About Tim Gavel
Sports commentator with ABC Grandstand for over 30 years Tim Gavel has called a range of sports including NRL, Super Rugby, Wallabies, Rowing World Cups, Rugby World Cups, Socceroos, Matildas, Opals, Boomers, WNBL, NBL, International Netball, Men's and Women's one day international cricket, Big Bash, World Volleyball League for Fox Sports, Rowing World Cup and National Championships for Fox Sports and the 2000 Paralympics.
All Articles
Opinion
Prior to my wife and I adopting two children from Ethiopia in 2004, I had little understanding of the issues faced by people of colour in the community. Being protective of your children, you notice nuances that may have slipped by in the past but now become flashpoints. It wasn’t so much in Canberra, it has to be said; it...
Sport
The Canberra Raiders have received the go-ahead from the ACT Government to play home games at Canberra Stadium from 3 July while the Brumbies have also been given clearance to play the Melbourne Rebels on 4 July. The 25,011-seat Bruce stadium was shut down earlier in the year due to COVID-19 as the stadium was classed a nonessential business, but it...
Sport
Josh Papalii is preparing to play his 200th NRL game on Saturday night against the Melbourne Storm. Josh doesn’t say much. He doesn’t need to really, given his job is to effectively destroy the opposition. He’d run through a brick wall for his team. I well remember interviewing him, or least attempting to, in his NRL debut season in 2011....
Sport
Major sport is about to resume in Australia in front of empty stadiums. Do we need cardboard cut-outs of fans and piped noise to provide atmosphere? As the Raiders run out onto the field in Melbourne to play the Storm on Saturday night there will be one vital ingredient missing which makes sport at this level so compelling: a crowd....
Sport
The draw for the rest of the shortened NRL season has last year’s grand finalists featured on Channel 9 just three times. I have lost count of the number of times over the years that I have been approached by Raiders fans complaining (and rightly so) about the lack of free-to-air television coverage afforded the Canberra Raiders. At times any...
Sport
I well remember that first Brumbies training camp at Jindabyne in the lead up to the start of the inaugural Super 12 season in 1996. In a bid to engage the media with the new team, the management invited us into the inner sanctum. I’m not sure how impressed the players were to have several journalists in the room as...
Sport
The George Bass Surf Boat Marathon, billed as the longest and toughest surf boat race in the world, is at times one of the more brutal sporting events I have witnessed. In late December, the 2020 George Bass race was cancelled two days into the seven-day competition due to the horrendous bushfires on the South Coast. The first leg began...
Sport
During the Super League war in the mid-90s in Canberra, uncertainty over the future of the code in our city was very real in the minds of supporters. As we raced from one meeting location to another, from Canberra to Queanbeyan to the airport, just trying to get a handle on the eventual outcome was just about impossible given the...
Sport
Alison Bai is experiencing an almost ‘normal’ life for the first time in over a decade, confined to Canberra because of the COVID-19 shutdown. As a professional tennis player, on average, Alison spends seven to eight months of the year on the gruelling international tennis circuit, travelling from tournament-to-tournament around the world. This could be perceived as a glamorous lifestyle,...
Sport
Noel Bissett loved telling the story about the day he refereed a game at Captains Flat. On that day an elderly lady brandishing an umbrella pursued him across the ground. The elderly lady in question was apparently upset with a number of Noel’s rulings that happened to go against the home team. For Noel, it was part of the fabric...
Sport
Like most sports, the NRL has been doing everything possible to get back on the field, but the league is the first to actually telegraph a proposed date of return. As such, the NRL has generated significant debate and publicity during this interrupted season. Many objectors to the NRL's proposed resumption have questioned the motives of the league. Questioned is...
Opinion
In the early days of the Raiders you could count staff members on two hands and the club was operating out of the Queanbeyan Leagues Club. The gym was located in the squash courts and the coaches were positioned in offices through the club. The players had jobs and trained at night at Seiffert Oval. As a journalist, if you...
Sport
Phil Thomson has been through plenty in his working life, with the police force, with Rugby Australia and now as CEO of the Brumbies. That's why he's well prepared for any hurdle that comes his way. The COVID-19 pandemic, though, and its impact on sport globally, is in a ballpark of its own. There are predictions of a totally different...
Sport
It’s hard not to be impressed by Caroline Buchanan. Even the toughest of times (and she has had plenty over the past two and a half years) are turned into a positive. In self-isolation in Canberra in the wake of COVID-19 after returning from the US, Caroline has turned her apartment into a home gymnasium in a bid to stay...
Sport
I was scheduled to commentate the Raiders versus St George-Illawarra NRL game on Thursday night at GIO Stadium. I was beginning to feel anxious about it before it was called off. Sports commentators by their very nature are a resilient group. Essentially radio commentators just get in and call what is in front of them, at the same time avoiding...
Sport
With sport effectively curtailed around the world in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, the NRL and the A-League remained the last sports standing, not just in Australia, but also globally. This followed the decision by the AFL to suspend their season until the end of May. The NRL had been pressing ahead with plans for Thursday night’s start to...