Garry Lyon and Gerard Whateley discuss the new-look AFL360 as more coaches, players commit to Fox Footy’s No. 1 show
Garry Lyon has explained why he jumped at the chance to be Gerard Whateley’s new co-host on AFL360 as details of a huge revamp for the popular Fox Footy show were revealed.
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Garry Lyon is excited by the challenge of joining Fox Footy’s flagship program AFL 360, saying the chance to work alongside Gerard Whateley on television for the first time on a nightly basis convinced him to make the move.
As Lyon prepares to sit behind the desk alongside Whateley for the first time at 6.30pm on Monday night, the Sunday Herald Sun can reveal he isn’t the only big name joining the revamped show which will this year celebrate its 1500th episode.
In a reset for the award-winning program following the departure of former Herald Sun chief football writer Mark Robinson late last year, other changes in 2025 include:
● All 18 AFL coaches have committed to appear on a rotational basis for the first time in several years in what looms as a critical season for the men in footy’s hottest seat;
● Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin has agreed to document a make-or-break season for the Demons with fortnightly appearances;
● Premiership coaches and former flag teammates John Longmire and Adam Simpson will bring their unique perspectives to an ever-changing coaching landscape, with both men likely to be courted for roles as early as next season;
● Young guns Will Day and Harry Sheezel will join an expanded “Players’ Night” on Tuesdays alongside a cavalcade of stars including reigning Brownlow medallist Patrick Cripps and reigning premiership co-captain Lachie Neale;
● A new “Garry’s Most Valuable Player” award decided by Lyon’s 3-2-1 votes each Monday, which could break the perception that only midfielders can win medals;
● Recently-retired AFL umpire ‘Razor’ Ray Chamberlain will also join the 360 team.
Lyon said the chance to work with Whateley played a huge role in his decision to hand over the hosting duties of On The Couch to triple Richmond premiership player Jack Riewoldt.
“To be doing something new, fresh and exciting … I am not sure many people get the opportunity to do that at 57,” Lyon said this week.
“It has established itself as a benchmark show and to join it with Gerard is something I am really looking forward to.
“I don’t know whether I would commit to three nights of television at this stage of my career without getting the opportunity to work with Gerard.
“There are a myriad of people who have had the opportunity to work with him and they are better for it. He brings out the best in people.
“I use a footy analogy. Can you make the team better? I hope I have been able to contribute to the footy (media) landscape over my time. I think I can be better and I think he can bring that out in me.”
The pair had passed “like ships in the night” in their successful media careers, with Whateley saying: “We did maybe a year of Friday night footy together when I first got to SEN … but we both had the desire to find the right project at the right time to work together.”
Whateley has hosted the show since its 2010 inception and is looking forward to the new era, though he will always be grateful for Robinson’s huge contribution to the show.
“I always said to Robbo that any night he wasn’t here, it didn’t really feel like 360, it was something else,” Whateley said.
“What a blessing it was to get something that lasted for us that long together.
“(But) this is a reset, it is a renewal. This is a new era. There are all sorts of possibilities about the next iteration of the show.”
He was looking forward to seeing his new TV partner unshackled by being a full-time host, but stressed Lyon also had the skills set to be the co-host.
“The opinion that has mattered most in footy over the past 25 years has been Garry Lyon’s,” he said. “But there is a certain constraint to being the host.
“My mantra (for the show) is ‘I want to hear what Gaz has to say about this’.
“We will be together on Friday nights (on Fox Footy). I especially like there will be this gap (until Monday night) when we speak about all the things that happen in between.”
Lyon said he saw this move as forming a “long-term partnership”, while guaranteeing that in the most crowded football media landscape in the game’s history he and Whateley would attack the big news and views but would always remain “authentic”.
“I haven’t spoken to Gerard about this, but I can guarantee you that whatever happens in this show, it will be authentic,” he said.
“It won’t be manufactured. I think Gerard once used the word ‘confected’. What we do will be genuine. On the basis that I have a strong opinion and Gerard has a strong opinion, how passionately we agree or disagree will play its way out.”
Lyon added with a laugh: “The prospect of arguing with Gerard is not one that is at the forefront of my mind right now … because he would probably win.”
SIMON SAYS
Few coaches have ridden the “rollercoaster” of emotions across the past five seasons as Goodwin, and AFL 360 viewers will have front row seats to what comes next.
Goodwin has agreed to join the show every two weeks, a marked departure from recent years when he chose to do few media appearances other than his mandated ones.
“This is important to him,” Lyon said. “He had been through a rollercoaster, professional and probably personal.
“I think this is about the coach (as a person), as opposed to the Melbourne Football Club coach. Just to talk about coaching and the pressure and where it can take you in the highest of moments and where it can take you in the darkest of moments.
“He knows it is not conditional on appearing on the show; it is unconditional. If you are 13-zip, you are going to be sprinting in here so fast that it is not going to matter, but if you are 4-9, you still have to come in. That is the commitment you have made.”
Whateley was excited to see what would unfold for Goodwin and for Melbourne in 2025.
“There is a degree of trust that he has shown in us and we value that to the extreme,” Whateley said.
“I always think the show has been good about creating a safe environment to come in and tell your story and we will continue that.”
Lyon added: “You are not going to come in here and get stitched up … but you are not coming in for an easy ride either.”
ARE THESE THE NEXT TWO COACHES IN WAITING?
Longmire and Simpson could well be rivals for the next AFL coaching gig on offer, but the close mates and coaching rivals will be a part of AFL 360’s Wednesday focus on coaching.
Lyon praised Whateley, long-time producer Tim Hodges and the show’s off-camera team for having the foresight of locking in the former Swans coach and ex-Eagles coach.
“They (Longmire and Simpson) bring premiership coaching success but they also bring personality and character that has probably been kept under wraps a bit because they were senior coaches,” he said.
“Relationship-wise, the two of them are sensational but along the way they are cognisant of the landscape. They know they will become the story at some stage.
“They could both be going for the same job … we could do the (job) interviews (on the show).”
Whateley agreed: “There will be a plethora of opinions around coaches and these two are straight out of the coaches’ box, so they have lived the experience.
“They will have an opinion on what is happening and add a level of depth to it. Here you have two people who have lived the experience gruelingly, successfully and unsuccessfully.”
POWER OF THE PLAYERS
Whateley said players had always been at the forefront of AFL 360’s success, evidenced by Christian Petracca’s tearful first public appearance following his horrific King’s Birthday injury.
That won’t change in 2025.
“You never know where the player journey will take you,” he said.
“Christian Petracca took up with us a few years ago. The first night he was sweating bullets … then he joined us on the Monday after he won the Norm Smith Medal (in 2021).
“Then he has the most traumatic injury in many a year. He joins us and his emotions get the better of him.
“Jeremy Howe takes up with us and he breaks his arm, and by the end of it, he is a premiership player.
“The players are prepared to share and let people know their stories. Bob Murphy and Jack Riewoldt did that with us.”
The addition of Hawthorn’s Day and North Melbourne’s Sheezel to the array of playing talent particularly excites Lyon.
“Whether it is me and Gerard (doing the show) in 10 years’ time, I hope Will Day and Harry Sheezel are still doing the segment and one of them is a Brownlow medallist and the other is a premiership player, and we can say we remember them coming in shaking in their boots.”
Originally published as Garry Lyon and Gerard Whateley discuss the new-look AFL360 as more coaches, players commit to Fox Footy’s No. 1 show
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