In a talk with second-year sports journalism students at the University of South Wales, journalists, such as, Jacqui Oatley and Matt Murray speak about the way they broke into the ‘incredibly competitive’ industry.
Jacqui Oatley was the first female commentator on BBC’s Match of the Day. She fronted the BBC’s live coverage of the women’s game, anchoring the 2015 and 2019 Women’s World Cups. However, despite now being an MBE and being named 2015 eighth most influential woman in sport, it was not always smooth sailing.
Oatley never believed she’d break into broadcasting and after a nasty knee injury she threw ‘everything’ into her journalism career. She had a number of jobs working with the BBC, working on non-league roundups and bouncing from one lead to another. “Working harder lead to bigger things and bigger opportunities”.
She questioned why so many women stopped at a certain point in the journalism world. That’s when the negative comments began taking aim. After landing a dream role working on Match of the Day and being the first female to commentate on the show, Oatley began receiving hate, such as, ‘how can you let a woman who’s never kicked a ball in her life commentate’.
Since then Oatley had said it’s become far more easier. She put emphasis on making sure to open up as a broadcaster and don’t make it too much painting by numbers. She now works at ITV Sport as a presenter.
Former Wolves goalkeeper, Matt Murray was another to discuss the difficulty of transitioning from a professional sport career to that of a journalist.
After retiring at 29, he slowly transitioned into the industry. He said that his biggest challenge toward the start was commentating on Wolves games because they were “his club”. One useful tool he did bring with him to his new career were his list of contacts. Finding interviews and advice was easy given he’d worked with professional footballers and coaches for years.
The second-year students in attendance took what was said onboard and will now use what they have learnt to shape their careers in a similar way.
Ben Evans Portfolio 