Got wood?
The Ben Cousins media circus pitches its tent at the not-so-hallowed turf of the Docklands Stadium tonight where a capacity crowd and one fast tracked female football commentator will witness the high profile recruit run out for the first time in a match proper for Richmond. Kelli Underwood, the Rosa Parks of AFL media, having refused to languish on the sidelines as a boundary rider, will alongside Bearded Lady, Robert Walls, Pinhead, Stephen Quartermain and Dwarf, Anthony Hudson share her battle weary insights into what it takes to win a premiership, recall the gutbusting toil running sprints in knee deep water during a preseason and what it’s like to crash a car sauced to the eyeballs with members of the Shaw clan.
Underwood, who called the final quarter of an Essendon and Carlton game three years ago for 3AW, the radio station then embroiled in controversy after it was revealed that its star Rex Hunt had been caught performing lewd acts on street walkers in alley ways after his wife recovered from cancer, debuted for the Ten Network last weekend by calling the action of the Adelaide and Geelong NAB Cup encounter.
A poll conducted in The Age, the newspaper that somehow deciphers the crayon scrawl of Collingwood columnist Jake Niall on a weekly basis, supported Underwood’s debut by fixing a poll of its (female) readers 60-40 in favour of Underwood’s performance, a performance that required her to muster words like “sensational,” and turns of phrase such as “offline, for a minor score.”
Rhetoric inspired a copy editor to surmise that the poll results indicated, “how the appearance of women commentators in male sports tends to provoke a reaction.”
The piece did not go on to stipulate what kind of reaction.
The destinies of Cousins and Underwood appear to be somewhat intertwined as both look to reinvent themselves this season. It is not known exactly what roles the two will play in their respective positions tonight or for how long they will be asked to perform.
The history making Underwood, 31, is likely to see more air time as Network 10 unveils its 24 hour digital sports channel later in the year. Luke Darcy has already been confirmed to helm its Netball coverage.
Tim Lane, the “most boring human being in the history of the world,” according to toilet graffiti at the Great Britain Hotel, introduced Underwood prior to her first NAB Cup broadcast as the progeny of a sports loving family and a journalist who had earned her stripes. Although it is not yet known how Underwood earned those same stripes at least we know it wasn’t because her daddy worked in the same industry.
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