Time On: Tony Jones and Tom Morris to go head to head on the airwaves
Fresh from his axing from Channel 9’s Wimbledon coverage, Tony Jones is set to go head to head with newsroom colleague Tom Morris on the airwaves.
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Time On is your wrap up of all the footy gossip and banter.
Tony Jones set to take on familiar face in radio showdown
Two peas in a pod on the nightly news, Tony Jones and Tom Morris are set to go head to head on the airwaves in the coming weeks.
Nine sport host Jones is filling in for Tom Elliott on 3AW in the mornings slot while Morris is being handed the microphone in Gerard Whateley’s absence on SEN.
Same time, rival stations will make for interesting discussion in the newsroom.
Jones, who has yet to comment on his axing from Nine’s Wimbledon coverage, has been a regular fill-in host at 3AW.
Morris, who normally chips in on the SEN breakfast show, is taking control of his own show in that plum slot for the first time.
‘Bite the bullet’: Carey urges Kekovich to drop North boycott
Wayne Carey has added his voice to the disappointment at North Melbourne’s planned celebrations of its 1975 premiership.
But the club great urged disgruntled great Sam Kekovich to “bite the bullet” and go along for the benefit of more than yourself.
The Kangaroos are set to mark the club’s 100-year anniversary on Thursday week, with many of their 1975 premiership greats invited to be in attendance, as well as North Melbourne’s 2024 AFLW grand final winners.
All six of North’s 300-game players will be recognised at Marvel Stadium before the round 17 clash against the Western Bulldogs.
Kekovich and former teammate John Burns said they deserved a stand-alone function rather than a stand up token event.
“What I would say to Keka, because, and I love Keka, but I would say sometimes, whether you agree or disagree with certain things, sometimes you’ve got to bite the bullet, and you’ve got to … you mightn’t agree with everything that is going on around you, but sometimes you do what’s for the benefit of more than yourself. That’s what I will be doing,’’ Carey said.
“Because there are other people, we’re talking about a club that has gone for 100 years now. And there are many, many, many, many people that are involved in that footy club.”
Carey, speaking on his You Cannot Be Serious podcast with Sam Newman, said he will attend as a club great to say thank you.
Newman said it was a disgrace not to give the 1975 team, who won the club’s first premiership, their own function.
“To have him at a pissy little stand up function and finger food before a game, which will be shithouse in the cold … if you couldn’t put on what they do like the North Melbourne Breakfast and get 1000 people to the Crown Palladium, you’ll have people come out of the woodwork,’’ Newman said.
“They’ll fill their coffers up and they’ll march all the stars out who are still alive and still with us.
“Fancy Malcolm Blight flying down from Queensland to stand in a group of people at Marvel Stadium and have a couple of sandwiches.”
‘Love bringing people together’: Footy WAG releases first book
Footy WAG and influencer Lexi Mary is sharing her love for food, hosting and game day parties.
Mary, fiance of Western Bulldogs star Rory Lobb, has compiled her favourite recipes into Game Day, her first book being released on Wednesday night.
“The inspiration came last year when I was hosting friends to watch the football during the finals,’’ Mary said.
“I really wanted to blend the fun of hosting with my love for food into one piece. There’s nothing out there like that — it’s really popular to host game day parties and I love bringing people together and watching from home.”
Mary said Lobb had helped her taste test all the meals and captured images for her between last October and March this year.
She said they had toyed with the idea of him dyeing his hair pink for the launch but he has committed to growing it out for their October wedding.
“I hope this book reminds you that you don’t have to be a culinary expect to be an epic host,’’ Mary said.
“All you need are great guests, good music and delicious, easy recipes like the ones you’ll find here.”
Mary’s favourite recipe is the seven hour pulled pork and her twist on a spicy margarita named ‘best on ground’.
New kid on the block knocks off rival as TV’s footy wars heat up
The footy TV wars are in full flight with Seven’s new offering now surpassing its Nine rival.
The Agenda Setters, which was installed on Monday and Tuesday nights to go up against long-time staple Footy Classified, has leapt ahead in the ratings over the past two weeks.
On Monday night the ratings were 204k compared to 165k and the week prior it averaged 188k — 59k ahead of Nine’s footy flagship program.
The Agenda Setters highest numbers on Monday night this week came with regular host Craig Hutchison absent while on a work trip to New York and reporter Mitch Cleary filling in alongside Caroline Wilson, Nick Riewoldt and Kane Cornes.
The Tuesday night program last week averaged 182k — 33k ahead of Footy Classified which had Tom Morris filling in as host for Eddie McGuire who was also on an overseas work trip.
As they commonly say in that analysis sphere, watch this space.
Dimma’s cheeky message to footy boss after flipping the bird
Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick has moved to play down any ramifications from flipping the bird, apologising to AFL boss Andrew Dillon.
Hardwick was caught doing a single finger salute after he was not impressed by a non-deliberate call against GWS — the footage revealed by Fox Footy on AFL360 on Monday night.
