Buzz: Fox Sports star Braith Anasta knocks back lucrative role to be the next Bachelor
Fox Sports star Braith Anasta has been approached to be the next bachelor on Channel 10’s hit reality TV show. Check out Buzz’s Saint, Sinner, Shoosh.
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Fox Sports star Braith Anasta has rejected a lucrative offer to be the next bachelor on Channel 10’s hit reality TV show.
The NRL 360 host was recently approached by the network to star in the soon-to-be produced series to run next year.
It’s not the first time The Bachelor’s producers have wanted a sporting type – they signed up “Honey Badger” Nick Cummins in 2018.
But Anasta declined the offer that is believed to be worth about $500,000. He’s too busy with NRL 360 three nights a week and presenting live games for the network on Sunday afternoons.
NRL 360 has attracted record ratings since he took over from Ben Ikin and then Yvonne Sampson last year. It is the highest-rating weekday show on Foxtel.
Outside of TV commitments, Anasta also runs a successful sports management business in which his clients include Maroons superstar Cameron Munster.
He is also a single dad, raising girls aged five and nine.
The former NSW Origin star has also recently launched a new venture – StrongDAD.
It focuses on the fitness and mental health of everyday Aussie dads.
Anasta, 41, was reluctant to comment when we asked him about The Bachelor offer.
“I’m busy enough already,” he said.
“I love my role at Fox Sports and looking after my beautiful kids. It’s pretty hectic thrown in with managing footy players and golfers.
“StrongDAD is also something I’m really passionate about to focus on men’s mental health.”
THE STICKY SOLUTION NSW NEEDS
The person best credentialed to coach NSW Blues refuses to put his hand up for the job.
It is out of respect to Brad Fittler.
NSW will be looking for a new coach if Freddy can’t level the series in Brisbane and then win a decider at Accor Stadium.
And it is then we should turn to Ricky Stuart. He’s passion personified and the man who gets Origin and the Blues jersey better than anyone.
Some will argue that it’s too difficult for a current NRL coach to take on the Origin gig.
This is rubbish. Stuart could hand over to Michael Maguire in Canberra for a few weeks while he is on a mission to lift the Blues back to where they should be.
Although NSW have preferred non-club coaches for the last decade, there is no hard and fast rule that would disqualify Stuart or any other NRL coach.
NSW has had the better team on paper for several years since the likes of Billy Slater, Greg Inglis, Cameron Smith, Johnathan Thurston, Darren Lockyer and Cooper Cronk played in the near invincible Maroons sides under Immortal Mal Meninga.
We now have the talent to be winning … but we’re not.
The Blues played like a poorly prepared team in Adelaide. We lacked connection and cohesion.
Stuart coached NSW in 2005, 2011 and 2012. His last year as Origin coach in 2012 we were beaten 21-20 in a decider at Suncorp Stadium by a Maroons outfit that included Slater, Inglis, Thurston, Cronk and Smith.
He coached Australia between 2006 and 2008.
As much as Fittler has been a wonderful ambassador for the Blues, he has lost two of the last three series and faces a monumental task to win this year after Wednesday night’s debacle in Adelaide.
There is not an obvious replacement from outside the NRL coaches.
This is why Stuart is the best option.
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SAINT
Say what you want about Anthony Mundine but long into retirement he is still putting back into junior rugby league. He was spotted coaching the Coogee Dolphins under-7s last week at Kensington Oval … and the little fellas loved it.
SINNER
Queensland winning Game II of Origin at Suncorp Stadium will be a financial disaster and cost the NRL hundreds of thousands of dollars in ticket sales if it’s a dead rubber at Accor Stadium.
SHOOSH
We hear pressure is building and lots of questions are being asked around the footy department at North Queensland over the decision to release Origin hero Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow from the Cowboys at the end of last season. It’s become the NRL’s most embarrassing recruitment blunder in years.
SHOOSH
Which Sydney Roosters star is in talks with the Manly Sea Eagles about a switch to Brookvale next year? And it’s not Matt Lodge.
SPOTTED
The Rabbitohs have bought three tables to the Daniel Anderson fundraising lunch on July 7 in Parramatta on the day before the Eels play the Warriors. It was a lovely gesture from Souths chief executive Blake Solly, who was taught by Anderson at high school. Tickets for the lunch are already sold out but donations can be made HERE.
SPOTTED
Fox Sports star Bryan Fletcher demolishing the Peking duck and deep-fried bugs at his favourite restaurant, Mr Wongs, on Thursday afternoon, washing it down with an undisclosed amount of pinot noir and enjoying a night off from The Matty Johns Show.
SPOTTED
Penrith legend Mark Geyer and his son, rising Panthers NRL back-rower Mavrik, are big names out west. The pair have made the menu at the Pioneer Tavern in South Penrith, with their own signature schnitzels named after them.
