Source: theconversation.com --- Sunday, July 30, 2017
Broadcaster Les Murray, who has passed away aged 71, was the archetypal team member. AAP/Penny Bradfield The death of broadcaster Les Murray at the untimely age of 71 deprives Australia – not just football in this country – of one its greatest supporters. As the game nurtured him, so he helped football transform itself from a predominantly migrant activity in this country into what he loved to call “the world game” . He opened the eyes of his new compatriots to what they would otherwise have ignored. Through his partnership with the former captain of the Socceroos, Johnny Warren, Les became football’s public face in Australia. Alan Crisp called them Mr and Mrs Soccer, but never told us which was which. Together, Murray and Warren enabled SBS to establish itself as something more than a niche broadcaster. Their enthusiasm carried them through some very low spots as Australia’s football teams reached the last qualifying stages for successive World Cups, but always just managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Though Warren did not live to see it, Les was there when Australia returned to the World Cup, in Germany in 2006. The coverage of successive World Cup finals every four years, which used the matches as windows into the host countries, was real education and pioneering broadcasting. The Tour de France has followed and extended the pattern they set. It wasn’t just the Socceroos or the National Soccer League that benef ...
from Australia http://ift.tt/2hfkmXQ
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