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Nothing lasts forever ... and this is certainly the case with the Footy Show on Channel Nine that is gone - and reminds all in the television how the viewers know best
Michelangelo Rucci
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OBITUARIES on the Channel Nine Footy Show - March 24, 1994-May 9, 2019 - will inevitably note time finally caught up with a television show that was labelled an “institution” in Australian football.
Presenting the line-ups for the weekend’s AFL games from 9.30pm on a Thursday night was fine in the early 1990s when there was no eagerness from the national league clubs to load up websites, emails and social media with not only the squads but whatever preview and in-house statement works from the coach.
Remember the days when it seemed the Footy Show would give scant regard to the non-Victorian teams?
But it was not time that put the Footy Show on death row.
Once a must-watch program - that commanded enormous commercial support from corporate Australia - the Footy Show ultimately proved (and reminds all) that it is viewers (and not producers) who hold the destiny of a television show in their hands.
The Footy Show did not become outdated ... Channel Seven’s Front Bar proves that ratings can be won by dusting down old moments in Australian football history rather than overstating today’s events.
But here are the key points to the demise of the Footy Show.
Viewers decide who they want in their lounge rooms. They tired of having the Footy Show panels in their homes, but they roll out the welcome mat for the three lads on the Front Bar.
And, most critically, the Front Bar laughs with its guest - not at them.
Bye bye Footy Show.
ORIGIN OF BLUES
SURELY not! No-one can envy the task put any panel needing to select Hall of Famers or all-time greatest teams.
And as these concepts are exclusive, there is certain to be just as much controversy as to who has missed being honoured as exaltation for those put on high pedestals.
So it will be with the greatest NSW Australian football team.
The first great debate will be on the choice of full back - Sydney premiership defender LEO BARRY ahead of North Adelaide legend IAN McKAY?
As always, the criteria for selection needs to taken into account.
To be eligible, selection originally began with - as first explained by one of the major advocates of the project, former Sydney Swans chairman Richard Colless - a player “not necessarily born in NSW, but actually played senior football in NSW before moving into one of the senior competitions such as the SANFL.”
McKay qualified under this basic criteria.
Educated at North Adelaide Primary School and Prince Alfred College, McKay had his SA league football debut delayed by World War II. He served as a gunner in an anti-aircraft regiment and was in active service in New Guinea at Morotai and in the assault on Tarakan. McKay’s senior football career began in Sydney with St George before he returned to Adelaide as a 23-year-old to make the North Adelaide league team in 1946.
And when McKay re-settled in Adelaide he became a giant of league football.
He was an automatic choice when there State selection and made his mark on the national stage with the best-player trophy in a clash with Victoria in 1950, his Magarey Medall-winning season.
Permanently etched in SA sporting history is the image of McKay’s soaring mark over Norwood rival Pat Hall in the 1952 SANFL grand final at Adelaide Oval. And Australian football history books record his successful battles with Australian Football Hall of Fame Legend John Coleman in state games.
Former Advertiser sports editor MERV AGARS ranked McKay as SA’s greatest full back when he settled on the best SANFL team for the league’s centenary season in 1977.
But then came this selection clause - a player had to be eligible for NSW under State-of-Origin rules. And this put Barry in the NSW all-time line-up named by journalist Mike Sheahan and 1988 Brownlow Medallist Gerard Healy serving as senior selectors taking input from football historians and authors Ian Granland, Rod Gillett and Miles Wilks, AFL NSW/ACT leader Sam Graham and AFL commissioner Gabrielle Trainor.
Two SANFL greats did make the final line-up - Glenelg hero Neil Davies, who came to the SA league from the Central Broken Hill Football Club, on a wing; and West Adelaide’s multi-sport legend Bruce McGregor, originally from West Broken Hill FC, leading the ruck.
Failing to make the final cut with McKay were 1961 All-Australian Geoff Kingston from West Torrens, Glenelg goalkicking great Jack Owens along with Port Adelaide captain Jack Ashley. Kingston was listed as an emergency.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“I can’t speak highly enough of what (Adelaide United coach Marco Kurz) has been able to go through on a personal level, knowing how much he’s had to give to the club and they’ve said, ‘We’re not going to sign you’ and still come out and be professional and still have the players wanting to play for you is amazing.”
Former Socceroo ARCHIE THOMPSON
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
IT will be May - rather than June - for the AFL mid-season draft. And the AFL clubs that have - by injury - the right to make a call on May 27 are increasingly looking at “future talent” rather than ready-made answers from the State league.
This seems to make all the hysteria that came with the declaration of a mid-season draft resuming for the first time since 1993 seem over-the-top.
TWEET OF THE WEEK
What a week of football it’s been!!! Feel for the @AdelaideUnited boys after coming back twice. How can you not love it though 😠what a sport âš½ï¸
— Stefan Mauk (@StefanMauk) May 10, 2019
Brisbane Roar midfielder - and Henley High graduate - STEFAN MAUK.
RULES OF THE WEEK
IN Australian football - Law 17.11: Shaking goal post or behind post ... a free kick shall be awarded against a player or official who intentionally shakes a goal or behind post (either before or after a player has disposed of the football).
In world football - Law 10.3: Procedure before kicks from the penalty mark start ... unless there are other considerations (e.g. ground conditions, safety etc.), the referee tosses a coin to decide the goal at which the kicks will be taken which may only be changed for safety reasons or if the goal or playing surface becomes unusable.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
TRAVIS Boak’s return to the Port Adelaide captaincy - as co-captains Ollie Wines and Tom Jonas missed Showdown 46 with injury - was most probably inevitable.
But it might have been worth asking club champion JUSTIN WESTHOFF, a former member of the leadership group at Alberton, to add the skipper’s role to his grand resume at the Power.
NOTE OF THE WEEK
FOUR English Premier League clubs have made the finals of European football’s grand competitions - Liverpool and Tottenham in the Champions League after dramatic comebacks in the semi-finals; Arsenal and Chelsea in the Europa League.
And not one Englishman as manager ...
PRIDE OF SA
Sing it loud boys! #SAPride 💪ðŸ‘🆠pic.twitter.com/QiqVptUHxb
— SANFL (@SANFL) May 12, 2019
CALLING all songwriters and musicians who love to rework an anthem. The SA State football teams - senior and junior - need your masterful work.
Following the State under-18s team, Josh Carr’s SA senior team - that claimed the Haydn Bunton Trophy by beating WA at Perth Stadium on Sunday afternoon - opted to sing in victory with ... the Crows club song crafted by former Adelaide Football Club chairman and chief executive Bill Sanders.
Considering the SANFL’s fight to be seen as independent of the AFL - particularly in keeping the “SANFL” brand rather than falling into line as “AFL-SA” - having the State team bash out “The Pride of South Australia” seems a contradiction in mission statements.
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au
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