Dustin Martin opens up on his awkward Brownlow Medal encounter with Bruce McAvaney

THE ratings are in and one of Melbourne’s two big AFL shows has claimed victory in their head-to-head Grand Final fight — but it was a lower scoring affair than they would have hoped.

THE Footy Show has claimed victory in its Grand Final battle against the Front Bar — but it was a low-scoring affair.

The Channel 9 flagship had an average audience in Melbourne of 297,000, peaking at 339,000 just after 8.30pm. The Front Bar on Seven averaged 232,000 viewers. The station is yet to provide an adjusted average to account for running overtime. GRAND FINAL BUILD-UP: ALL THE NEWS AND COLOUR FROM THE GRAND FINAL PARADE MUSIC REVIEW: WHY THE TIGERS SONG MURDERS CROWS But celebrations would be tempered in Nine headquarters by the fact both shows were outrated by the 6pm news. The Footy Show was Melbourne’s second-most watched program on Thursday night, followed by the World’s Funniest Videos Top 10 Countdown, ABC News, Seven News and the Front Bar. And the figures were a far cry from the days when The Footy Show was must-watch TV. In 1995, before Foxtel and the internet, the Footy Show’s Grand Final special attracted 617,000 viewers in Melbourne alone. Across five metro capitals The Footy Show was the 13th-most watched show last night, with the Front Bar coming in at No.20. The Bachelorette’s five city metro average topped 800,000 viewers, almost double either of the AFL panel shows. LIVE BLOG: SCROLL DOWN TO RECAP THE FOOTY SHOW AND THE FRONT BAR The Footy Show’s headline guest was Richmond star Dustin Martin, who opened up on his awkward Brownlow Medal encounter with Bruce McAvaney. After surging to the top of the leaderboard, Martin was sitting at his table on Monday night when McAvaney snuck up behind him to ask some questions. “He just popped up out of nowhere,” Martin explained on the Footy Show. “He gave me a bit of a fright. It was quite scary. “To be honest I didn’t know what was going on.” Footy Show host Eddie McGuire then suggested Martin could have used his trademark ‘don’t argue’ on McAvaney. Martin responded: “I probably would have if I was p****d.” The Martin interview was one of the highlights on a huge night of football shows. After a season of going toe-to-toe in a seesawing ratings battle, the Footy Show and the Front Bar squared off for the last time. You can recap all the highlights from both shows in our blog below and let us know what you were watching in the comments section.

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