Were Sevenâs commentary team at the ground?, or were they commenting from a studio in Melbourne like Triple M were?
Seven were at the ground.
According to Herald Sun, Jess Webster (who has been calling AFLW games for ABC Radio and Fox Footy this season) has been added to the ABCâs Saturday night commentary team for the current AFL season.
UPDATE 1: Jess called Saturday twilight match between Essendon and Brisbane alongside Joel Peterson.
UPDATE 2 27/3: Brett Sprigg has flown down to Melbourne to commentate the North Melbourne-West Coast match with Andrew Mayes for ABC Radio. Nathan Burke and Mick Malthouse will provide special comments.
With 2 FNF games overlapping this week (the Showdown starts an hour after Melbourne vs Essendon) one wonders if any of the Melbourne stations will take the full call, a partial call after Melb vs Ess is completed or if itâs a blowout or no call at all via AM/FM. Perth listeners via 6PR will be taking the Showdown with their own commentary team rather than AFL Nation (no idea if theyâre all heading to Adelaide or going off screen as they advertised Karl Langdon who is Perth based and has to back up for the Derby on Sunday and Brad Hardie who is Melbourne based as calling).
Thereâll also likely be no pre-match shows such as MMMâs Rub the following Saturday with the AFLW GF scheduled for a lunchtime start on April 9. Apart from the ABC and perhaps AA/PR for the Adelaide vs Freo prelim I donât think there will be coverage of the prelims apart from a token score update here or there.
I believe ABC and AFL Nation will have full coverage of both AFLW preliminary finals this Saturday afternoon.
Suspect the arrangement will be similar to what happens on Saturdayâs when there are two games being played simultaneously in that 3AW & Triple M will have first pick (obviously Melbourne v Essendon) while SEN carries the Showdown. ABC will probably take the Melbourne v Essendon game too.
Going on past practice, Triple M Melbourne will likely cross to the Showdown after the Melbourne v Essendon game whilst 3AW might not since they donât tend to broadcast games featuring 2 non-Victorian teams unless thereâs something more to it.
Triple M playing the second half of the showdown in Melbourne, also doing the Rub followed by the 2pm AFLW prelim final.
Quite surprised that 3AW is not broadcasting the Dogs-Swans clash on Thursday night.
Does Quarters do any commentary any more?
Not since he stopped working for AFLnation back in 2019 I think.
Herald Sun reports that 3AW has decided to cease broadcasting Thursday night matches in preference to keeping regular programming in place. Denis Walterâs program is seen as a âbetter business decisionâ by 3AW and Nine Entertainment. Tony Leonard will provide updates on the Dogs-Swans game during the night.
Given radio rights are up for negotiation at the end of the year, this move has reportedly been met with raised eyebrows at AFL headquarters.
Also mentioned in this AFL media article in the Herald Sun is that Alister is expected to become a regular contributor to 3AW over the season.
Yeah, wouldnât say what 3AW is doing is a smart thing to do heading into a rights auction processâŚ
Wouldnât surprise me if 3AW gives it away and doesnât even go for the rights, Nine Radio seem to be getting less and less interested in sports rights full stop and combined with greater competition from SEN and MMM I can see them deciding itâs not worth it to them.
AFL Nation coverage for Round 3
ABC Radio is broadcasting Dogs v Swans tonight, however the analogue broadcast has been delayed due to Opposition Leader Anthony Albaneseâs Budget reply.
Other than NRL
As in theyâve pre-empted it or theyâve actually time-delayed it?
ABCâs analogue broadcast began in the middle of second quarter of Dogs-Swans game. It has been aired in full on digital radio and AFL website/app.
Geez, SENâs/AFL Nationâs coverage is really thin talent size-wise. Donât know how games can be probably covered with just 1 commentator and 1 analyst.
I agree. Iâd say those ones are the specifically AFL Nation games (as in its not really taken on many SEN stations).