Media Street: Eddie McGuire’s Footy Classified moves to Tuesday to take on 7’s new footy program

The 2025 footy TV wars are heating up, with Channel 9 making a major move to take on Kane Cornes and a revamped Channel 7, as the search for Cornes’ replacement continues.

Channel 9 are shaking up their programming to take on a revamped Channel 7.

The AFL’s footy TV wars are hotting up with Footy Classified’s midweek edition set to move timeslots to counter Channel 7’s new show led by former Nine star Kane Cornes.

Nine announced on Monday the signing of Essendon legend James Hird and he will appear on the new Tuesday Footy Classified – moved from Wednesday – which will be hosted by Eddie McGuire.

Hird is replacing former teammate Matthew Lloyd who will only appear on the Monday night edition of the talk show as he intends to focus more on his coaching career with Haileybury College in 2025.

Geelong’s Brownlow medallist Jimmy Bartel and journalist Damian Barrett will round out the Tuesday night line-up.

Eddie McGuire’s Footy Classified will now be on Tuesday.

The change of nights by Nine’s premier footy show also gets it away from Seven’s juggernaut show The Front Bar which will feature almost exclusively on Wednesday nights next year because of the increase in Thursday night footy on the network.

What Monday night’s Footy Classified panel will look like is still being worked out after the show’s three biggest stars – Cornes, Caroline Wilson and host Craig Hutchison – walked out in controversial circumstances in September.

Cornes and Wilson were poached by Seven as it looks to ramp up its AFL panel shows after falling behind Fox Footy and Nine.

Hutchison’s position at Nine became untenable when it was revealed his production company, Rainmaker, was set to produce the new footy shows for Channel 7.

Regular fill-in host Sam McClure is favourite to replace Hutchison while Nine news breaker Tom Morris is an obvious replacement for Wilson.

Nine are still working on a replacement for Kane Cornes on Monday’s.

Former Adelaide captain Rory Sloane has emerged as the frontrunner to replace Cornes on Monday night after Adam Simpson elected to knock back the opportunity because of the travel factor given the former Eagles coach is still living in Perth.

Hird, who was a regular on The Footy Show during his playing career before working on Fox Footy when he retired, will also appear on Nine’s Footy Furnace on Sunday night’s alongside Morris and Bartel.

McCLURE ON THE MOVE

Nine radio is searching for a new sports host with Sam McClure set to depart the Wide World of Sports seat at 3AW.

McClure has been a feature of the station’s popular program since 2020 when he joined Gerard Healy as Sportsday co-host before taking over as the sole host in 2022 when Nine rebranded the show.

But widespread cost-cutting across the station is believed to be behind McClure’s decision to walk away.

Nine recently dumped the rotation of co-hosts who have worked alongside McClure in the 6pm-7pm timeslot.

Sam McClure is leaving Wide World of Sports on 3AW. Picture: You Tube

Essendon champion Matthew Lloyd was a regular on Monday, AFL legend Leigh Matthews on Tuesday, Richmond’s favourite son Matthew Richardson on Wednesday with Geelong Brownlow Medallist Jimmy Bartel the Thursday night co-host.

Instead Nine has decided to “maximise” the experts for its weekend football coverage and potentially only have them on the phone for five minutes in the Wide World of Sports program.

This was the final straw for McClure who has built up the sports talk show to be one of 3AW’s best rating programs.

But he won’t be lost to the network and will feature on 3AW in its Friday night football coverage,

Possible replacements in the Wide World of Sports hosting chair include Bartel, who has worked as replacement host on the morning show, and commentator Bruce Eva.

McClure declined to comment when contacted.