AFL-West Coast: Wall to Wall (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Sports	Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	98:37 (Case: 80)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (53:51)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Aust. Football Video Visual Entertainment Group	Starring	Chris Mainwaring Peter Matera Ben Cousins Chris Lewis John Worsfold Brett Heady Daniel Kerr Chris Judd David Wirrpunda Guy Mckenna David Hart Ashley Mcintosh Dean Kemp
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	?	Music	None Given

    Australian Rules Football is well catered for in the DVD market with a whole swag of titles available. Some are compilation discs such as Miracle Marks and Golden Goals with highlights from many teams while others cater for individual clubs.

    Such is the case with this title which is dedicated solely to the team hailing from Western Australia - the West Coast Eagles. The Eagles have been a part of the national competition since 1987 and so what we get here is a swag of highlights starting around that time and continuing on until the 2003 season. It must be noted that this is just a highlights package. There are no interviews and no narration explaining anything or anyone. A few brief statistics pop up on the screen to introduce some of the chapters. These merely summarise the player's career with games played, goals kicked, and so forth being the extent of it.

    The Eagles have enjoyed a significant amount of success in the 17 years since entering the league, producing a host of champion players not to mention two premierships in 1992 and 1994. This disc is divided into various chapters with titles such as Heroes, Headliners, Screamers, and The Hard Men. Players such as Brett Heady, John Worsfold, Ross Glendinning, Chris Mainwaring, Peter Matera, young guns Chris Judd and Daniel Kerr, and the recently retired Glen Jakovich  all get a few minutes of highlights dedicated to them. The headliners section contains a couple of classic games with the last three or four minutes replayed in full. Action from the draw against the Western Bulldogs at Subiaco Oval in 2003 and the classic Qualifying final against Collingwood at the WACA ground in 1994 are shown. The two grand final wins in 1992 and 1994 also receive a five minute compilation of highlights from the entire game. No mention is made of the classic drawn final against the Magpies in 1990 when Peter Sumich missed a difficult chance at goal after the siren or the loss to Hawthorn in the grand final in 1991. A shame really since both of these moments were quite pivotal in shaping the future success of the club.

    For the Eagles fan that has everything, this is a wonderful way of reliving some of the more magnificent moments and celebrating some of the true champions that the club has produced over the last couple of decades.

Video

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, the transfer is not 16x9 enhanced.

    Naturally enough, the transfer is of television broadcast quality, all in colour with the source material dating from 1987.

   While the footage is of mixed vintage, it is actually all of reasonable quality. The 80s highlights are certainly a bit fuzzier and not as sharp as the late 90s material, but the technological advances in broadcast camera equipment makes this perfectly understandable. Grain is present but not annoying and there is no issue with shadow detail at all.

    The colours are well rendered and there are no problems to contend with despite some of the material certainly looking its age.

    No MPEG artefacts are evident, and aside from some obvious analogue tape problems in the older footage, it is mostly clear of other imperfections.

    There are no subtitles.

    This is a dual layered disc with the layer change occurring quite obviously at 53:51.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Seeing as the disc is comprised exclusively of television highlights, we get television quality audio. This is not to say it is bad. It does its job and that's all that can be expected.

    There is only one audio track available, this being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

    Dialogue is clear and concise at all times, if perhaps a little harsh when the commentators get carried away with excitement and the roar of the crowd tries to drown them out.

    There is no surround or subwoofer use.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Main Menu Audio & Animation

    This disc is not available in Region 1.

    West Coast - Wall to Wall is a great disc for the Eagles fan that has everything. It contains plenty of highlights of the best moments in the club's short history between 1987 and 2003.

    The video is average, but based on the source material is more than acceptable.

    The audio is functional without being outstanding.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall