Controversy surrounded Saturday night’s Showdown – but not because of anything that happened on the field.
Fox Footy has come under fire for broadcasting the game from their Victorian studio, rather than being at the ground, while the voting panel has been criticised for awarding the Showdown Medal to Jordan Dawson.
Izak Rankine kicked four goals and Riley Thilthorpe kicked five, but the pair didn’t feature in the top three of the voting.
Speaking first on Fox Footy’s decision to broadcast the Showdown from Victoria, King says, while it’s unfortunate, the commentators actually have just as much if not more to work with from the studio than live at Adelaide Oval.
“Can we give a bit of background on this? Because I’m getting crushed for not being there (at the ground),” King told SEN’s Whateley.
“The flippant discussion that we watch the game off a TV screen couldn’t be further from the truth. Unfortunately for a whole host of reasons we’re calling from the studios. Not going to get involved in that.
“We can see everything. We can see the whole field. We’ve got a wall of screens. I’ve got the ability to look behind the ball, forward of the ball, wherever your eyes go on game day, it’s the same except it’s on a wall screen.
“To say we’re missing things is wrong. You can see whatever you need to see and I have no problem with that and then combining that and the feel of the game and seeing player impact.
“Then we have the screen that people see at home and the end product, which is the main screen we look at. When you first go into television, the bosses say just call and talk about things people can see. There’s no point talking about what’s behind the ball if people can’t see it.
“If you’re statistically minded like I am, I’ve got a more detailed statistical setup than the average person has at the game, I’d in fact mount a case that I’ve got more information than those at the ground because that’s real.
“Now, I don’t hear the crowd roar. And I don’t get to see who wins the toss from time to time … all those sorts of things, to me it’s not really an impact for assessing a game.
“I understand why people are put out by us not being there from time to time or regularly, but I don’t get the rationale that we don’t see the ground because that is 100 per cent wrong.
“Does it impact cricket? I think it does, but I don’t think it impacts footy.”
King gave Rankine three votes for his four-goal effort in the Showdown, but was the only one on the panel who gave the forward a vote.
Scott Camporeale, Simeon Thomas-Wilson, Josh Francou and Rhett Biglands all included Dawson in their votes, with King preferring Rankine, Rory Laird and Connor Rozee.
Laird was impactful for the Crows with 11 clearances, while Rozee finished with 28 and a goal.
Dawson won the medal with nine votes, from Reilly O’Brien with six and Rozee at three.
“When I saw the other votes I had this sick feeling and thought ‘have I got this totally wrong here’. You straight away think ‘someone’s in trouble here’. I was hoping it wasn’t me!” King said.
“A guy kicked five and I didn’t give him a vote, that’s probably the main feedback I’m getting.
“I assessed Rankine’s impact as greater than anyone on the ground. I gave him three. I was the only one to give him a vote. And Laird.
“Rankine had the biggest moments. You could’ve mounted a case for three or four players, but in the end you track back to what you value and when the game was in the arm wrestle, he was the reason why the Crows scored and the reason why they still had belief and the magic.
“Thilthorpe was very good. If Laird wasn’t there, he had 11 clearances for the day, they got smacked at clearances by Port, if he wasn’t having a clearance impact it would’ve been an avalanche to one end of the ground and Port would’ve found a way to win.
“I thought Rozee was significant in the first three quarters of the game. Halfway through the last quarter Port was in front so the 30-point margin wasn’t reflective of the game.
“Am happy not to do the voting again. It’s just not worth the feedback.”
King said he went home and watched the game again just to make sure of his votes!
“I saw the votes come through ahead of time and Dawson was in all the votes and Rankine wasn’t and I thought oh wow. I was nervous that I’d got it wrong,” he said.
“I knew what the numbers were saying and what my eyes were saying.
“I actually went home and watched the game again. I can’t believe I did that, but I needed to appease myself.
“In the end it was a great game of footy and it’s a shame we’re talking about the votes and not what these young men were able to do.”