Roy and HG's State of Origin commentary


Broadcast on the Triple J radio station to simulcast with the annual three-game rugby league State of Origin series, Australian comedians Roy and HG provide a commentary of the match at hand. An extension of the duo's This Sporting Life radio program, also on Triple J, Roy and HG's use of comedy makes their sporting calls unique from that provided by other media sources, and has earned a cult following. With the duo's move to Triple M radio in 2009, and the end of This Sporting Life, the State of Origin commentary is currently on hiatus.

History

A unique deviation from the usual format of the Triple J State of Origin coverage occurred in Game One of the 2007 Series, when Roy Slaven was unavailable to be present for the commentary. As a replacement, HG Nelson was joined by former New South Wales player Jason Stevens and Triple J radio personality Scott Dooley. King Wally Otto's pre-game build-up was replaced by Triple J presenter Jason Whalley, dubbed "The Ancient Voice of the Rhomb".

Format

Build-up

At 7:30pm on the night of a State of Origin match, Triple J interrupts its normal evening broadcasts in New South Wales and Queensland, and the State of Origin coverage begins with a fanfare of horns. A lengthy introduction to State of Origin rugby league is given by "King Wally Otto in the Soundproof Booth". This introduction, which can last for 5 minutes or more, features King Wally Otto enthusiastically reading an elaborate Doyle and Pickhaver script, which more often than not culminates in a list of Former Origin Greats, and anecdotes about their achievements or foibles. It is also common for Otto to announce a 'theme' for the year's three game series, often to do with current events. A twist on this was when the 2006 series was heavily "sponsored" by fictitious Lakemba-based car dealership Frosty Lahood Motors Australia.
At the end of Otto's build-up to the game, he usually switches to a rhapsodic introduction for Roy and HG themselves, ending with the question "are you there...HG?" Taking his role of the 'sports announcer' of the pair, HG Nelson thanks King Wally Otto in the Soundproof Booth, welcomes listeners to their State of Origin coverage and provides further build-up to the game at hand. Nelson introduces the State of Origin contest as being played for the "highest principles on the planet"; those principles being "Peace through violence, harmony through brutality and getting everyone to shut-up and behave just like us or they’ll cop a boot up the date and a fist of fives."
During the first few minutes, Nelson's broadcasting partner, "Rampaging" Roy Slaven remains silent until eventually introduced to the airwaves by Nelson. Roy's character, a supposed former player of the game who takes more of an 'expert commentary' role to Nelson's main call, is often restrained with his opening remarks; that is, until his enthusiasm for the game provokes a passionate expression of opinion about the contest to Nelson and the listening audience. The pair talk about the build-up to the game for approximately half an hour, often with Slaven recounting supposed interactions he had with stars of the league. An example of one of these exchanges was before the first game of the 2006 series which New South Wales was entering after winning the previous three in a row. With many media commentators declaring the concept of State of Origin dead after such one-sided results, Roy contacted Wally Lewis for his thoughts on the upcoming series, to which he replied "oh, are they still playing that?"

National anthem

At approximately 8:00pm the players enter the field and line up for the singing of the Australian national anthem; an occasion which provides one of Roy and HG's most infamous twists on traditional sports commentary. As the television pictures show footage of a vocalist singing "Advance Australia Fair," the Triple J coverage completely replaces the song with Lionel Rose's 1969 song "I Thank You." The choice of this song probably is due to the opening lyrics "When a boy becomes a man..." as well as the inherent violence associated with the former-boxer, Rose. The Lionel Rose song is faded out by Roy and HG when they sense the real singer is wrapping up their performance, with Roy and HG invariably praising the singer for a fantastic performance. Before the beginning of State of Origin I 2008, because the buildup to the game had been quite emotional as Jack Gibson had recently died, a violin solo of "Waltzing Matilda" was played during the national anthem, with both Roy and HG applauding the 'beautiful' rendition.

Game commentary

Compared to the more traditional commentary on Channel 9 and ABC Radio's Grandstand, Roy and HG are often less restrained in their criticism of players and teams. This feature of their call may be off-putting for certain fans who are sensitive to hearing players in their team criticised, but is generally taken in the humorous way it is intended. The duo's commentary, and particularly Slaven's, often features over the top reactions to the game at hand, such as calling for entire teams of players to be sacked after losses, or even questioning whether losing teams will ever win another match in the future.
Though Doyle was born in New South Wales, and both currently reside within the state, this gives seemingly little influence to any commentary 'bias'. Roy and HG are also quick to relish the more 'unsavoury' actions of players on the field which are ignored or downplayed by more traditional commentators. This includes spitting, dacking, wedgies, gouging, groping, pig-rooting, fighting and roughhousing in general.
Roy and HG's State of Origin commentary is also noteworthy for the use of nicknames to refer to many of players on the field, rather than their surnames. While standard, well-known nicknames such as "Sticky" Ricky Stuart and "Mad Dog" MacDougall are used, the duo are renowned for their creation and use of more obscure 'running joke'-type nicknames about players. A partial list of nicknames is presented below:

Player nicknames

In addition to the players, Roy and HG frequently refer to two former top grade referees: Kelvin Jeffes and Moghseen Jadwat, ironically describing them as the two best officials ever to grace the sport. This is in contrast to Roy and HG's typical opinions of refereeing staff.

Other sayings

Roy and HG's commentary also makes use of a number of sayings which are infrequently used by the majority of rugby league broadcasters.

Play of game

By their own account, Roy and HG's commentary of the match is broadcast live from a card table adjacent to the halfway line of the playing field. In reality, their call is very much centred around the pictures that Channel 9 broadcast on their TV coverage with, for example, the duo being unsure of who won a penalty from the referee until the TV pictures change to a shot of the restart of play happening. Roy and HG use this aspect to add further comedy to their commentary, for example by calling the Channel 9 commentary team "men eating ice cream cones" for their unnecessary use of hand-held microphones during studio broadcasts. Another memorable example of the TV-centric flow of Slaven and Nelson's commentary was during the 2004 series when Channel 9 introduced the "Skycam" camera-on-wires which 'hovered' above the players' heads. This expensive technology, which had notably poor picture quality, often could not keep up with the flow of play was over-used by Channel 9 during the broadcast, was frequently blasted by Roy and HG for disorientating them with the "telecast from the lunar surface." Slaven and Nelson also give back-handed criticism to Channel 9's low-brow "football entertainment" show The Footy Show, sarcastically remarking what a "funny show" it is.

Digital divide

Though many listen to the call without accompaniment, HG Nelson's introductory comments always invite listeners to "tickle your television to the league channel down your end of the swamp, turn down the sound and turn up Triple J." Since the early 2000s, the spread of digital television throughout Australia has caused some technical issues for the Triple J State of Origin broadcast. Roy and HG's commentary had previously arrived to viewers approximately in sync with the television pictures. The digital delay that came with the introduction of digital TV created a noticeable gap between the analogue radio broadcast and the slower digital TV signal. HG Nelson had to preclude their broadcast that "unfortunately we live with the digital divide, and there’s nothing we can do about it." In later years, however, Nelson would add that digital TV viewers should try tuning into their online stream via the , which has its own slight delay behind the airwaves. Therefore, it is recommended that analogue TV viewers listen to the analogue radio broadcast, and digital TV viewers stream the commentary from the Triple J website.