AFL discussion show Friday Front Bar will make its TV debut this Thursday, after the Richmond-Carlton match, on Seven, 7mate or Southern Cross depending on where you live. From April 1 it will continue every Friday night after the big match. It is hosted by Mick Molloy, Andy Maher and Sam Pang. If you want to see what the show is like, you can catch up on last year’s episodes at the AFL website.
But I also think they may use Casey to do both Women’s and Men’s basketball in Rio, a sport he’s covered for close to 25 years.
Has Andy Maher jumped ship? I don’t want him back on TV…
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Friday Front Bar is out of the schedule on Thursday night - replaced by Big Bang Theory.
This Week in AFL on Seven: Round 1
Tigers-Blues Thursday opener, Swans-Magpies Saturday night, Port v St Kilda Sunday afternoon, Easter Monday Cats-Hawks clash, Game Day and Talking Footy return on Channel 7 and 7mate
After a long off-season wait for fans, the footy’s finally back on Seven tonight with the traditional Carlton v Richmond season opener, in front of an expected bumper crowd of 70,000 plus at the MCG.
Before the first bounce we speak with new Blues coach Brendon Bolton ahead of his first game at the helm. And at half time we catch up with suspended Blue Dale Thomas and also injured Tigers star Brett Deledio to talk about his expected return.
Saturday Night Footy comes from the SCG as the Magpies head north to battle the Swans in a state they’ve amassed a strong away record. In the pre-game show, Richo goes one on one with Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin to talk about his health, getting back to footy and his hopes for 2016. We also speak to Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley before the match and chat with Hollywood actress and comedian Melissa McCarthy.
Easter Monday Football has a mouth-watering clash as the Cats wheel out their boom recruits against the reigning premiers Hawthorn. In the pre-game at 2.45pm we cross back live to the final of Australia’s richest foot race, the Stawell Gift. And at half time we have an emotional interview with Tom Couch, the son of legendary Geelong Brownlow medallist Paul Couch who recently passed away.
Sunday Football sees the Saints trek to the Adelaide Oval to take on the Power. We have exclusive behind the scenes access to Port coach Ken Hinkley’s pre-match address, as well as a St Kilda team meeting. We also speak with St Kilda midfield jet Leigh Montagna as he celebrates his 250th AFL game, along with Port Magpies Chinese recruit Chen Shaoliang.
Fan favourite AFL Game Day returns on Sunday morning hosted by Hamish McLachlan with a cracking first show including special guest Taylor Walker, panellists Demon Bernie Vince, Crow Rory Sloane and ex Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson.
Then the pioneering Talking Footy returns Monday night with special guest St Kilda superstar Nick Riewoldt ahead of his 300th game. Bulldogs great Luke Darcy hosts alongside four-time Essendon best and fairest
Wondering if Channel 7 will slightly modify their in game scoreboard like they did during the tennis (with the flag).
No change to the scoreboard, but team lineup graphics are similar to those used in Seven’s coverage in 2007-2011.
I’m pretty sure that there’s no graphical differences compared to last year (at least from the bit that I’ve seen), but here’s a cap of the coverage in HD on 7mate Sydney for what it’s worth anyway!
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No changes. 
Fox Footy simulcast on 7mate is still SD
Do we blame Seven or Fox? Who isn’t providing and/or obtaining an HD feed?
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Considering that Seven are now producing and airing (albeit on 7mate, and only in some areas) their own AFL games in HD, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s Fox Footy that aren’t providing Seven with a HD feed of their live games. Wouldn’t Fox Footy/Foxtel want people to pay to see their coverage in HD?!
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Perhaps Seven needs to do the same and not provide Fox Footy with an HD feed. I’m sure Seven would want people to watch their games on their channel, rather than Fox Footy. Of course, it would help if Seven was in HD. 
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Coverage on 7mate via Prime looks pretty bad. I want to say it’s upscaled SD but the on-screen graphics look HD. Anyone in 7 territory able to compare?
Looks to be HD but at a low bit rate.
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Looked pretty good on 7mate Central Coast and Sydney but yeah, bitrate is bad
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Dennis doesn’t go to the olympics, so he should still be available, along with BT, Luke Darcy & Jason Bennett (VFL host/commentator).
I’d say something like this:
Fri - BT & Dennis
Sat - Jason Bennett and Luke Darcy
Sat night - BT
Sun - Jason Bennett and Dennis
BT used to call Saturday nights on his own, so he could do it again temporarily.
Thanks. Movement looked terrible, nothing compared to NRL on WIN HD. Bitrate was hovering around 7-8 Mbits when these were capped.
You’d understandably capture some distortion with still screenshots during heavy movement, but usually not this bad.
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Yes - when I checked it was pretty bad - 7 Brisbane was running less than 6 MBps. I also tried for some caps; even waiting for the movement to slow there was major macroblocking.
Some parts were not HD
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Thanks for those! Brisbane’s 7mate seems to handle the movement a lot better than Prime. There was also a lot of “jolting” for lack of a better term on Prime. A bit like when you see an incorrect frame rate being used. The half time ticker was the best example of this - text sort of jumps across instead of sliding smoothly. The entire broadcast was like this so you can imagine how bad a wide pan of the oval would have looked.
So has Andy Maher returned to Ch 7 after 13 years? Or is his new footy segment fully funded/sponsored by Carlton Draught?
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Also, great Easter Monday footy coverage 
Great (and somewhat different) commentary team was great to hear!
What a match, boy oh boy
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It was on the AFL website last year.
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