Media Street: Former Dan Andrews adviser Stephanie Jones becomes AFL’s media manager
The AFL has looked to the Victorian government, with an adviser poached to take charge in a key role.
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The AFL has looked to the Victorian government to fill its media manager role.
Stephanie Jones, a senior adviser to the Office of the Premier, has been lured to the AFL after four years helping Dan Andrews.
Jones, who will start at the end of the month, replaces Nadine Rabah who recently left the league to become Collingwood’s media boss.
She has also previously worked at the Arts Centre, Channel 9 and Crown Casino.
WINNERS AND LOSERS IN FOOTY RATINGS WAR
Two of radio’s hottest properties, Jimmy Bartel and Mark Allen, are providing 3AW with an unexpected ratings bonanza.
The former sports stars are kicking goals on Sunday Sport, a two-hour show which covers all sports in the lead-up to the station’s AFL coverage.
Bartel is highly regarded by 3AW and was a summer fill-in for breakfast while Allen has recently sat alongside Ross Stevenson in the coveted early morning seat.
The Sunday Sport program has been a slow burn with Bartel and Carlton’s AFLW coach and former Hawthorn star Daniel Harford kicking it off in 2018.
Herald Sun chief football writer Mark Robinson was a part of the show last year as it continued to spike in the ratings.
The early Sunday afternoon time slot had traditionally been a wasteland for 3AW with ratings of around 6 but the sports show has proven to be a winning combination, rating 12.4.
Bartel has been thrown up as a potential replacement for iconic broadcaster Gerard Healy should he decide to step away from his Sportsday show which is being rebranded under the Wide World of Sports banner in November.
There has also been speculation that Allen, a former pro golfer, could be getting a bigger role at 3AW after his impressive stint in the co-host role on the breakfast show.
The fourth ratings survey of the year reinforced that 3AW and Triple M are the big winners in AFL coverage with both posting pleasing numbers.
It was a strange survey for SEN with the sports network staying the same at 2.7 overall despite the football season being its prime time.
SEN boss Craig Hutchison isn’t a fan of the traditional ratings system which is probably a good thing although there were small increases for the Garry & Tim Breakfast show (2.9 up 0.2) and Gerard Whately’s morning show (2.7 up 0.2).
RSN 927 also came down in the ratings with its sports breakfast show coming in at 0.5.
WAS CORNES ONTO SOMETHING AGAIN?
KANE Cornes might be onto something again.
The controversial Channel 9 commentator had a go at Hawthorn last week saying they’d become the “irrelevant team of the competition”.
His timing was interesting given last week’s press conference with coach Sam Mitchell didn’t happen, or should we say, there is no record of it.
There were no cameras or reporters at Waverley Park at the time Hawks wheeled Mitchell out and then even an attempt by the club’s own media team to get a few lines for the faithful to put on their own website also didn’t happen.
Some technical issues with the recording equipment meant that didn’t happen also.
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Originally published as Media Street: Former Dan Andrews adviser Stephanie Jones becomes AFL’s media manager
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