Mick Molloy says The Front Bar will kick on despite the revitalised Footy Show on Nine

IT’S still cheers and beers at The Front Bar. And Mick Molloy insists the show will kick on — despite the challenge posed by the revitalised Footy Show.

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BEER could be the one thing that prevents Channel Seven’s clever Footy Show-lite offering, The Front Bar, being extended from its current 75 minute weekly episode.

The panellists, Mick Molloy, Sam Pang and Andy Maher, chin wag about the footy news of the week over a couple of pots of beer on the show that has been garnering a loyal following since being moved into Thursday night and going head to head with The Footy Show on Nine.

“It is not stunt beer, it is actual beer,” Molloy confirmed.

Andy Maher, Mick Molloy and Sam Pang on The Front Bar.

“Pacing yourself is the problem. I am glad it is only a one hour 15 minute show. If it went for two hours we could all be in a lot of trouble, I reckon.”

Molloy said he and his Triple M co-host Eddie McGuire were still mates despite their programs being pitted against each other.

“I wish he was a little more competitive,” Molloy joked.

“Circumstance has dictated that we are against The Footy Show, but no one is sitting in an office at Channel Seven stroking a white cat going ‘let’s crush Eddie McGuire like an ant’.

While McGuire’s prime time resurrection saw The Footy Show thump The Front Bar in the ratings on Thursday night, the ratings playing field is wide open for the rest of the TV footy season.

Eddie McGuire and Mick Molloy.

“When we designed our show we never designed it to go up against The Footy Show,” Molloy said.

“The fact that we have ended up here is crazy. We started off as a little internet show.

“We tried to create the vibe that exists in my lounge room on a Friday night or down the pub of an afternoon.

“We are fans. This is a show designed by fans for fans who sit in their own room and thump the table and have a genuinely one-eyed view of what football is all about. I think we reach and touch people who see themselves as one of us.

“I am so glad they (The Footy Show) are back. I say this without fear or favour, they are the original and the best and I respect Eddie McGuire as a broadcaster. So much so I chose to work with him in a very confined space over many years, so I genuinely love the bloke.

“I think our shows are remarkably different, have different styles and hopefully different audiences.”

Sam Pang and Mick Molloy at the 2016 EJ Whitten footy game.

Meanwhile, Sam Newman has revealed he was aware that his great mate McGuire was returning to host The Footy Show when he staged his now infamous on-air silent protest.

Newman’s buttoned-up performance forced the hand of Nine management to announce McGuire was replacing incumbent host Craig Hutchison the following day.

“I probably knew a day before it was announced he (McGuire) was coming back,” Newman told 3AW’s Footy Nightline.

Finally, Nine’s CEO Hugh Marks was backstage at the Docklands Studios for McGuire’s return to prime time with The Footy Show.

And for McGuire it was a proud night, with his sons and wife Carla in the studio audience. His children were too young to see him during his last round as host of the show 12 years ago.

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