A sad, sad day last week and I am not talking about the demise of New South Wales in State of Origin I… again. No, this is far more serious as my dismay relates to a person who has had a profound impact on my entire life, from my formative years back in the Old Dart right through to this very day. Possibly without knowing, you too will have come across and used the object of his unparalleled, never to be eclipsed genius and his remarkably prescient invention. The sad day was Thursday, May 24^th when Eugene Polley passed away at the tender age of 96. In 1955 Polley invented the world’s first wireless remote control – the Flash matic, a ray gun style, light sensitive device that changed channels and turned sound up and down. In that one instant of brilliance the remote control ascended to the Pantheon where it now resides alongside the esky, bottled beer, home delivered pizza and of course the Jason recliner. Like many a whiz kid, Polley was a prophet far ahead of his time and it took many years for broadcast technology to catch up. Once live sport in glorious techicolour came into being his device came into its own.  Gadget obsessed Gen Zers may not appreciate that once upon a time the athletically challenged actually had to raise tortured bodies from the couch and walk to the tv to change channels. But thanks to Polley people can now spend entire weekends vicariously consuming sport from the cosy, comfy confines of a couch. Zapping once happened only when you touched a static charged cushion rather than maniacally switching from channel to channel, code to code, checking scores and avoiding interminable adverts. This was once impossible without strenuous, energy sapping physical activity unless of course a young, still compliant child was in the vicinity. The do gooders and doomsayers point to Polley as the harbinger for obesity, slothfulness and almightly marital arguments – heresy I say! Speaking of his invention he once told journalists “it makes me think maybe my life wasn’t wasted at all”. Far from it Mr Polley, the world of sport salutes you.

This post first appeared as Monday’s Expert in the Northern Star on May 28th

Whilst most of the news surrounding rugby union this weekend is focused on the soon to be former Queensland Reds halfback Will Genia, my attention has been on the World Cup of last year.  Quite simply it was a stunning success for New Zealand in particular and the code in general where some hitherto untouched countries watched the globe’s third biggest event. Many predicted doom and gloom for the code when the jamboree was slated for NZ but the strategy of a ‘stadium of four million’ has proven spectacularly successful. The final between the hosts and France was the most watched event in New Zealand TV history with a staggering 98% of audience share (love to know what the other 2% were up to?). In France despite an early kick off the audience share was 82% with 73% of the population watching at least 15 minutes of RWC action.  The news for the International Rugby Board who administer the code globally got better the further they delved into the figures. Although the make up of the audience is still majority male, 45% of the 2011 global audience was female (up from 25% at the 1995 event).  More young people viewed the tournament than ever before with figures up 6% on 2007.  They will be particularly happy with the news that 207 countries took the feed including Mongolia and Libya and even the 13 people at Scott Station in Antarctica got to see their fair share of games! Across the globe, in the Americas, Asia, and Japan (where the 2019 tournament will be hosted) audience numbers increased anywhere from 25 to 250%!  In a portent of things to come there were 3.5 million downloads of the official app and the official website netted 17 million unique users!  Simply stunning stuff that bodes well not only for the code but also for the future of the global mega sporting event. And it was all done from little old New Zealand which despite the global economic downturn and the tragic events in Christchurch welcomed 135 000 international visitors, looked after their own and put on a show that the world watched.

This post first appeared as Monday’s Expert in the Northern Star on May 3rd