AFL-Collingwood: Wall to Wall (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Sports	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	99:33
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	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	Des Tuddenham John Greening Phil Carman Ricky Barham Paul Liccuria Chris Tarrant Wayne Richardson Max Richardson Len Thompson Peter McKenna Ross Dunne Peter Moore Dennis Banks
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	?	Music	None Given

    The AFL Wall to Wall Series offers around 100 minutes of some of the most famous and memorable highlights dedicated to one particular Australian Rules football team. We have already seen titles released for Essendon, St Kilda, and the West Coast Eagles, and here is another dedicated to that most famous of Australian sporting clubs - Collingwood. The Magpies are like the Manchester United of Aussie Rules, but without the recent success! The 'Pies are the sort of club that generates immense levels of passion among their supporters and equally vehement hatred among opposition supporters. You truly do either love them or hate them - Collingwood is nobody's 'second' team.

    In the words of the voiceover in the opening scenes of this programme "This isn't a history, but rather a taste of the club in action", so what we get here is close to 100 minutes of some of the most memorable highlights of the famous black and white of the Magpies. Captured under such headings as The Heroes, The Hardmen, The Headliners, The Sharpshooters, and The Screamers, many of Collingwood's great players are glimpsed doing all manner of inspirational things on the field, whether it be kicking goals from outrageous angles or distances (Anthony Rocca can certainly get onto them and on one occasion boots a bomb from the centre square!), taking screamers of marks, or biffing the opposition in a moment of madness. Highlights include the inspirational leadership of champion Des Tuddenham, the goal kicking talents of Phil Carman and Ricky Barham, the talents of current stars Paul Liccuria and Chris Tarrant, and the wizardry that was goal sneak and all-round forward line freak - the great Peter Daicos. Somewhat oddly though is the absence of any major segment dedicated to current captain Nathan Buckley.

    All Magpies supporters can breath easy since there is also decent coverage of the team's only real recent success, that being the 1990 Grand Final when the team triumphed over legendary arch-rival Essendon to end more than 30 years without premiership success and no highlights of the 2002 and 2003 grand finals when the team was humbled by the might of the Brisbane Lions. Some of the great rivalries with that other great club, Carlton, are also shown, as are some highlights of the 2002 rain-soaked Anzac Day clash with Essendon in front of a massive crowd at the MCG.

    And finally - rest assured there is not a shot of Eddie 'Everywhere' Maguire anywhere in this programme.

Video

    Collingwood may have been established in 1892, but with televisions not invented way back then, the footage in this package is comprised entirely of material sourced over a period starting in the mid 1960s. All up this isn't a bad transfer with the problems only attributed to the age of the source material. There is even a warning on the back of the disc stating that some historically rare footage included is of inferior quality.

    The video transfer for this disc follows the same standard as the others in the series and is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

   As stated the footage is of extremely variable quality, with the early 1960s black and white material suffering from all manner of artefacts, noise, tracking lines, distortion, and snow. Things improve for the 70s and early 80s highlights which appear in colour but are also a fair bit fuzzier than the late 90s and early 2000 material. There are no problems with shadow detail.

    The colours are variable though 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 single layered disc so there is no layer change.

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, once again we get television quality audio.

    There is only one audio track available, this being an English Dolby Digital stereo 2.0 soundtrack. Overall the quality of the soundtrack is quite excellent with limitations and problems only attributed to the source material.

    Dialogue is clear and concise at all times, though it does tend to vary greatly in volume. The older black and white segments may need to be cranked up a couple of notches on the volume dial to hear them completely. The older footage is also burdened with a more harsh quality and is occasionally distorted with noise and hiss.

    There is no surround or subwoofer use.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio

    This disc is not available in Region 1.

    Collingwood - Wall to Wall is another disc in the Wall to Wall series of AFL highlights. For the Magpie fan that has everything and is passionate about their team this disc is a great reminder of some of the more memorable moments the club has enjoyed - even if there is only one premiership covered. A special bonus is certainly the lack of anything to do with Eddie Maguire.

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

    The audio is functional and serves the vision well.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall