Co-commentators come from the host and/or competing clubs and bring local colour, excitement and insight.
That’s one of the novel aspects of what we do and they add a huge amount to the coverage.
The co-commentator is there to inform, to analyse and to provide background detail that they will have readily to hand (e.g. “John got a goal in the quarter-final too so he’s destined to be a local hero after getting another one now – and his father got the goal in ’82”). A good knowledge of the club and team is essential.
A few guidelines we give our co-commentators to make sure all goes well (and to keep us out of the High Court):
- Turn up 15 minutes before coverage starts (note ‘coverage’, not ‘event start time’).
- Suss out team changes and watch for players wearing wrong numbers, including subs. The commentator will not know all of your players so your help in this regard is crucial.
- The commentator ‘brings you in’ each time by asking a question or putting a microphone in front of you. As a general rule, the commentator covers all the action as it’s happening and turns to you during breaks in play (after scores, during injury breaks, half-time etc). Once play is about to resume, the commentator calls the action again.
- Don’t take the microphone from the commentator.
- Keep relevant notes and quote from those in your contributions.
- You will feature on screen throughout the day – wearing a club top is therefore a nice touch.
- No bad language. Do be animated, excited and ‘up for it’, but be controlled.
- Respect towards the referee and the opposition – remember, you are an ambassador for your club. Equally, no stories, anecdotes or innuendo that embarrass players, spectators or the streaming audience.
- If your team wins, you should leave the commentary area just before the finish; shoot down to the field; and help to get some players, mentors and officials (approx. 3 in total) back up for interviews. This needs to be done speedily as we will lose viewers if we take too long. You will also be interviewed again after the players / mentors to get your final thoughts on the day.
- Interviews with guests from the clubs are conducted by the commentator / presenter.
- Have the club submitted pen-pics to the programme or local media? If yes, it would be good to get your hands on those beforehand (you might even have written them yourself!)
By the way, bringing a club jersey along is good – we can use it as part of the build-up, show the jersey up close to the camera, that kind of thing.