With a cheeky grin Hardwick responded: “Oh you blokes, you have killed me. The finger salute might get me in a bit of trouble, you blokes.”
Dear Andrew,
— Damien Hardwick (@hardwick_damien) June 23, 2025
I’m Sorry
Kind Regards https://t.co/mthgE3jJrf
After the show Hardwick kept the lighthearted nature going, posting the clip to X with the comment: “Dear Andrew, I’m Sorry Kind Regards.”
Geelong star Bailey Smith has twice been fined this season for flipping the bird to fans.
‘I’m not one of them’: Tom Morris denies he’s a Trump fan
Nine footy reporter Tom Morris was surprised to see an old picture of him resurface on social media.
It was a post to Facebook from 2016 showing Morris wearing a Trump T-shirt outside the White House with the hashtag ‘I’m With Him’.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that but Morris was quick to point out it was a joke.
“Good find, but it was taken in May 2016 when it was still a joke … good luck to Trump fans but I’m not one of them.”
Morris’ response meant the post was soon deleted. He may think twice next time he uploads a picture as a joke.
Tony Jones’ elephant in the room on Sunday Footy Show
Tony Jones being denied a trip to Wimbledon was curiously not discussed on the Sunday Footy Show with many wondering if the topic has been banned.
A month ago Jones told Time On he was 95 per cent confident he was going to work again at the All-England Club but Nine released a statement that it would instead be “optimising resources” with reporting and daily coverage from the London bureau.
Jones’ worldwide headline making comments about Novak Djokovic during the Australian Open will now conveniently not be brought up again when Wimbledon begins next month.
Jones helms the Sunday Footy Show with a popular segment called What Caught My Eye that usually takes the mickey out of panel members — Nathan Brown, Matthew Lloyd, Rory Sloane and Damian Barrett.
But on Sunday there was no word of the Wimbledon axing.
Nine has said it will use experts Todd Woodbridge, Jelena Dokic and Alicia Molik with support from Sam McClure.
Former Sunday Footy Show panellist Kane Cornes, who has infamously defected to Seven, expressed concern about the show taking a “few shorts steps” and dropping the ball in not mentioning the situation.
“I feel for him because I know how much he loves going and I know what a great job he does and there would be a healthy rivalry between Scoop (McClure) and TJ so that would have stung a bit,’’ Cornes said on SEN breakfast Monday alongside David King.
“But it’s the fact it wasn’t mentioned I don’t believe on the Sunday Footy Show yesterday.
“It couldn’t be the crew because I know them. I know that Damo and Browny and Llordo would have fought really hard to come up with something hilarious to needle and prod about this and get into him for the whole two hours of the show.
“So it must have been a management decision above like it was last time when they weren’t allowed to discuss the Novak incident. They took a few short steps. I’m just concerned that they’re starting to take the odd short step over there.”
King said “they’re prime time footy show areas” and it was perplexing not to have brought it up.
“You have to go there,’’ Cornes said.
“There’s many ways you could do it. You could start a GoFundMe for TJ to go to Wimbledon. You could go through the history of how it’s got to this and all the little maybe gaffes that have led to this point. Shown the (Bec Judd) kiss again … I just worry. I would like to get to the bottom of why there’s been a few short steps taken.”
Former footy stars support The Male Hug
Footy favourites Matthew Richardson and Billy Brownless have opened up on the profound effect of recent tragic losses of life.
Speaking at The Male Hug charity lunch for men’s mental health at the MCG, the duo said recent events, including the passing of Adam and Troy Selwood, highlighted why they were supporting the cause.
“It’s hard to fathom really what’s happened in the footy world,” Richardson said. “It does make you think about how guys are actually going when they retire.
“I looked at the Selwood boys and they both appeared to be going well. When it happens to guys as young as the Selwood brothers, it really did hit home to me why I’m involved with The Male Hug and why I’ve been involved for a while now.
“The first reason I got involved, I’d just been home to Tassie when (founder and CEO) Tony (Rabah) rang me, it was probably five years ago, and I just walked into the pub and remember going home that night feeling quite down in the dumps. Just a lot of people struggling and it hit a chord with me, men my age going through financial issues and personal breakdowns and marriages is why I got involved. For that to happen with the Selwood brothers is another reason why we have to keep the momentum up.”
Brownless said it was hard to come to terms with the loss of the Selwoods.
“Four brothers grew up in Bendigo … all hard, tough … they were all men and then now I just feel so sorry for Bryce and Maree, mum and dad, they had four boys now they’ve got two and that’s in a matter of months,” Brownless said.
“They’re strong boys and all of a sudden they’ve been driven to this. It’s really hard to take. When these things happen, it’s not right.”
Richardson and Brownless were speaking alongside fellow The Male Hug ambassadors Kevin Sheedy, Andrew Conway and Tim Mannah. Other guests included Darren Berry, Greg Williams, Peter Daicos and Justin Koschitzke.
The luncheon raised funds for the 1800MYBUDDY line with the big fundraiser, Talktober, in October.
Originally published as Time On: Tony Jones and Tom Morris to go head to head on the airwaves
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