Rebecca Maddern hopes third time’s a charm with new ‘Footy Show’ host Eddie McGuire

REBECCA Maddern is hoping it’s third time lucky as she prepares to step into the Footy Show cauldron on Thursday with her third co-host in 16 months.

REBECCA Maddern is hoping it’s third time lucky as she prepares to step into the Footy Show cauldron on Thursday with her third co-host in 16 months.

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But this time it is different. This time her co-host is one of the smartest and most experienced TV performers around — Eddie McGuire.

‘Footy Show’ hosts Rebecca Maddern, Eddie McGuire and Sam Newman. Picture: Alex Coppel

“It is going to be my third first night,” Maddern said.

“I loved working with James (Brayshaw), I loved working with Hutchy (Craig Hutchison) — albeit briefly — and I am equally really looking forward to working with Eddie. I am excited and feel lucky to be working with him. He brings so much knowledge and passion and energy to the show.

“We all got together for a drink (on Tuesday) and Eddie made a speech, which was wonderful, and I think that everyone felt like a new chapter was opening in The Footy Show’s history.”

Maddern has been through a baptism of fire as co-host.

Rebecca Maddern with her previous ‘Footy Show’ co-host Craig Hutchison.

“There is no denying there have been challenges and changes (on the show) but professionally I look upon that as a positive,” she said.

“I have had to do things in the last year and a half that I have never had to do, or never been called upon to do, professionally. I feel now that I really could manage and tackle anything.

“Some people would be really unsettled by it but because it has been like that from the outset for me ... the abnormal, strangely, becomes the normal now.

“Nothing really surprises me.

“James Brayshaw said to me, ‘When you sign on for this show expect the unexpected’, because that is the nature of this show.”

Eddie McGuire and Rebecca Maddern. Picture: Alex Coppel

While not giving too much away, Maddern hinted at exciting plans for the rebooted debut this Thursday.

“There are some significant changes, some segment changes, there are some little changes, but essentially we are still a footy show, still an entertainment show, and we still look at games, but there are a few new exciting things,” she said.

Maddern turns 40 today and said she was not scared to embrace and celebrate the milestone.

“Forty, it is a number,” she said.

“I don’t feel 40. I feel wiser and more experienced and certainly more confident within myself and my abilities, but I certainly don’t feel any different than I did when I was 21.

“The only thing that has changed is that I don’t go out as much and I wear more sensible shoes.”

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Originally published as Rebecca Maddern hopes third time’s a charm with new ‘Footy Show’ host Eddie McGuire