Footy Show host Tony Jones left red-faced by disastrous live stitch-up

FOOTY Show stars were wiping away tears on live TV when a Channel 9 host was on the receiving end of one of the all-time great stitch-ups.

Tyson Otto

@tottodtsport

2 min read

September 3, 2018 - 10:25AM

Tony Jones was a broken man on The Sunday Footy Show

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FOOTY Show host Nathan Brown tried to lower expectations when he revealed Sunday Footy Show co-host Tony Jones was “worried” about an upcoming segment.

It turns out Jones should have been terrified.

The popular Channel 9 star was on the receiving end of one of the all-time great Footy Show stitch-ups when he took on journalist Damien Barrett in a head-to-head handball challenge segment made famous by iconic Footy Show legend Lou Richards.

The battle of the reporters showdown — that absolutely nobody was calling for — had been hyped for more than a week, and the results didn’t disappoint — just not in the way that behind-the-scenes producers probably envisioned when the concept was cooked up.

Either way, it was TV gold.

The famous handball challenge delivered another moment that’s sure to become part of Footy Show folklore when Jones stepped up to the handball line.

The Nine news presenter was solid on his right hand and landed a score of 27 from his first round.

Barrett responded with a score of 36 from his five handballs.

Tony Jones was a broken man after his performance on The Sunday Footy Show

Nobody could have predicted the scenes that would unfold when Jones then stepped up to the line for the second round with his non-dominant left hand.

His first clean air swing soared straight into the bread basket of panellist Kane Cornes who was standing metres to the side of the giant target.

Almost immediately, the panel — made up of Brown, Cornes, Geelong great Billy Brownless and Essendon legend Matthew Lloyd — completely lost it.

Brown and Cornes were hunched over, falling about the place, in laughter as Jones stepped up for his second shot.

His second didn’t make it to the target on the full. Queue more roaring laughter.

The Sherrin from his third swing was last seen entering studio 12 on an adjoining lot.

It was only then that the mercy rule was introduced and Jones was escorted forward to handball from point blank range right in front of the target — he still missed.

The miss from 1m away from the board smelled an awful lot like a set-up where Jones was trying to take a dive to fix the result for some offshore bookmaker — but the reactions from his colleagues were simply too genuine for the fix to have been in.

From there the circus was in town. Cornes looked like he couldn’t breath he was laughing so hard and Lloyd was spotted wiping away tears in between heaving laughter.

When his humiliation was complete Jones went and slumped down to sit on the stage floor — unable to find a hole big enough to crawl into and die.

Barrett eventually triumphed 65-36.

“Bad luck, Chompers,” Brownless said after the trophy presentation.

“You were terrible.”

Fans on social media labelled Jones’ performance the worst moment in sport since John Howard tried to roll out a right-arm pie when his tour of Pakistan took him to a dusty cricket field in Dhanni.

Most fans, however, simply enjoyed the laughs and praised Jones for having the stones to step-up on live TV and pull-off a perfect impression of a bumbling goose.

As embarrassed as I am at the moment, how good is it to have a laugh? Enjoy... https://t.co/TbbxP6SBB2
â€” tony jones (@TJch9) September 2, 2018

Mate I was taken down by Andrew Jarman in the legends game, i know about embarrassed... #keepworkinontheleft ðŸ˜‚
â€” Tom Lonergan (@tomlonergan13) September 2, 2018