★★★★★ 0/5

The Bounce

On Seven's new AFL entertainment show, Pete Helliar looked like he was living his ultimate dream: television, comedy, footy.... who can blame him?

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First a disclaimer: AFL just isn’t my thang. So I probably won’t be a regular viewer to The Bounce. I’m essentially in the same for The Footy Show, Before the Game, Footy Classified and the rest of them. I don’t really dig motoring either, but I will happily kill an hour with Top Gear.

Clearly I’m not the target audience for this one, but it’s still possible to take a considered view on what the show is trying to achieve.

Last night, host Pete Helliar looked like he was living his ultimate dream: television, comedy, footy…. who can blame him?

From the moment he emerged from the audience rafters, with Sherrin footy in hand, he was gushing with enthusiasm in his opening monologue. From there he introduced resident rock band led by Kit Warhurst plus Dave Lawson and Catherine Ellis, both of whom bantered about pet memberships, team slogans, and membership recruitment. But who are they? Should we care? Probably not yet.

Helliar frequently cut away to comic photos and clips, and interjected with gags all of which were going over well with the audience (especially a few ladies who sounded like they were laughing at just about everything). Unlike The White Room, which made negligible interaction with its studio audience, The Bounce was happy to embrace the crowd. and all the more better for it.

It was more than 23 minutes before we got down to discussing the coming games and shifting to a serious tone. Nobody seemed to mind. Veteran coach Leigh Matthews and former player Matthew Richardson did the bulk of the heavy lifting here, dissecting each of the teams. How serious it gets when politicial and social issues extend from the footy field into headlines is unclear. Maybe they will just be a punchline. Will The Bounce be breaking news and being opinionated in a 7:30 timeslot?

Comedy sketches featured Peter Rowsthorn, Ellis (and even Wilfred‘s Cindy Waddingham), revolving around Helliar as an office footy tipping nut, a devoted fan with a face permanently painted with team colours, and more. They were a little uneven. Guest Western Bulldogs Adam Cooney spoke about his team’s chances and was so relaxed he managed a shout-out to his grandmother for her birthday. Yep, it’s a footy show alright. Thankfully no footballers in tutus just yet.

The show didn’t yet make much of its own AFL rights with footage and access, an asset it has over Nine. Perhaps that will shift once the season gets underway from tomorrow.

There was also something about the show that constantly felt like it was Rove meets The Footy Show. Was it the set? The host doing an “Are You Smarter than a Footballer” sketch? How ironic that Helliar, once asked to be dumped from the Rove on-air team by Nine, is now hosting a challenger to Nine’s own long-running football show…

That said, the best thing about the show is it doesn’t have Sam Newman. The worst thing about the show? It doesn’t have Sam Newman. Nine’s court jester is their trump card, but also a liability as he polarises an audience. In theory there should be enough footy fans who are happy to have another alternative.

It’s hard not to notice too, that Seven owes a debt to Nine for doing the groundwork in this genre. After all, with a few handballs and meat pies World of Sports years ago with Ron Casey was poles apart from this.

To really take it up to Nine, Seven’s needs to think about broadcasting live to air.

Still, the fact this didn’t ‘bounce’ all over the place on its first outing, is an achievement. As AFL entertainment goes, it was a promising pie night.

47 Responses

  1. we are disapointed that the bounce hase been taken off the TV the should put it on 72 and let people make there mind up the hole family wached it

  2. They replaced this nonsense with the Vicar of Dibley last night.About Time Too How do you expect to compete alongise Getaway or the SBS Cooking Programmes with Football?

  3. I like the Bounce , after having to sit through the opposition footy show with all its nonsence this show is refreshing. Please don’t axe it. Bring it back.
    Graham

  4. Just discussing the Bounce compared with the footy show. Because we are in country SA, we haven’t received the Footy Show for quite a few years and to be honest it has not been missed. Loved The Bounce because at least they talk about football for the following round with a lot of common sense, and not all the rubbish with Sam Newman. Love the opinions of Leigh Mathews and Richo.

  5. While I think Pete Helliar is quite a nice guy and a very gifted sketch comedy artist, his skills as a host of any show is quite poor. He appears overly nervous in the role and mumbles and stutters constantly. If he were given a side role with someone say the skills of a as host such as a poach from Nine such as Eddie Macguire would be much better I believe. He is probably quite frustrated at his only on air role as host of Millionaire, which I think Nine made a big mistake in putting it in an afternoon slot when it was a huge ratings success on a Monday night…

    Richardson I think is outstanding and seems such a laid back character, it makes you want to listen to him.

    The live band is okay but too loud at at times when throwing to a break etc. Rick Mckenna will get it right I am sure and will find its feet.

    Cheers,
    Burnside

  6. Its ok. The thing I liked the best about the show is the gorgeous AU ford ex cab. Yes seriously. I am glad you chose that car to be the mascot for footy. I love Au fords by the way

  8. So what did everyone think of The Bounce: NRL, aka The Marty Johns show? Although it seemed slow to start off with, it seemed to pick up after the first ad break. I thought the sketches were pretty funny, except for don Kirk. While don Kirk has potential, I just didn’t find it that funny.

  9. Yep, lose the opening monologue. I’m not a Helliar fan and I wasn’t given any reason to change my mind. He was the weakest element, just so lame. Lethal Leigh was very polished and Matty Richardson was endearing and much funnier than i expected.

    Watched it the whole way through except for the “sting” – seriously, crap. That’s just verging back into the arena of “humour” through humiliating others, and I think the Footy Show has that well covered thanks.

  11. I do agree with the rove comparisons that are there also though that can be only be a starting point and grow from there. It could have the same pattern will be interesting in the way they go regardless. At least they are giving a lighter approach which everyone wanted in one way or another.

  12. I can’t help but make comparisons with The Footy Show and it was really good not to see battling egos, smug expressions and not to hear offensive material disguised as jokes and dumb old ex footballers lording it over dumb young current footballers. I won’t watch either of the shows again because I have given up football in favour of motor sport. I wish The Bounce well.

  13. It was okay. there are a lot of areas they need to tighten up, but it has potential. As a woman who is passionate about football, I sincerely hope the token female contributor, has something more relevant to add in future, than the fact that she bought her goldfish a pet membership ??
    I think there is a place for The Bounce, they need to find their own niche, and not rely on the cookie cutter ‘Before the Game’ approach.

  14. It was o.k nothing special.They should seriously look at the beginning where Pete did the opening they should scrap that altogether.If it did’nt work on the first night and having plenty of material to work with from over the summer etc,it should have been good at least.After that it was watchable.One thing i did like was when they did a punk style sting on a young Collingwood player that was good.Which is better,the AFL Footy Show of course,a must watch.If i’m wanting to get some other AFL news of teams etc probably Foxtel would be a better choice with AFL Teams,or switching between the two

  15. @scott, i think on thursday evenings a footy analysis show would be to much to digest and most people will want a relaxing footy show which previews the weekend footy as well as provide some form of comedy.
    footy analysis shows are on monday nights with one week at a time and footy classified on fta tv.

  17. i do hope this is the right site , im after 12 tickets for your show …you can contact me if there is a problem
    kind regards carolyn montgomery

  18. I don’t think it was the greatest show onrecord but I don’t know what risks 7 are willing to take. It seems sanitised for early timeslot.

    Much of the content was rehashed “Are you smater than footballer” for example has been done on GNW similalrly. Pete looked either nervous and some stuff wa slame although it looked like an easily please audience at the opening intro.

    Richo also looked at times to not know what his role was until asked some bugger all chemistry but lets see Show 2+

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