Matt Keenan appreciation

[The Barb]

I know this subject has been traversed peripherally under other topics but I think it deserves its own thread ...

Another Tour is over and again some of us have been fortunate enough to have Matt Keenan commentate large portions of it (though, sadly, not the most important bits of each stage).

I think it's easy for fans like all of us to underestimate how hard is is to commentate by one's self - let alone in a sport where sometimes very little happens for hours on end - without driving viewers nuts with repetition of pharses, facts or general inanity.

I've listened to Matt Keenan for literally hundreds of hours and never found him boring or repetitive. His ability to quickly identify riders (not just the "heads of state") is extraordinary and every time he commentates I learn something.

In the unlikely event that you read this, Matt - Thanks for another Tour and keep up the great work. Your research does not go unnoticed.

In the more unlikely event that Matt's employers read this - Please promote him so we can listen to him at the important end of stages!

 

[waitforme]

+1

Superb depth of knowledge, no cheerleading for certain riders, and error free.

He deserves promotion, sitting opposite an ex pro/ex DS style tactics/special comments type expert.

Hats off, Matt.

 

[airbay]

Yep all the points you have made i agree with 100%

 

[Captain Serious]

For those interested, I'm pretty sure he placed 6th in the 1996 Aus National Road Race title. I'm not sure if he ever exceeded this in his racing 'career'. For memory, he finished on his own, so he was somewhere between the winners and the bunch

 

[tiger 10]

I Agree 100% Also

Regarding: "The research does not go unnoticed." Matt must spend lot of time doing preparatory work before he even gets near a microphone and it is really reflected in the quality of his commentary. It really adds a great deal to my enjoyment of the race.

I also find the tone of his voice fantastic to listen to and could do so for all the race very happily.

 

[NickBVK]

He is very good but I'm in no rush to give up Phil and Paul.

It's good having him as he does flood the knowledge which gets people interested and excited for the stage ahead.

 

[I Watch Cycling In July]

+1 to the above positive points about Matt.

I've developed the habit of watching the first part of a recorded stage to see the breaks establish etc, then fast forwarding when Phill and Paul come on to about the 60k mark.

 

[sienna]

Matt does real well, but he needs to brush up on his knowledge of churches and chateaux.

 

[Sasquatch]

Phil and Paul's commentary is starting to get a bit embarassing. They are clearly struggling and are near the end of their careers.

I mean, they reffered to Bert Grabsch as Ralf Grabsch about 100 times. There were tonnes of other mistakes not to mention saying Greipel will be an important leadout for Cav on the Champs Elysees. After three weeks you would know Greipel isn't riding wouldn't you?

If I had $1 for how many mistakes they made in regards to riders, I would retire.

They have done such a good job for such a long time but in recent years they have been struggling and it will be a shame if they keep struggling and get worse.

Matt Keenan is no doubt ready to step in for one of them. He would be perfect to replace one of them with the other his partner. Keenan's ability to pick out riders correctly is amazing, particularly in the bunch sprints. It's nearly time for him to become the upper echelon in cycling commentary.

 

[Hillavoider]

Matt does well by himself but he needs to learn how to move from one subject to the next instead of dragging the viewer by the neck from suddenly talking about contador to what wheels gerrens is using for example without any relation between the two, its just historical and pointless facts spilling out of his mouth at massive rate with no correlation or pattern. sometimes its completely schizo. but he is definately getting better with the segue then when he first started. its seems when p&p come on my heart rate goes down and i can relax a bit. i think he is still fairly nervous too, but thank god we don't have thomo the dag commentating, he is atrocious.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Go matt! Your commentary is excellent! Keep it going buddy and we'll help you get Liggett or Sherwen out!

 

[El Imbatido]

Go matt! Your commentary is excellent! Keep it going buddy and we'll help you get Liggett or Sherwen out!

Might not have to wait very long as SBS is showing 4 stages of the Vuelta live!!! And P & P will be in hibernation by then......... so i'm hopeful that the commentary will be by Keenan

 

[auscyclefan94]

Might not have to wait very long as SBS is showing 4 stages of the Vuelta live!!! And P & P will be in hibernation by then......... so i'm hopeful that the commentary will be by Keenan

YOU LITTLE RIPPER!

El Imbatido you have made my day!

 

[El Imbatido]

YOU LITTLE RIPPER!

El Imbatido you have made my day!

Yeah Tomolaris said it in like the last minute of the SBS coverage last night......I'm assuming it will be mountains stages as i will feel totally ripped off if they are 4 sprint stages where all we see is barren country side.......and hopefully this means SBS will also have more than just 15min morning highlights.

Also Cycling Central starts on August 1.......i have no idea what it is about tho...

 

[auscyclefan94]

Yeah Tomolaris said it in like the last minute of the SBS coverage last night......I'm assuming it will be mountains stages as i will feel totally ripped off if they are 4 sprint stages where all we see is barren country side.......and hopefully this means SBS will also have more than just 15min morning highlights.

