James Brayshaw has only watched The Footy Show once after leaving

JAMES Brayshaw has revealed he has only once watched the The Footy Show since leaving as co-host more than a year ago.

JAMES Brayshaw has revealed he has only once watched the The Footy Show since leaving as co-host more than a year ago.

Speaking as he suits up for a TV return as part of Channel 7’s AFL commentary team, Brayshaw told the Sunday Herald Sun he was not a viewer of the Footy Show.

He had co-hosted the Channel 9 program alongside Garry Lyon and later Rebecca Maddern before his sudden departure from the network in December 2016.

“I watched it once when they changed the set just to see what the new set looked like,” Brayshaw said.

“I love Hutchy (Craig Hutchison), he is a great friend of mine, and Eddie (McGuire) and I get along brilliantly, and Sam (Newman) and I are great mates, so there was nothing personal about it, but it is just how I roll.

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James Brayshaw is joining the Channel 7 AFL commentary team in 2018. Picture: Channel 7/Tim Carrafa

“When I leave something I just move on and there’s nothing angry about it, it is just how I am. I never spend any time looking back.”

After time away from TV, Bray­shaw is ready to kick on with his new network and will take a seat alongside Matthew Richardson, Cameron Ling and Luke Darcy on Channel 7’s Saturday night match coverage.

It has been 12 years since he last called footy on TV, although he has during that time been, and remains, a fixture of Triple M radio’s AFL commentary team.

“I always wanted to do it again, I absolutely love it, and I think Seven do an unbelievable job of it, so to be joining an incredibly talented group of people to do something you love is just a dream really,” he said.

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Craig Hutchison. Picture: Jay Town

Eddie McGuire. Picture: David Geraghty/The Australian

Brayshaw said he had no regrets about departing The Footy Show after he and Nine could not reach agreement over his contract — Nine say they let him go, he says he made the call to leave — admitting the break ended up a positive for him, ­allowing him to slow his life down and spend more time with his children and partner, Lisa Christie.

“The only thing that annoyed me was the perception that I had been, to use the word that was bandied around at the time, punted,” he said.

“When you are offered a two-year extension and it is in your inbox and you chose not to sign it because of the terms, it was nothing to do with the money and nothing to do with anything else other than there was just some stuff within the terms that we were not in agreement over.

“At the end of the day they had every right to turn around and go, ‘well, we are not going to agree to that’, and I had every right to turn around and go, ‘well, I am not going to sign’.

“That is what happens in a negotiation, but that is a long way from being sacked.”

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Billy Brownless and James Brayshaw last year. Picture: Supplied

Brayshaw said 2017 had been a year of change coming after he finished his third term as president of the North Melbourne Football Club at the end of 2016 and was not involved with Channel 9 for the first time in 16 years, 11 of which were on The Footy Show.

He had several offers during his break that weren’t quite what he was looking for.

“I did not miss the meetings, I will confess to that,” he said.

“And to be honest, after 11 years of Thursday nights (with The Footy Show), it was bloody nice to go home and just have a glass of red with Lisa and sit quietly and mind our own business.

“I have had a really nice year away to reflect and now it is absolutely the right time to jump right in and do something I love with a great team of people.

“The first television work I did was with Channel 7 in Adelaide … so this feels almost like a full circle.”