By Jake Niall and Peter Ryan
Fox Footy will pit Gerard Whateley and Anthony Hudson against Channel Seven’s Friday night commentary team in 2025 as the pay TV channel brings in its own broadcast under the new rights deal.
The decorated pair of Hudson and Whateley is likely to go up against long-standing Channel Seven Friday night commentary duo Brian Taylor and James Brayshaw.
Gerard Whateley will join Anthony Hudson to give footy fans a choice on Friday nights.Credit: Justin McManus
Hudson has called football on Fox for a number of years and was part of Channel 10’s team when the free-to-air network had the broadcast rights, but he has never called Friday night football. The experience will also be new to Whateley, who is regarded as Australia’s best all-round sports commentator, having called the athletics at the Olympics in Paris.
“It is my first opportunity to do footy on TV in a marquee slot,” said Whateley, who has done Friday nights on radio on SEN and the ABC for 20 years. Hudson also commentates for radio station 3AW.
Whateley downplayed the prospect of being in competition with Seven.
“I probably don’t think about that ... choice is a great thing. It’s great in cricket. Now we will be able to do that in footy,” Whateley said. He confirmed he would commentate for SEN on Thursday nights and Saturdays in 2025.
Fox Footy also announced on Monday that one of the game’s most revered figures, AFL Legend Leigh Matthews, would join its team.
The veteran broadcaster had a long career on Channel Seven before appearing on Channel Nine’s Footy Furnace in 2024. His role is yet to be determined, as is the choice of special comments experts to accompany Whateley and Hudson.
Geelong great Tom Hawkins and 400-gamer Shaun Burgoyne have joined the Fox Footy coverage as expert commentators, but have not yet been assigned regular timeslots.
Former Richmond star Jack Riewoldt will replace Garry Lyon as host of Monday night’s flagship program On the Couch next season in a huge move for the triple-premiership Tiger, who joined AFL 360 eight years ago while still playing.
Jack Riewoldt (right, with Dustin Martin) will host On the Couch in 2025.Credit: Getty
Fox Footy – available on Kayo and Foxtel – will not only have specialist call teams for each game, it will have exclusive rights to “Super Saturday” throughout the home-and-away season in Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. This means viewers in those parts of Australia will need a Foxtel or Kayo subscription to watch their teams play on Saturdays.
Fox Footy will also have exclusive rights to Saturday games in South Australia and Western Australia until round nine. Free-to-air viewers in those two states will have access to delayed telecast on Seven or 7mate until round nine. The same arrangement will be in place for NSW and Queensland until round 11.
In South Australia and Western Australia, Fox Footy will have exclusive rights to Saturday games until the end of round eight, with a delayed telecast on free to air until then.
Lyon is moving to AFL 360, where he will work alongside Whateley as Mark Robinson’s replacement on the long-running weeknight program.
Fox Sports boss Steve Crawley said the company expected new subscribers in 2025.
“We can’t wait for them to enjoy the combination of Huddo and Gerard calling Friday nights. These two aren’t strangers to calling together, but a new combo for Fox Footy, we know our audiences will value their clear, accurate and descriptive call,” he said.
Seven is the host broadcaster on Thursday and Friday nights and the Sunday afternoon match. The network has also beefed up its coverage with Kane Cornes, Caroline Wilson and Nick Riewoldt to appear on their revamped line-up of dedicated football shows.
Nine’s Footy Classified announced last week that Essendon great James Hird would join the program as well as Sunday night’s Footy Furnance with Tom Morris and Jimmy Bartel.
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