Also Cycling Central starts on August 1.......i have no idea what it is about tho...

I am guessing it will be the stages on saturday. I have a feeling cycling central will include some more race analysis and not just stories of bike clubs and bike tracks.

 

[NickBVK]

Yeah I presume Cycling Central will be like a weekly wrap of world cycling plus some grassroots stuff.

More Cycling we can get the better

 

[delbified]

phil is getting alzeimer's i think. one stage he kept referring to sammie sanchez as olympic champion, not over the course of the stage but within about 10 minutes.. "there goes sammy sanchez, gold medallist in the olympic road race"... "samual sanchez of Euskaltel - Euskadi, the reigning olympic champion".. "sanchez the olympic champion". it's impressed in my memory.

keenan has a few good years ahead of him before he reverts to that kind of repetition.

 

[eljimberino]

Get Mcewen on as his side kick. He's quick witted. Did you see when one interviewer asked him:

"You've had a fairly bad start to the tour."
Dude didn't even get his sentence out before McEwen jumped on him:
"Bad start! Master of the understatement."

 

[The Barb]

I've thought the same thing about Robbie McEwen - anyone who calls his son Ewen McEwen and pulls a wheelie when he crosses the top of the Tourmalet has got to be quite a character.

 

[nicholas]

Might not have to wait very long as SBS is showing 4 stages of the Vuelta live!!!

Excellent news El Imbatido! Go SBS!

I would also like to congratulate Matt Keenan for a great job on the commentary. His cycling knowledge is brilliant. It was great listening to him before Phil and Paul and came on. I have to admit that I love listening to the Phil and Paul cycling and tourist commentaries, especially Paul's knowledge of the chateux, churches and towns. They certainly make heaps of mistakes but I think that it is Phil who makes the most blunders.

Matt and Paul would make a great commentary team I reckon. Are you listening SBS?

 

[mowie133]

does anyone no where the tv rights are at with sbs an the big 3 tours??/ cose i get a feeling one HD will try an steal one of them next year if they can.... think the tour rated well un oz

 

[oncehadhair]

I know this subject has been traversed peripherally under other topics but I think it deserves its own thread ...

Another Tour is over and again some of us have been fortunate enough to have Matt Keenan commentate large portions of it (though, sadly, not the most important bits of each stage).

I think it's easy for fans like all of us to underestimate how hard is is to commentate by one's self - let alone in a sport where sometimes very little happens for hours on end - without driving viewers nuts with repetition of pharses, facts or general inanity.

I've listened to Matt Keenan for literally hundreds of hours and never found him boring or repetitive. His ability to quickly identify riders (not just the "heads of state") is extraordinary and every time he commentates I learn something.

In the unlikely event that you read this, Matt - Thanks for another Tour and keep up the great work. Your research does not go unnoticed.

In the more unlikely event that Matt's employers read this - Please promote him so we can listen to him at the important end of stages!

+1
well said

 

[delbified]

especially Paul's knowledge of the chateux, churches and towns.

i get the feeling he is provided with a list of those and is just reading off it.

 

[Epicycle]

I'm on the Matt is awesome bandwagon too. The most frustrating part of the Tour was hearing him turn the commentating over to Phil and Paul every day on the online stream. Next year I hope we get the option to watch online and hear Matt the whole stage. Sometimes it's not at easy to identify riders while watching streams because the picture is lower quality so Matt is invaluable for that in addition to the nice general insight he gives. He does a very good job of following the international cycling press and actually paying attention to what is going on, something Phil and Paul gave up on a long time ago.

Also, if somebody at Universal sports is reading...hire Matt for the Vuelta. He did an excellent job doing the Vuelta commentary by himself a few years ago for Cycling.tv.

 

[El Imbatido]

does anyone no where the tv rights are at with sbs an the big 3 tours??/ cose i get a feeling one HD will try an steal one of them next year if they can.... think the tour rated well un oz

That maybe one of he reasons why SBS is showing some of the Vuelta live. Maybe they are trying to move to lock up the rights for the Vuelta ie. they feel threatened by OneHD and now Eurosport as well in Australia. I remember reading somewhere that the reason SBS doesn't show the Giro Live is because La Gazetta Della Sport (sp??) charges some insane fee for the rights to broadcast the giro and sbs is govt funded (IIRC?) so they don't really have that sort of money.

If One HD want to show more cycling they should start will some smaller races that SBS is not gonna care about them taking..(Eneco Tour, Vattenfall Cyclassics, San Sebastian, Paris-Tours, Giro di Lombardia, maybe a couple of early classics too...like Scheldeprijs, Kuurne, Gent-Wevelgem an possibly something like Tirreno-Adriatico) as they would go nicely with the small collection of races they already have (Worlds, Tour de Romandie, Tour de Suisse, + those new races in Canada IIRC).

Just my 2cents