Sacked Showbiz podcast: Why Mick Molloy and Eddie McGuire clashed on Triple M

Mick Molloy and Eddie McGuire co-hosted a radio show for years, but it wasn’t all smooth sailing.

Mick Molloy has opened up about the triggers that caused the most friction between him and broadcaster Eddie McGuire.

Molloy co-hosted Triple M Hot Breakfast with McGuire and Luke Darcy from 2011 to 2017, a golden period which saw the radio show regularly win the FM ratings.

But elsewhere, Molloy’s AFL-themed show, The Front Bar, which screens on Channel 7, started beating Channel 9’s juggernaut The Footy Show, in the TV ratings.

McGuire, who started The Footy Show in 1994, rejoined the program in 2017.

“Ed is one of the smartest guys I’ve ever met,” Molloy told the Herald Sun’s Sacked: Showbiz podcast.

“Make no mistake, he’s an animal in business; that’s why he’s so good at it. But he’s not unhappy to see you do well either.”

Eddie McGuire, Mick Molloy and Luke Darcy co-hosted Hot Breakfast for six years.

But Molloy was stunned when, one morning his brother Richard, a producer who helped develop The Front Bar, rang to say: “We won.”

Mick: “Won what?”

Richard: “We won the ratings.”

Molloy: “I said to Ed, ‘We won. We beat The Footy Show.’

“There was a stony silence because no-one could quite process what had occurred. We were all just a bit stunned. Then my phone started ringing, then Ed’s phone started ringing.

“At that point, the ball was put in motion. It was inevitable (Nine) were going throw the kitchen sink in, which meant getting Ed back (on The Footy Show).

“But it never got uncomfortable. We were both adult about it, we’d both been through too many scraps, and it was not our first rodeo.”

However, the rivalry between the Tigers and Magpies was another matter.

Molloy, a Richmond Football Club tragic, had regular on-air tussles with McGuire, who is also the Collingwood Football Club president.

“I remember saying to Ed, ‘The best radio we’re going to have is flat-out barneys.’ He’s a powerful character and not many people stand up to him.”

During one infamous incident, Molloy delivered a truckload of Collingwood tissues to the Triple M studio after a Richmond victory over Collingwood.

“There were a couple of times when I went, ‘OK, you need to calm the farm or somebody’s going to get hurt’,” Molloy said.

“Forget Front Bar versus The Footy Show — Richmond versus Collingwood was where the real friction was.”

Molloy is co-host of Channel 7’s The Front Bar, and Triple M’s top-rating Kennedy Molloy show, with Jane Kennedy.

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