that there was such a thing as Essendon Australian Rules Club. But Radio NZ did mention Essendon, Aussie Rules club. Note the comma. It was by way of explanation, as I mentioned above. They never claimed that construction was the official name of the club, they were putting the club in context for their listeners. ie, Essendon (an) aussie rules club. Geddit now?

          Tell ya what, howabout you take a clipboard and a pen and paper down to your local shops and ask 100 punters to name a famous footballer. After you get sick of writing down Messi, Rooney, Reidy et al pop back and let us know how it feels to be so out of touch.

          And for God’s sake stop sending those pompous emails to RNZ; it’s not just the waste of taxpayers time before they hit delete, it’s an H&S issue. Eyeball OOS; repeated rolling of the eyes can be very harmful to the long term health of the producers.
        •