Oh 100%. Commentary is not his main forte, given he often canât/doesnât âturn it onâ. Was great to hear him commentate in the IPL where he felt he had to/the money/the bosses made him turn the passion back on.
Massive finals series lands on Fox Footy
The top eight teams are set as all eyes turn to the finals this week on Fox Footy, available on Kayo Sports and Foxtel.
The finals series on Fox Footy rounds out a huge season of AFL for Foxtel Group, with 5.2 billion minutes streamed, increasing streaming for the full season by 18% year-on-year.
âWeâre chuffed to see fans and viewers growing each year which is a testament to the talent and product weâre showcasing,â said Steve Crawley, Executive Director of Fox Sports.
The massive first week of finals kicks-off tonight when Lions coach Chris Fagan takes a seat on On The Couch at 630pm ahead of Michael Voss and John Longmire on AFL 360 at 730pm.
AFL 360 continues on Tuesday ahead of a special Face To Face episode with Pies captain Darcy Moore and again on Wednesday before Coleman Medallist Charlie Curnow sits down with Nathan Buckley for another stellar Face To Face feature interview.
Come Thursday, fans will have the best seat in the house when Sarah Jones, Jason Dunstall, David King and Leigh Montagna broadcast live from the MCG when Collingwood takes on Melbourne.
Garry Lyon, Jonathan Brown, Nathan Buckley and Jordan Lewis then take to the Fox Footy live stage at the MCG on Friday night for the Carlton v Sydney blockbuster.
Every minute of every game leading up to will be covered by Fox Footyâs unrivalled stable of talent and live on Kayo Sports and Foxtel.
Come grand final day it all kicks-off early with the Grand Final Breakfast then the much-loved Fox Footyâs Longest Kick returning to the banks of the Yarra River to see superstars of the game boot the Sherrin further than their rivals.
Fox Footy has something for every footy lover during a monster finals series, including On The Couch, AFL 360, Face To Face, First Crack and Bounce â all while the biggest season of AFLW continues around it.
There is something for every sports lover, with over 50 sports including AFLW, The Bathurst 1000, ICC Cricket World Cup, Constellation Cup, NBL season, Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix and more available to stream on Kayo Sports.
Rushed ending to Fox Footyâs AFLW telecast this evening so that the channel could go to AFL finals pre-match at 7pm AEST.
There has to be a way to not cut immediately away as soon as humanly possible.....
â Rebecca Hayne (@BeccaHayne) September 8, 2023
Disrespectful to Chelsea, the Crows etc to not find a way to just hit the dump button and get off the AFLW coverage?
We needed to get to Jordan Lewis blether THAT quick?
They played the fox footy get off music as soon as the siren sounded
â Rebecca Hayne (@BeccaHayne) September 8, 2023
Absolutely disgraceful
(Adelaide beat Richmond 41-12 at Ikon Park)
It could have easily been bumped to 503 or 507 altogether, so probably better that they gave it coverage on the âprimary footy channelâ at all in the first place.
Given Iâd say at least 80% of viewers tuning in around that time would be interested primarily in the Final on tonight and not on AFLW I donât think Fox has really done anything wrong here.
I do agree, but at the same time, they could always trim 5 minutes off the pre-game Menâs coverage so the Womenâs game can have at the very minimum, the song. Fox donât obviously have control of the AFL/ALFW broadcast schedules but they can always factor in overhang.
I think 7 did show the player interviews and song after the game. So fox did do them but didnât air it
Fox Footy just did the same thing in the Gold Coast v West Coast gameâŚ
Speaking of which, I think Fox Footy will consider poaching some commentators from the likes of Seven and AFLâs radio partners to expand the commentary team from 2025. I reckon Kelli Underwood and Jess Webster, who commentates 1-2 AFL/AFLW matches per week, will become full-time members of Fox Footy and wonât call matches for ABC Radio in 2025.
I think Fox already has enough to cover games & sometimes this year they have only had 1 play by play caller instead of 2 so they could possibly do that.
They might be able to get Gerald Wheatly to call games as he already does that on radio.
They probably just need to add a SA based caller & QLD based caller since they have Adam Papalia for WA games
I disagree.
Fox have enough VIC based callers to do the average 5 games a week here (So I think fox will probably assemble 2-3 call teams that can rotate through as needed). What theyâll need to do is build a team in each state for the one game a week in WA/SA/NSW/QLD. They nearly have this already in WA with Papalia, Pavlich and Schofield. Then they could cover every game at the venue with no need for studios or flights.
Fox has Ricciuto in Adelaide and Lynch in Brisbane as boundary reporters, but none in Sydney. Either Jude Bolton or recently retired GWS player Phil Davis could switch from Seven to Fox. Alternatively, Fox could recruit other former Giants and Swans players as experts.
Lynch is alright but they need someone else thatâs better than Ricciuto, especially for Crows games.
Who covers the games in TAS, ACT, NT, North Qld?
Yeah thatâs pretty much what I said. They have enough VIC based commentators & can have some of them fly to NSW and already have WA covered. But need more people in SA & QLD.
You would assume, Anthony Hudson would be the main caller for Thursday & Friday games as they are the âmarqueeâ matches.
Also there are usually 4 interstate matches a round, so if SA, WA & QLD each has a commentary team then there is only 6 other matches to cover in VIC + NSW
There is rarely 2 games in NSW or 2 games in QLD each round, so they can just fly out a VIC based commentary team to ACT & use a QLD team (which they need to establish) to cover North QLD etc.
TAS can also have VIC based members & NT could be SA based members.
Iâm of the belief that Jess Webster should be calling at least one Menâs game a week for Fox, sheâs bloody good and unlike a certain someone, doesnât cop much criticism for her work. Pairing her and Underwood up might be beneficial for both of them, even in a Sunday 13:10 slot.
I dare say Huddo and Dwayne will do the Friday & Saturday nights/twilightâs , Howie can do Thursdayâs and Saturday afternoons, Adam Papalia has previously called games in SA and did quite well, so itâd be good to let him outside of WA if need be. Fox do need to find more play by playâs, Ben Waterworth deserves the call up after years on the U18 matches, him and Webster work well together on those matches.
Another studio host could go alright also to relieve Sarah and Kath from doing 3 games a weekend each, Cath Durkin deserves a shot at this but after some time on the boundary for the Menâs, Isabella Leembruggen should get a gig on the boundary for NSW matches, does so on the ALFW already.
Jess Webster is brilliant
I think they need pbp to cover games in SA & QLD. They already have Adam Papalia in WA. They used to have Brenton Speed and could of used him for NSW games but he is with 9.
They definitely have enough to cover the other 6 games with Russell, Huddo, Howie, Underwood, Montagna, Whateley (if they get him to call games) and start using Webster + Waterworth or even Heverin.
Huddo currently calls Friday night matches for 3AW so he wonât give up the stint easily.
Well this is all for 2025 season & things will probably change. I just cannot see Fox not having Huddo for Thursday or Friday night games since he is easily their best