Media Street: EJ Whitten Legends game scrapped for another year

It is a celebrated match on the football calendar and an important fundraiser in the fight against prostate cancer. So what comes next for the EJ Whittens Legends Game?

Sam McClure with his 2020 Quill award. Picture: Mathew Lynn

The EJ Whitten Legends Game has been shelved for another year, but Ted Whitten Jnr is hopeful the match will eventually return.

The exhibition game, which had been a staple of the football calendar between 1996 and 2019, has pitted retired champions against each other in a State of Origin format, with celebrities also regularly featuring.

The match was initiated following the death of football legend Ted Whitten Snr in 1995, aiming to raise funds for prostate cancer research, care and recovery.

The Covid-19 pandemic prevented the game from taking place in 2020 and 2021. While the pandemic situation in Victoria has clearly improved, its lingering effects are behind why the game won’t take place this year.

Watch every blockbuster AFL match this weekend Live & Ad-Break Free In-Play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >

Matthew Richardson of the All Stars and Anthony Koutoufides of Victoria in action during the 2019 EJ Whitten Legends Game.

In the wake of the pandemic hit, the EJ Whitten Foundation amalgamated with the Australian Prostate Centre to form the RULE Prostate Centre.

Whitten Jnr, himself a former Footscray player, explained why the game remained in an indefinite hiatus.

“We’re trying to get on our feet, which we’re starting to do. The legends game is not viable for us at the moment while we’re trying to get RULE up and running,” Whitten Jnr said.

“It’s not dead and buried, but it won’t be played this year. Who knows in the future. It’s certainly one of the great fundraising arms.

“For this year we’ve basically just run out of time. It takes six or eight months to pull it together. We’ve decided not to go ahead. It’s not finished, we just haven’t been able to put it together this year, which is unfortunate. Not this year, but we’re hopeful that in future years we’ll be able to get it back on track.”

Instead, RULE is running a Legends Day campaign to raise funds, along with several other events including an EJ Whitten golf day.

Prior to being paused, the match had in recent years taken place on the bye weekend between round 23 and the AFL finals, real estate which has since been assumed by AFLW.

In 2019 the game was played in the AFLX format at Melbourne’s AAMI Park.

WithDaniel Cherny/CODE Sports

Sam McClure resigns from print role at The Age

The Age journalist Sam McClure has resigned from his print role after being told he could not read live commercial reads in his new role as 3AW’s sports host in a nightly show.

McClure’s Sports Entertainment Network boss, Craig Hutchison, confirmed McClure had resigned from The Age over new guidelines that prevented all staff from reading sponsor credits on live radio.

The Age issued an apology after McClure’s controversial appearance in a Sportsbet ad despite his recent reporting of the invasive use of betting ads in the AFL.

As a result of that exposure Hutchison told The Sounding Board podcast The Age had now brought in a policy banning journalists reading live ads on radio.

Sam McClure has resigned from The Age. Picture: YouTube

McClure has been chosen as the single host of 3AW’s new 6pm sports radio show Wide World of Sports so his position would be untenable if he could not read ads and sponsorship announcements.

Hutchison’s Sports Entertainment Network produces the current 3AW sports show that is hosted by Gerard Healy and McClure, with the radio network to take back production rights next year.

But Hutchison confirmed on Tuesday on his podcast McClure had resigned.

“The now infamous Sportsbet ad has had an unfortunate knock-on effect on the career of Sam McClure,” he said.

“Sam McClure last Monday has resigned from The Age newspaper after an award winning career after a new edict from The Age newspaper that their identities can no longer read sponsors credits, ads or live reads on commercial radio,” he said.

“Even though the business, Nine, owns a radio network as well as a newspaper.

“(Editor) Gay Alcorn with the support of the business has driven a new policy in. Sam McClure is the first victim of it.

“Sam has hosted Sportsday for us and you would have seen the announcement he is going to host Wide World of Sports. My understanding is that decision was only going to be approved by The Age if he did not read anything to do with a client of the program. Sam said it is impractical.”

The Age had been forced into a legal settlement with Collective Minds, the organisers of the Adelaide camp, and retracted 13 articles from 2018-2021.

Last week, Eddie Betts’ new book laid bare the details of that camp, only days after McClure resigned.

It is expected he will continue his appearances on Nine’s Footy Classified, with Nine owning The Age, 3AW and its free-to-air TV arm.

McClure has been contacted for comment.