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
Sport
In a game befitting the two top sides in Australian Super Rugby, the Brumbies withstood a spirited fightback from the Reds to secure the Super Rugby AU title at Canberra Stadium on Saturday (19 September). A superb performance from 20-year-old Noah Lolesio, including a 49th-minute drop goal, helped give the Brumbies the edge in front of a COVID-19 capacity crowd...
Sport
Having called all six Super Rugby finals involving the Brumbies, it may surprise you, but the most memorable wasn’t one in which the Canberra team won the title. In fact, it wasn’t even in Australia. In 2002 the Canterbury Crusaders had won all 12 games in the lead up to the final against the Brumbies at Jade Stadium in Christchurch....
Sport
In May 2014, it was announced that a young rising star from the Wests Tigers had signed a three-year deal with the Raiders. By June that player, James Tedesco, had back-flipped on the Canberra contract and opted to stay in Sydney. At the time, Tedesco hadn’t set rugby league alight but the Raiders had identified him as a marquee player....
Sport
Allan Hawke grew up in Queanbeyan over the road from the Raiders founders, the McIntyres. Allan’s brother, Phil, taught and coached Ricky Stuart and the Furners at St Edmund's College. The connections between the Raiders and Allan are strong. Allan is now Chairman of the Raiders, taking over from John McIntyre six years ago, following the sacking of David Furner...
Sport
In a perfect world, the Olympics would currently be underway in Tokyo. The Games are more than medals. It is about the story, the human effort and endeavour, and the impact it has on others. So over the next few weeks, at a time when the Olympics would have been taking place, I will be profiling Canberra-region athletes who inspired...
Opinion
Over the years in Canberra, I have coached and managed a wide range of sports from juniors to seniors. I'm sure many of you have done the same. When I have been coaching junior soccer and rugby with children aged from five to 10 years, my approach was based on the principle that I should be encouraging participation. Once I...
Sport
A stone's throw from Canberra Stadium, the Raiders have established a home-away-from-home for eight young players from Queensland and New Zealand. But before you start to visualise an American-style frat house with 18 to 20-year-olds running wild, stop! Nothing could be further from the truth. The first impression of the house is the order and absolute tidiness that exists within...
Sport
Hours after receiving the news that no cancer patient wants to hear, Pete Mulholland was on the phone to tell an emotional mother that her son had been picked in the Raiders' first-grade side to play the Melbourne Storm. Sixty-six-year-old Mulholland had been informed on Tuesday this week that his rare form of blood cancer, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, had returned. This...
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...