Tony Telfer shares his experience as a goalball commentator and broadcaster

TONY TELFER SHARES HIS EXPERIENCE AS A GOALBALL COMMENTATOR AND BROADCASTER

My name is Tony Telfer, date of birth 12/04/1963 (58 years old). I live in a small town in New South Wales Australia called Young, population about 8,000 people.

I work in the Disability Support Industry and also run the Disability Sports Network (internet radio station).

I first became aware of goalball in 1980 in Melbourne Australia and have been involved in some capacity since that time.

I have been a player from 1980 to 2010 and during this time I was fortunate to represent my state over 25 times. I have also represented Australia on a number of occasions: 1986 Goalball World Championships in the Netherlands, 1988 Paralympics in South Korea and 1990 World Championships in Canada.

I have also coached at a state level as well as coaching New Zealand in 2011 to 2013.

I am also in Goalball Australia's Hall of Fame.

My involvement with goalball these days is in the commentary box. Through the Disability Sports Network I have been calling goalball from around the world for the past 10 years or so.

I find calling a goalball game is almost as exciting as playing the game (now that I am too old to play at the top level).

I believe with my experience in the game I can bring the excitement of the game to all the listeners and

viewers.

The best part of calling goalball is to see the progression of the game as well as being able to see players from all over the world and the improvements within the game.

I am very lucky to be able to be involved in the game that I love.

For me the most challenging part of calling goalball is keeping up with the play and getting the name

pronouncations correct.

I believe a good commentator needs to know the game well and has the ability to paint a picture to the

listeners or viewers who can not see the game. I believe the key is not to leave any dead air time because if you are not describing what is happening then the listeners do not know what is happening.

The most important skill is to know goalball and to know the players.

You also need to be confident in the information that you provide to your audience. You need to make the audience believe they are at the game.

I believe livestreaming is brilliant for the sport, it is now possible through livestreaming to commentate a game from the otherside of the world without leaving home.

The coverage of goalball in the future is going to go from strength to strength. I believe that every goalball tournament in the world has the ability to be livestreamed, all you need to set up is a camera covering the court and all tournament information sent to the broadcaster. The future in livestreaming is very bright.

So far as livestreaming we need to make sure we have solid internet all the time and we can always use more camera angles.

I believe the time has come for commentary teams to be included in all major competitions through out the world. I also believe we need to work with people who are interested in commentary to deliver a more professional product.

I have been very fortunate to be able to continue my involvement in goalball once my playing days finished.

I have been lucky to have been given an opportunity to cover goalball on the world stage and there are a few people I need to thank.

I have gone to Finland on a number of occasions to cover the SEGL in Espoo and for that I need to thank Erkki Miinala who assisted me in everyway so DSN were able to bring a premier goalball competition to the world. Also I need to thank Vancouver Goalball Club in Canada who did the same thing in Canada.

I believe that there is no reason why all goalball tournaments in the world couldn’t be covered and broadcasted through livestreaming. It is not a very expensive exercise to broadcast as you can broadcast from home if required.

I am looking forward to getting back to Finland again to broadcast SEGL in the future.

I would just like to let everyone know who is thinking about broadcasting their tournament to keep Disability Spoorts Network in mind as we would love to broadcast your event.

Contact details

Name: Tony Telfer

Email: tony@dsn.net.au

Email: anthony.telfer@hotmail.com

Phone: +61424247185

Facebook: Disability Sports Network