SPOTTED
New Zealand Warriors owner Mark Robinson with former Great Britain and Balmain Tigers superstar Ellery Hanley watching a UK Super League in Leeds last weekend.
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MATTY V JOEY: ‘IT’S BEEN HAPPENING SINCE THEY WERE TODDLERS’
The father of feuding brothers Andrew and Matty Johns says he won’t be stepping in to solve their latest disagreement.
Joey failed to turn up for his SEN radio show with Matty on Friday morning after a lively on-air disagreement over State of Origin two weeks ago, which we reported in this column.
They have not spoken since.
On Friday we spoke to their dad Gary Johns in Cessnock about their most recent family feud.
“It’s been happening since they were toddlers,” Gary said with a chuckle.
“I’m not going to get involved in it.
“I remember we were on holiday one year at Fingal Bay in the caravan. Gayle had to get in between them. They were going that hard she actually copped one.
“When they were kids I used to find the best way was to just let them go.”
Gary says the pair will eventually make up.
“If I ring them they won’t pick up because they know they’ll be in trouble,” he said. “I’m sure they can sort it out themselves anyway.”
Matty Johns spoke about the issue on the show on Friday morning.
“He is off me,” he said. “This is nothing new for me and Joey. We were forced to share a bedroom for 19 years.
“Every six months we have a blue like this.
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FOUL PLAY AND FLOWERS
Maroons winger Julia Robinson has a stack of class and compassion.
She was the player in the incident that put Blues star Isabelle Kelly in hospital with a throat injury in the women’s Origin clash.
On Friday morning Robinson reached out to her rival and sent her a bunch of flowers with a get-well-soon card.
Robinson was suspended for one game. She and Kelly were Jillaroos teammates in their World Cup final win.
“I love Izzy and respect her as a person on and off the field,” Robinson said.
“She’s a big player for NSW and I’m hoping she recovers well.”
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NOD TO LOVEABLE LARRIKINS
The memories and respect for Shane Warne and Andrew Symonds lives on at Fox Sports.
In a beautiful tribute to the former commentators, this photo of the cricket legends has been enlarged and framed in Fox’s MCG corporate suite.
It will be a touching sight for guests during the cricket and AFL seasons.
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2GB UNEARTHS A NEW STAR
Teenager Sienna Williams is a star on the rise in the media and in rugby league.
She works as a producer on the Ben Fordham breakfast show on 2GB and plays for North Sydney Bears, recently making City under-19s against Country.
Sienna also made her debut on the station’s Continuous Call team on Thursday night as the sideline eye for the women’s Origin game in Sydney – and did an outstanding job.
You wouldn’t meet a more impressive young lady.
Sienna is also studying psychology at Macquarie University on the back of an outstanding HSC score of 99.
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RECORD ORIGIN RATINGS
The popularity of women’s rugby league is growing at an extraordinary rate judging by television numbers for Thursday night’s State of Origin game.
The total average audience across Channel 9, Fox Sports and Kayo was 919,000 viewers – up by a massive 37 per cent on last year’s game (669,000 viewers.)
The average NRL audience for Thursday night games this year is 1.1 million.
The attendance at CommBank Stadium was 12,972, an increase of 15 per cent on last year. It was the highest ever crowd for a women’s State of Origin match. The figures were even more impressive considering the game had little promotion on the back of the men’s game 24 hours earlier in Adelaide.
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MEDIA PROFILE: David Riccio, 43, Daily and Sunday Telegraph
First job?
Delivery driver for Pizza Haven Caringbah. I only ever wanted to be a journalist. I would write footy match reports to my grandmother when I was 10. So I quit delivering pizzas to become the mail boy at Australian Associated Press. My boss at the pizza shop told me I was mad. From the AAP mail room, I scored my first job in journalism as a reporter for horse racing newspaper, The Sportsman.
Sporting Heroes?
My heroes were commentators in the sporting media. I loved how their voice took me to my happy place. Darrell Eastlake will always be State of Origin. Johnny Tapp will always be calling Octagonal at Royal Randwick. Just hearing “flash scores around the ground, Tony Megahey …” makes me smile.
What league team do you follow?
Born and raised in the Sutherland Shire, went to the same school as Andrew Ettingshausen, so that’s easy. Up Up Cronulla.
What sport did you play?
I played A-grade soccer as a goalkeeper before tearing my ACL playing touch footy. Playing school footy, I would run around trying to do the famous Benny Elias dummy, with little effect.
How do you spend a day off?
Buzz, you know there’s no days off in footy season. Outside footy season, you’ll find me taking our family boat for a spin on Port Hacking or enjoying a cold beer with mates.
Career highlights?
Outside of the Telegraph Christmas parties in the early 2000s , covering the 2008 Beijing and 2016 Rio Olympics, (co-)writing Alex McKinnon and Paul Gallen’s autobiographies, the many Origin camps with the Blues and the roar of the crowd as Winx recorded 33 straight wins at Randwick.
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