Eddie McGuire’s son Xander joins Channel 7 as AFL TV exodus continues

There may be a bit of tension around Eddie McGuire’s table this Christmas as he’s set to go head-to-head with a very familiar face.

Eddie McGuire’s son Xander has landed a plush new gig that’s set to pit him up against his media mogul father.

Xander is the latest sports media talent to trade Channel 9 for Channel 7 in another coup as the footy media shake up continues.

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The 21-year-old Xander is considered a rising star of the footy media world and won the Clinton Grybas Rising Star Award at the Australian football Media Association awards in September.

But just a matter of months later, and after a six-month sabbatical in Scotland to study politics at the University of St Andrews, McGuire Jr. will join the home of free-to-air AFL footy at Seven as of early next year.

It’s a coup for Seven with the Herald Sun reporting the youngster was set to appear in prime-time broadcasts and across the network’s stable of new footy programs.

And the youngster revealed he’s always sought advice from his media veteran father.

“I go to him all the time for advice, some of the cameramen used to work with him when he was a journalist,’’ Xander told the Herald Sun.

“Growing up I’d walk to the kitchen table and there’d be four papers spread across it.”

Not a bad person to learn the TV trade off for Xander. Photo: Fiona Hamilton

His father Eddie McGuire will host Nine’s Footy Classified on a Tuesday night from 2025, which could put the pair in direct competition.

That being said, Eddie has his fingers in pies on both sides of the fence with his production house JAM TV set to produce two new shows for Seven.

According to a Herald Sun report last week, McGuire’s team will produce Sunday Footy Feast, which will air following Channel 9’s dominant Sunday Footy Show, which traditionally wraps up at 12pm (AEDT).

McGuire’s crew has also been tasked with cooking up a show to run immediately following Channel 7’s live match coverage on Sunday afternoons called The Wash Up.

Whether Xander will feature in either of these projects remains to be seen.

Eddie’s alliance with Seven would previously have been unthinkable because of his past as the face of the Nine Network — and his brief time as CEO of the company.

It will be a wild season for the AFL media with free-to-air digital rights meaning Channel 7 will be able to stream life footy from 2025.

It also means Fox Footy produce its own commentary for every home and away match of the AFL season for the first time as the networks go head-to-head for eyeballs.

Xander with the Lombardi trophy. Photo: Instagram

Eddie McGuire at the Paris Olympics. Photo: Channel 9

Nine has largely been the target for raids as the networks bolster their teams, with the likes of Cornes, Caroline Wilson and Craig Hutchison for a beefed up offering from Seven, and Leigh Matthews to Fox Sports.

Four-time premiership player Shaun Burgoyne and Geelong champion Tom Hawkins will also join Fox Footy’s commentary team in 2025. Burgoyne comes from Seven.

Garry Lyon will also replace Mark Robinson on AFL 360, while Jack Riewoldt will join On the Couch while plenty more roles are up in the air.

While Fox Sports’ Super Saturday Live will be the only to watch games live on a Saturday until round 8 in South Australia and Western Australia, round 10 in NSW, Queensland and the ACT and all season long in Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, Seven is going hard on new shows.

Which leaves big opportunities for the likes of Xander McGuire.

Channel 9 presenter Tony Jones called Xander one of the best he’d seen in almost 40 years at the network — “In football terms he’s what they call a ‘generational player’.”

Xander and Eddie at the Super Bowl. Photo: Instagram

But it’ll be interesting to see if Eddie’s comments on the Seven raid continue to hold up.

When Footy Classified was pillaged with Cornes, Wilson and Hutchison poached, Eddie said during a tongue-in-cheek appearance on Today: “End of the season, you get rid of the list-cloggers, and you move the new superstars in.

“And that’s what we’re doing. We commissioned it when I was up in Sydney, actually. And it’s been fantastic. And it’s great that Channel Copycat is just taking something we’ve done for 18 years and putting it on air.”

Eddie is currently in the US visiting his other son Joe who is a college punter with the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Originally published as Eddie McGuire’s son Xander joins Channel 7 as AFL TV exodus continues