IIRC, Nine presented Friday Night Football at the ground. As such, they would have been at Telstra Dome for that particular game
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Easy way to tell us if Lyon and McGuire were doing the commentary which they most likely were.
Stretching the memory, but I think Nine used the studio behind the goals at the southern end level 2 like Seven did before them for pre match coverage.
Pretty sure that facility was then turned over to dining and bar space. More money in that than a TV studio.
And it’s still called The Studio
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Also found this rare snapshot of when Brian Taylor was part of Channel Nine’s coverage.
Typically, BT would have called the Sunday 4:00pm game, but on this occasion he called the Friday night Essendon vs St Kilda game with Dennis Cometti (as fate would have it, both would be reunited at Seven in 2012 and in 2016 they called at least two games together when Bruce was in Rio for the Olympics) as the round in which this match took place was a split round and Nine only covered one Sunday game (the Brisbane Lions vs Geelong match in which Jason Akermanis kicked two goal-of-the-year contenders from the same angle within minutes of each other).
Due to Wimbledon, this match was replayed at 5:00am on Nine in Sydney and Brisbane, while the southern markets would’ve received a replay of the NRL match between the Sydney Roosters and Parramatta Eels.
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He was also on The Sunday Footy Show when he was with Nine.
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From Nine’s last Friday Night Football match in 2006 (Western Bulldogs vs Essendon).
Then-AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou joined Garry Lyon on Nine’s set at half-time to congratulate them on their five years of covering the sport between 2002-06. A short montage of some memorable moments from their coverage followed shortly after.
Such a shame they didn’t get to cover the finals, but the fact that Nine also had the NRL finals meant they could not cover both codes’ finals series anyway.
Also, for that final 2006 season, Eddie McGuire had to step away from commentary commitments due to him becoming CEO of the Nine Network. Dwayne Russell, who was already calling Sunday games with Dennis Cometti, added Friday nights to his roster.
Credit: Classic AFL Matches on YouTube
For those also wondering, the song that was used during Nine’s AFL Friday night coverage in 2006 was a remix of “Vertigo” by U2. In 2005, the song “See You at the Show” by Nickelback was used.
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Where do we find the video?
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Explosive by Bond was the music used in the halftime montage
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Better known as the theme song for Seven’s Athens Olympics coverage in '04
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Adelaide vs Kangaroos, 2006.
Courtesy: Jeff Albertson
This match was shown live into Melbourne but on half-hour delay in Adelaide, despite the Crows being the home side. Due to Nine’s coverage of the British Open golf, this match was shown on full replay following the golf coverage in Sydney and Brisbane, at 5:00am.
That night, the northern markets got the NRL match between the Melbourne Storm and Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks on a one-hour delay (at the time, Nine was required to show the match on delay rather than live); it would be shown following the golf coverage elsewhere.
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I think that was mandated in someway until 2012.
Think it was either government regulations at the time, or to protect the gate receipts.
Because Nine had the rights to both the AFL and NRL at the same time, they had to air one after the other, with the AFL being shown on a one-hour delay in the southern states, and the NRL on a one-hour delay in the northern states, followed by Nightline and the other code.
It was also for this reason the Brisbane Lions and Sydney Swans never played on Friday nights during that time; while the Swans did play a rare Friday night match against Melbourne in 2003, Network Ten televised that match.
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I remember this clearly as Nightline used to give out spoilers of the respective game results with no warning for viewers who had tuned in for the late night replay.
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Strong mid 2000s vibes with both the WWOS and AFL intros
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Really loved 9s graphics package during their AFL tenure.
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Was this a one-off or something?
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When Nine overhauled their NRL graphics ahead of the 2003 season, they based it mostly off what they had with the AFL at the time. Then between 2004-06, the same Friday Night Football/Sunday Football title card templates, including the screen showing the two teams competing, were used by both codes.
NRL version (courtesy: Zampakid)
AFL version (courtesy: james brown)
Correct - Nine had shown the Anzac Day match between Essendon and Collingwod earlier that day (Anzac Day fell on a Friday in 2003). This meant Nine couldn’t televise the Friday night match, as they also had the rights to the Sunday double header (one live/one condensed highlights), and Ten gave up the Saturday afternoon match for that round.
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No government mandates, but the AFL like other sports leagues did want to protect the gate. However, my recollection was Nine and Seven after them were able to broadcast Friday nights live into Melbourne in the 2000s, but would take a hit in the ratings with Burke’s Backyard for Nine and BH&G for Seven winning timeslots in their respective eras.
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That makes sense. Because 10 only ever did Friday Nights during Finals which 9 never aired though I think 10 stopped doing Friday Night Finals with the 2007-2011 deal as 7 took Friday Night Finals.
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2002 to 2006 was the best era of TV rights even without Seven. The 1.10pm game (12.40 in SA) on a Sunday was a highlight, ensured both clubs had premium national exposure.
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