Time On: Nick Riewoldt cops an accidental ribbing on dress sense from Tom Liberatore
Nick Riewoldt has become very fond of a turtleneck since joining the media but he wasn’t expecting to cop a drive by from milestone man Tom Liberatore after Thursday night’s match.
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Time On is your wrap up of all the footy gossip and banter.
‘Pretty average’: Nick Riewoldt cops hilarious clip from Libba
Nick Riewoldt has become very fond of a turtleneck since joining the media. He also appears to like a cropped jacket as we saw on Thursday night.
But he wouldn’t have expected to cop a drive by from milestone man Tom Liberatore.
Social media lit up after Liberatore’s inadvertent swipe at the Channel 7 commentator’s fashion choice.
They were chatting post-game with Hamish McLachlan in the Bulldogs rooms with Liberatore accompanied by his young son Oscar.
“Do you remember being Oscar’s age?’’ Riewoldt asked.
Liberatore replied: “I remember running out for my old boy’s last game in 2022. I think I was 9 or 10. There’s some good vision of it somewhere but I’m looking pretty average. Turtleneck and some gelled up hair.”
Riewoldt asked: “Turtleneck’s no good?”
Liberatore said: “Gee sorry mate, I just realised you were wearing it. Maybe for a grown up but not for a kid.”
Riewoldt had a good laugh. “That’s gold,’’ he said.
‘Absolute losers’: Fev slams North legends over AFLW boycott
Brendan Fevola has slammed members of the North Melbourne 1975 premiership team who aren’t attending the club’s 100 year celebrations as “absolute losers”.
He said he was frustrated to hear there was angst due to the acknowledgment of the club’s first AFLW premiership.
“Sam Kekovich and hero John Burns are not expected to attend, reportedly discontent with last year’s AFLW side sharing the spotlight — oh you absolute losers,’’ Fevola said on his FOX FM breakfast show.
“Join the party, mate. They said they shouldn’t be sharing the spotlight with them.
“Good luck to the AFLW girls at the footy tonight. Celebrate, because you bloody earned it and they were a great side. And stuff all those old bloody codgers that don’t appreciate what they did and what the AFLW does produce because they are producing a great product.”
Fevola has joined Richmond’s AFLW team as a specialist coach for the upcoming season.
‘Smart ar**’: Barrett whacks Cornes over Tony Jones dig
Damian Barrett has defended the Sunday Footy Show against claims it took a “few short steps” by not discussing Tony Jones’ axing from Nine’s Wimbledon coverage.
Barrett bristled at the comments made by former panel member Kane Cornes who he labelled a “smart a …” over the issue when he himself had benefited from looking “after our own”.
After being probed by Craig Hutchison on their podcast, The Sounding Board, Barrett offered a stern response.
“What we did do was what we have always done under my time there, Hutchy, or sorry, my experience … and that is look after our own on it,’’ Barrett said.
“And I don’t know where Kane’s gone with that particular angle if you want to go down that path. I’m happy to engage in this chat if you want, because again, you take me through the TV side of that. TJ clearly wanted to go to Wimbledon and is now not.
“And if you want to keep going down that path, we can engage in as to the reasons why. But where do you go with that for two hours on live TV if that is the starting point of the topic? So we didn’t even discuss it.
“I spoke about it with Nathan Brown prior to the show, but there wasn’t even, do we discuss it or not? It was just, there’s no need to go there.”
Hutchison said the show is one of “mirth” and a “tongue-in-cheek show” so it was unusual not to bring it up.
Barrett pointed to earlier in the year when they did address the Australian Open and Novak Djokovic incident, and admitted at the time they had been silenced by management. He said it was different now.
“There’s one person asking (about) it, and that one person was the beneficiary of the care that I feel we’ve always had for each other on the show,’’ Barrett said.
“And while there is mirth attached, we do hang it on each other. And there was no reason to hang it on. You come off the top there and you go, ‘oh, TJ, you’re not going to Wimbledon. Ha ha ha.
“Where’s that going for two hours? And what benefit is that to a footy show audience that really wants to know about why games were won and lost on a weekend anyway? So Kane’s just being Kane, and Kane can go and do his own apologies off the top of his own shows if he wants. And Kane can go and work with people who don’t maybe want to support him at times now at his new network. And that’s all well and good.”
Hutchison argued that Cornes was just asking the question as many others had, but Barrett bit back: “I’m sure he wasn’t asking the question. He was being a smart a …”
Hutchison said he agreed with the way the Sunday Footy Show team had handled it.
“For what it’s worth, I agree with you. I think it would have been clearly … (he) would have been disappointed and wounded. TJ, he’s been and he’s a great servant of Nine. And the issue in January is very raw and new. So, I’d have done the same thing as you did.”
‘Ready to go’: Tom Mitchell eyes another shot at premiership glory
Collingwood premiership star Tom Mitchell says he’s “ready to go” after seven games in the VFL on the comeback from a foot injury.
The midfielder, who has been sidelined for more than 14 months, said he’s in top shape.
“I’m feeling great, haven’t missed a beat for a fair while now and just waiting for an opportunity,’’ Mitchell said.
“I’m in the best physical condition I’ve been maybe ever in my AFL career so I’m ready whenever I’m required.
“Body feels amazing and form is strong so I’m ready to go.
