Seven AFL Coverage

Friday Night Footy kicks off 2025 season on Seven and 7plus Sport

Kane Cornes and Toby Greene join Seven’s coverage

Football’s #1 commentary team is ready to bring fans an unbelievable season opener tonight between the Sydney Swans under new coach Dean Cox, and Hawthorn, live and free from the SCG on Seven, 7mate and for the first time, 7plus Sport.

In an exciting announcement for fans, new-signing Kane Cornes will be there on opening night, alongside GWS GIANTS Captain, Toby Greene, and Seven’s Friday Night Football commentary team including James Brayshaw, Alister Nicholson, Abbey Holmes, Dale Thomas and Matthew Richardson.

7NEWS Melbourne Sport Reporter, Xander McGuire, will also be on deck to present the biggest breaking news stories from the match.

Friday night marks a huge start to the 2025 AFL Premiership Season on Seven and 7plus Sport, which will see football content in prime time seven nights a week.

Seven Network Head of AFL and Sport Integration, Gary O’Keeffe, said Seven is ready to bring elite level commentary and action to the screens for footy fans Australia-wide for Opening Round.

“Over the off-season, our team has worked hard to bring together football’s best minds to showcase unrivalled analysis, calling and match action live and free on Seven and 7plus Sport,” he said.

“We cannot wait to get under way with Opening Round this weekend and what better way to start than with Dean Cox leading the Swans as head coach for the first time in front of a packed SCG?

“We’re thrilled to officially welcome star recruit Kane Cornes for his first match day appearance alongside GWS GIANTS Captain, Toby Greene, who makes a special guest appearance in a brand new out-of-play expert commentary role this Friday night ahead of his team’s match on Sunday against Collingwood,” Mr O’Keeffe said.

“Friday Night Footy on Seven will showcase other guest players for expert commentary throughout the season including Scott Pendlebury.”

The collection of new AFL shows including The Agenda Setters, Unfiltered, Extra Time, Sunday Footy Feast, The Wash Up and Kane’s Call will be launched from Monday, 10 March to complement long-standing favourite The Front Bar, keeping footy fans entertained and informed every day of the week, live and free on Seven and 7plus Sport.

In a major win for the network, Caroline Wilson joins Seven as a panelist for the new, hard-hitting football panel show, The Agenda Setters, set to air in prime time on Monday and Tuesday nights on Seven and 7plus Sport.

Joining Wilson on The Agenda Setters will be fellow new recruits Craig Hutchison, Kane Cornes and Nick Riewoldt, alongside existing Seven AFL experts Dale Thomas and Luke Hodge.

Australia’s best sports interviewer, Hamish McLachlan, sits down with one of the most talented and polarising figures in the game, Toby Greene, to uncover the real person behind the gameday persona, in the first episode of Unfiltered next Wednesday night, straight after The Front Bar.

Footy fans can also catch up on Full Sweat, a documentary that takes viewers behind the curtain to give an exclusive look into the AFL’s most exciting club, Hawthorn’s pre-season on 7plus Sport.

Seven’s AFL match coverage in 2025 includes matches on 23 Thursday nights, 24 Friday nights, State Footy Saturdays, 25 Sunday afternoons, five Sunday nights, plus marquee games and every game in the Finals Series including – exclusive to Seven and 7plus Sport – the Brownlow Medal and the AFL Grand Final. Plus, fans in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia can watch every game involving teams from their home states.

AFL Opening Round: Sydney Swans v Hawthorn

7.00pm AEDT tonight, live and free on Seven, 7mate and 7plus Sport


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Seems like 7 have ditched the 7+ pins on the commentators they had for the cricket and also the mics have just 7 & no 7+.

I would of thought they would have 7+ everywhere to get people to watch on 7+

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Love him or hate him Kane Cornes is a great get for 7. He’s doing an excellent job on the coverage so far

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No screenshots available on 7+ but looks like 7 will have 2d graphics? The hawks lineup was at the bottom like normal but it was in 2d instead

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New graphics for names.

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Not at all a fan of the scorebug, it’s way too simplistic and not a fan of the bottom centre placement.
EDIT - it’s better now with the goals/behinds being included but still not a big fan

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Bottom center placement is already annoying me. Much preferred in the corner.

The new animations look nice though.

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Looks weird when it’s just the score total. Looks good when expanded and when it’s showing stats imo

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The new graphics are much improved. The only thing I would do is have both the total scores in the middle. Looks off having the score on the right.

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The 7 logo returns for the full screen transition to slomo replay. Last used in 2001.

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That’s because Fox are doing their own now they don’t need neutral graphics anymore.

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I like 7 with their extended one. But I don’t like it being in the middle. If it was in top or left corner it would be better.

How can The Agenda Setters be live into Sydney and Brisbane at 10pm, unless they are recording a second show specific to those markets?

What about international broadcasters? Or do they now take the Fox feed by default?

It will be an encore/repeat of what was shown at 7:00pm on 7mate in the other markets. I doubt Seven would record an episode specific to Sydney/Brisbane.

Apparently FS2 in the US is taking the 7 feed. Although, I don’t think the international broadcasters would care, it’s like when we take American leagues feeds from their local broadcasters.

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Just been looking myself:
ABC Australia (APAC) - Seven
FOX Sports (US) - Seven
Sky Sport (NZ) - Seven
TNT Sports (UK) - Seven
TSN (Canada) - Seven

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I’m surprised Bruce McAvaney wasn’t on tonight.

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