Wendell Sailor to break new commentary ground

[travelling_gerry]

Iain Payten From: The Daily Telegraph January 22, 2011 12:00AM


HE STILL calls himself "the Dual" - as in dual international - but now Wendell Sailor could be the man to break new ground in the TV world by commentating on both rugby league and rugby union for Channel 9.

Nine takes over the rights to broadcast rugby this year and will show the Wallabies' Tests in the Tri-Nations and then the Rugby World Cup in September and October.

Nine will also put Super rugby back on free-to-air for the first time in a decade in a weekly highlights show. It's understood Nine will take the match commentary of FoxSports but are looking for fresh talent to front the hosting duties.

Sailor is a name that has been thrown up.

An entertaining figure already on the books of Nine and FoxSports, Sailor's five years in rugby make him a credible option and someone who'd also attract non-rugby fans.

Asked if he'd be interested in becoming the Dual International Commentator, Sailor said he'd keep an open mind.


"No one has spoken to me or anything ... I enjoyed my time with the Wallabies and I am still mates with a lot of those boys. If it was just offering a few opinions here and there, no problems," Sailor said.

"But league has been wonderful to me and I am enjoying working for Nine and Fox and doing grassroots work in league. I'd be really reluctant to jeopardise that work in any way so I guess we'd just wait and see."

Things didn't end well with rugby and Sailor (two-year drug ban) but the ARU - consulting with Nine - would be smart to make peace with Sailor and push for his involvement.

The Dell sells and rugby needs all the help it can get in free-to-air ratings after several years of atrophy on Seven. Other presenters will be Nine men: former Wallaby captain Andrew Slack and one-time NSW forward Tim Sheridan.

Brendan Cannon is also in Nine's sights despite being on FoxSports, while intelligent hooker Adam Freier is also being talked about. Veteran caller Gordon Bray? Highly unlikely.
***

STILL on big Wendell - or Serena, as his kids call him at this time of year - the man has forgone his yearly trip to the tennis to get stuck into raising money for victims of the Queensland floods.

Dell will play in the Origin Legends game at Parramatta Stadium next week being organised by Mark Geyer, along with big names like Fittler, Tallis, Stuart and even Mal Meninga. It's big Mal's first Legends game since Sparkles McGaw went Hammer-time on his melon in 2001 at Leichhardt Oval, and more than 10,000 tickets have already been sold.

Sailor, Chris Walker and Hayden Knowles are also smashing Twitter to organise a star-studded charity event at the States Sports Centre on February 5.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/spo...-1225992509249

[GIGS20]

Dell commentating rugby? Makes Jeremy Paul look like Shakespeare by comparison, guess I'll be watching my international rugby on fox from now on!

[blueandblack]

Dell commentating rugby? Makes Jeremy Paul look like Shakespeare by comparison, guess I'll be watching my international rugby on fox from now on!

You could always just mute the sound. Mind you I suppose ch 9 will have union on delay anyway.

[jargan83]

I'll be watching my international rugby on fox from now on!

You've only just decided this?
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[shasta]

Wendell's not too bad, actually. His knowledge of the game is good, as you'd expect after 17 seasons. If his advisers can judge for him when the self promotion and all the bullshit become too much (which is just about now, especially the St. George bullshit ) he'll be right. Should more than make up what he lost thru the drugs ban.

[.X.]

I am with Shasta on this one. Big Dell is a funny and entertaining guy on the tv for the mungo ball - and the fact that Supe Rugby is back on free to air tv in any shape should be applauded by all of us.

[beige]

Nine will also put Super rugby back on free-to-air for the first time in a decade in a weekly highlights show.

This is very good news.

As for Wendell, I actually don't mind him as a pundit and he would drive up some publicity for the show. I believe Jonathon Davies still does commentary for both codes over in the UK so it's not without precedent.

[KenyaQuin]

Hopefully the free to air highlights will be at a reasonable time here in WA..

[Burgs]

"Sailor is a name that has been thrown up."

This would not be a first...

[WA sport fan]

Sailor is an awesome TV talent, his knowledge of both sports League and Union will hold him in good stead to do it is brilliant and one thing.

But the real question will be could he get through watching a game of rugby yawnion GIGS20?

As a commentator and TV personality he is raw talent live and very bad at doing scripted TV like NRL membership commercials. He won't do Union any harm if he does the job.

[GIGS20]

He wasn't smart enough to get through playing a game of rugby without doing something stupid, that's why he went back to the stop-start version of the game. Apparently the idea of stopping everything and restarting every tackle was about right for his attention span.

Not changing my spots here, I thought Wendell was a world class dick when he played rugby and I also thought he was doing the right thing when running back to his bogan mates......yeah, never thought much of the man, and don't think he'd attract the right sort of crowd to improve ratings in the long term.

[Sheikh]

This is very good news.

As for Wendell, I actually don't mind him as a pundit and he would drive up some publicity for the show. I believe Jonathon Davies still does commentary for both codes over in the UK so it's not without precedent.

Yeah, but Jonathon Davies is an intellectual compared to Dell!

[jazza93]

I like watching Wendel on Fox's NRL coverage, he is pretty smart and clear with his speech. He should do pretty well if he gets a job at 9 with Union.

[WA sport fan]

I like watching Wendel on Fox's NRL coverage, he is pretty smart and clear with his speech. He should do pretty well if he gets a job at 9 with Union.

He is really funny as well, top notch entertainment.

Watch out Rugby, "dell-a-vision" is coming.

[tic]

Wendell was the best sideways running footballer that there ever was. If only he could have been turned at a 45 degree angle, he would have scored a lot of tries.