“It has been a journey the last 14.5 months so it’ll be pretty rewarding if I can try and break into the team and contribute to the team that’s already going so well this year. I’d love to be a part of it.”
Mitchell said he’s kept mentally strong through the help of his off-field interests.
Today he’s releasing a vodcast/podcast episode of new AFL series On The Inside alongside fellow Brownlow medallists, Carlton’s Patrick Cripps and Brisbane’s Lachie Neale.
It’s produced and presented by the trio who are behind the success of Ball Magnets.
“These conversations probably started at the end of last year with the AFL and Gatorade and we’ve found a project we’re really passionate about,’’ Mitchell said. “We think it’s good timing and we’ll do one every week in the lead up to finals.
“Early in my career I was so footy focused and then when things went pear shaped I didn’t have anything outside of footy to lean on to get through from a mental point of view. I feel like in life now, I’m very well balanced. And I love what we do together, Crippa and Lachie and I with Ball Magnets, and Josh Giddey as well in the basketball space, he’s involved with us.
“I love doing podcasting and creating skills and drills and content to help people out there who love their footy and sport and it’s a real passion of mine that I want to pursue further into the future once footy is done as well.”
Buddy doubles down on Michael Voss sacking call
Buddy Franklin has doubled down on his prediction that Michael Voss won’t see out the season. But he said he wants to see some fight and spirit from the players for their coach.
“I think, yeah, they’ll be disappointed with that (last week),’’ Franklin said on his podcast, The Buddy & Shane Show with Shane Crawford.
“I think that’s what they would have wanted, to go out and play a lot better than what they did. And then to sort of dish up what they did in that first play three quarters was really disappointing.
“And I’m expecting a big response this week, no doubt. They’re back on the MCG against Collingwood, which is going to be a huge match up. So I’m expecting them to come out this week and play for Vossie, you’d think. They’re going to have to, because if they don’t get a response …”
Crawford hit back at some critics of Franklin’s opinion, namely Mick Malthouse and Tony Shaw.
“I just think, let Buddy talk if he wants to talk,’’ Crawford said.
“Do not go into your shell, whatever you do. If you do, I’m going to have to punch you in the head.”
‘Fight night’: Cornes set to face off with clubs who banned him
Kane Cornes will come face-to-face with the two teams who have banned him on Thursday night — North Melbourne and the Bulldogs — in what has been dubbed ‘fight night’.
The polarising commentator joked about the situation on Monday morning but it will be interesting to see where he’s placed during the broadcast.
Last month Cornes and Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge had a tense pre-game confrontation at GMHBA Stadium.
Cornes said he nodded and acknowledged ‘Bevo’ and it wasn’t received well.
“It was something along the lines of, ‘You’ve got the nerve to say that’, and I just said, ‘What, I can’t say hello?’. Then he turned around again and started to go again and that’s when he was dragged away,’’ Cornes said.
At the end of April the Kangaroos banned Cornes from talking to its players and coaches after his criticism of the coach Alastair Clarkson and young gun Harry Sheezel.
David King brought up the potential ‘fight night’ with Cornes on their SEN breakfast show Monday morning.
“Are you nervous? Big week this week?’’ King said. “I’ve had this week circled in my calendar for at least six weeks. Fight night, Thursday night, you’re unpopular everywhere. You can’t go into the Kangas rooms, you can’t go into the Dogs rooms, you can’t stand in the safe space. I’m calling this Corn on the Concourse — you can’t even go in the venue.”
Cornes said he wouldn’t shy away from his Channel 7 role.
“I’m actually feeling really good. I’ll be there’’ he said. “But I’ve hired some security,’’ he added. “I’m safe, I feel really good about the protection.”
Footy media merry-go-round continues
The footy bye/ time off media merry-go-round this week has Tony Jones and Tom Morris on leave with Sam McClure on Wimbledon duties.
Jones was replaced as host on the Sunday Footy Show by Nathan Brown with the panel making light of his absence but still dodging the topic of Wimbledon which Jones is not at.
McClure is hosting the tennis coverage while Morris is on holiday in Singapore and Jones is off for a week too.
Brown said on Sunday in the host’s chair: “You might see a different sort of panel, TJ isn’t here today, he’s on a bit of a holiday, rest and relaxation and we hope he has a great day.”
‘Absolutely staggered’: Former Swans star hits out at old club
Former Sydney star turned commentator Ryan O’Keefe hasn’t held back on his former club — he slammed them again for mouthing off at the Western Bulldogs on Friday night.
Even before the match began Tom Papley was getting stuck into Sam Darcy with spotfires breaking out all night.
Bulldogs midfielder Tom Liberatore said post-match: “It was a tough game of footy. They came out straight away, Papley tried to start a fight as usual.”
O’Keefe said on ABC radio he was shocked by the tactics.
“I’m absolutely staggered you’d be opening your mouth after the Grand Final performances you (Sydney) put in.”
It’s not the first time this season O’Keefe has been critical of his former club this season, saying they weren’t up to AFL standard after their narrow loss to Brisbane in the Grand Final rematch and also labelling their skills horrendous after the 90 point loss to Adelaide.
The Bulldogs had the last laugh with the nine point win at the SCG where the surface was described as disgraceful.
Originally published as Time On: Nick Riewoldt cops an accidental ribbing on dress sense from Tom Liberatore
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