Media Street: Mixed ratings results for SEN, Hutchy’s new purchase and coach apologises for reporter spray

The old errant Instagram video has claimed another scalp. While Nadia Bartel is the clubhouse leader, two players have fallen foul of an unfortunate posting. MEDIA STREET

The old errant Instagram video has claimed another scalp.

While Nadia Bartel is the clubhouse leader by a long way in this department, AFLW stars Madison Prespakis and Grace Egan are the latest to have fallen foul of an unfortunate posting.

The first bombshell of the AFLW’s upcoming trade period was Prespakis walking out on the Blues to sign as the marquee player for expansion team Essendon.

This landed on Monday night but before Carlton’s media department had even released its official statement revealing the news about the departure of the 2020 AFLW best and fairest and teammate Georgia Gee, a video briefly appeared on Egan’s Instagram feed.

In it was Prespakis and Egan belting out the Bombers theme song with great gusto.

Now you can imagine how that went down at Ikon Park in particular in regards to Egan who was still on Carlton’s list. We say that in the past tense because it’s now unlikely she will wear the Navy Blue again.

Prespakis, 21, has been a lifelong Essendon fan so the lure of playing for the club she has loved all her life was always going to be hard to ignore, helped by an extraordinary pay packet believed to be around $170,000.

Maddy Prespakis (right) has left the Blues for Essendon. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

MIXED RESULTS FOR SEN’S BIG BREAKFAST SHOW GAMBLE

To use a football parlance, the new breakfast rotation on SEN is taking time to gel.

While station owner Craig Hutchison has steadily tried to distance himself from the traditional radio ratings in preference to more modern measures (think podcast downloads) of recent times, they are still seen as a marker of note.

And what the second ratings book this year is telling the sports station boss is that the cutting of days by hosts Garry Lyon and Tim Watson and the introduction of former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has been met with mixed results by listeners.

The big-budget breakfast show came in at 1.9 (a rise of 0.6 from the ground zero figure of 1.3 in the first survey) which makes it the lowest ranked on the SEN dial.

Gerard Whately’s morning show lifted 0.5 to 2.6, Dwayne Russell’s afternoons rated 3.3 while the introduction of Andrew Gaze to the drive show with Andy Maher saw it jump 1.4 to 3.0.

This ratings survey – end of February to the start of April – is the first for the year with all of SEN’s A-team back.

This year Watson has cut back to three days which means Buckley joins Lyon on Monday mornings while Kane Cornes and David King are the Friday morning hosts.

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Garry Lyon and Nathan Buckley. Picture: Ian Currie

Garry Lyon and Tim Watson.

By contrast its main competitor, RSN 927, hosted by Daniel Harford and Adam White, which is run on a shoestring budget, climbed again to 1.4. (Note this columnist does appear on the show from time to time).

Hutchison’s media release about the ratings was once again a scattergun of figures away from the traditional numbers. For example the SEN Breakfast had 1.9 million podcast downloads, up 61 per cent on the show’s previous best month in September 2021.

HUTCHY BUYS ANOTHER SPORTING TEAM

While his radio ratings might be of some concern, Hutchison has been busy with his other ventures including buying another basketball team.

His Sports Entertainment Network has now purchased WNBL team the Bendigo Spirit to go with NBL team the Perth Wildcats. They also own the men’s and women’s teams of New Zealand franchise the Otago Nuggets in the NZNBL.

SEN previously owned a 25 per cent stake in Melbourne United before jumping ship to acquire the Wildcats.

They already play a key role in the promotion of the WNBL with the purchase of the Spirit meaning all of their games will be broadcast within the SEN Bendigo app.

Craig Hutchison has purchased another sporting team.

MCCRAE’S WEEKLY PRESS CONFERENCE TRADITION

Craig McCrae has made an immediate impact in his short stint as Collingwood coach.

And it’s not just on the field with the new Pies boss being very clever about how he handles the media.

Before his weekly press conference, McCrae makes a point of introducing himself and shaking the hand of every journalist in the room.

How long this wonderful tradition lasts will be interesting, particularly if the Pies start to slide, but for now it’s a big hats off to the Collingwood coach.

NOBLE APOLOGISES FOR REPORTER SPRAY

North Melbourne’s David Noble is also going into uncharted territory for AFL coaches by apologising to a journalist.

After North’s horror night against Brisbane in Round 3, Noble wasn’t in the mood to be reflective on his days at the Lions where he was football manager.

The opening question from local journo Andrew Stafford drifted down those lines with Noble quickly interrupting and giving him a nice little clip.

To his credit Noble reflected on the exchange and a couple of days later reached out to Stafford, apologising for his spray.