AFL football
Channel Seven
CHANNEL Seven’s footy coverage is a story of second chances.
The network itself seemed lost to the game after channels Nine and 10 moved into AFL broadcasting in the early 2000s.
But a very big chequebook won back the rights for Seven in 2007 and it has been the sole free-to-air broadcaster since.
During that time, the coverage has barely changed until the 2014 season dawned with a couple of interesting new additions to the telecast.
The first is Mick Molloy who jumped from the sinking ship of Before the Game to become Seven’s resident funnyman during its Saturday night pre-game coverage.
Molloy is a good get by Seven, whose last foray into combining comedy with football resulted in Live and Kicking – a truly awful offering 1990s offering dubbed Dead and Stinking.
The rotund comedian is irreverent and doesn’t seem bound by the personality straightjackets that most in the Channel Seven stable seem to wear.
Wayne Carey has also made a comeback at Seven – where he was once being groomed for post-football stardom.
His extremely chequered personal life seemed to doom any prospect of a mainstream media career but “the Duck” has surprisingly waddled back into our loungerooms, joining the Friday night regulars.
He seems just OK as a commentator – not up there with the likes of his former team-mate David King but not as bad as former opponent Steven Silvagni.
The most remarkable resurrection, however, must be Carey’s hair.
His once balding scone now boasts a thick thatch of chestnut hair that has middle-aged men across Australia wondering if a (former) life of drug use, binge drinking and womanising is the trick to ageing well.
Apart from Wayne, his brand new hair and Mick Molloy’s tomfoolery, it seems this year’s footy coverage is business as usual.
Bruce, Dennis and Brian are back with their regular sidekicks, leaving the whole affair feeling like an old couch that you know should be replaced, but never goes anywhere.
– Danny Buttler
