Channel 9 eyes Gerard Whateley to call athletics at Paris Olympics

Channel 9 hopes to lure one of Australia’s most-experienced broadcasters to be part of its Olympic commentary team after missing out on Bruce McAvaney.

Channel 9 has launched an audacious bid to have Fox Footy host and SEN broadcaster Gerard Whateley call athletics at the Paris Olympics.

Whateley has lobbied his current two employers about a one-off release for three weeks to join the Nine team in the French capital where he would tick-off a career bucket-list moment of calling the men’s 100m final at an Olympic Games.

Channel 9 has targeted Gerard Whateley to call the athletics in Paris. Picture: Josie Hayden

While there are further negotiations to be worked through, the idea wasn’t initially knocked on the head when it was first raised late last year.

Whateley attended last Thursday night’s Maurie Plant Meet at Lakeside Stadium where he did some phantom calls of races in a commentary area by himself.

Channel 9 originally targeted legendary commentator Bruce McAvaney who was the iconic face of athletics at Channel 7 for decades with his Olympic calling career starting back at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

McAvaney, who has scaled back his duties in recent times, was keen to continue his Olympic connection in Paris – he has covered 12 Olympic Games – but Seven dug their heels in.

He was commentating at the Maurie Plant Meet for Seven’s streaming service 7plus with Whateley spending time observing the maestro in action.

Bruce McAvaney calling the swimming at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Whateley is hoping the Eddie McGuire precedent works in his favour with the former Collingwood president working across different networks a number of times.

He was commentating on Fox Footy while hosting a game show on Channel 9 and then last year he remained on the Nine books but was still able to host the Melbourne Cup carnival on Channel 7 10.

Whateley has previously covered an Olympic Games for SEN but they don’t have the radio rights for Paris. Nine radio – the owner of 3AW – have the exclusive access this year.

One of Australia’s premier commentators, he recently returned from the Super Bowl in Las Vegas for SEN and is set to cover Australia’s opening Test match in New Zealand before the start of the AFL season.

He is co-host of AFL 360, alongside Herald Sun chief football writer Mark Robinson, with the flagship show changing timeslot this season, moving forward to 6.30pm.

Nine has started to put together its Paris team with former Olympians David Culbert and Tamsyn Manou, who both worked for Channel 7 alongside McAvaney at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, signed as experts for the track and field coverage.