Media Street: Who landed the first blow in the free-to-air footy TV war?

The free-to-air footy TV war is officially on with the arrival of Channel 7’s new show. Who landed the first blow? SCOTT GULLAN gives his verdict on the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Agenda Setters vs. Footy Classified. It was the new frontier of free-to-air football television on Monday night between channel 9 and Channel 7. Scott Gullan watched both shows and gives his verdict on the good, the bad and the ugly.

WHO LANDED THE FIRST PUNCH?

It might not have quite been in John Georgiades territory but the long-awaited debut of Channel 7’s The Agenda Setters certainly kicked some goals.

For those who aren’t football historians Georgiades – the father of Port Adelaide’s Mitch – kicked eight goals for Footscray against Carlton on debut in 1989, five goals in his third game and then virtually disappeared from sight.

His was one of the great VFL debuts and Seven’s new panel show also did a lot right on its debut in the first instalment of the great footy TV wars.

After strangely not fronting up last week in the lead-up to the season’s opening round when the opposition did, Seven rolled out its flagship show nice and early on Monday night.

Kane Cornes. Picture: Sarah Reed

Caroline Wilson returned to football TV on Monday night.

Starting a couple of hours ahead of Nine’s Footy Classified on its streaming service was a smart play and having the “maestro” of football Caroline Wilson – as host Craig Hutchison called her – start with a bang about an AFL audit on Geelong’s books was handy.

Having Wilson and Kane Cornes – who along with Hutchison Seven lured away from Footy Classified this year – seated close to each other and able to be in the same camera shot regularly worked perfectly given they are generally going to have the biggest opinions in the room.

But as the show found its groove it became obvious that the recruitment of St Kilda champion Nick Riewoldt was a brilliant move.

While there was an odd exchange early with Wilson saying: “Great to work with you by the way Nick.” He duly replied: “You too”.

Wilson, Hutchinson and Cornes are now on Channel 7.

Riewoldt isn’t scared to have a big opinion either and he was more than happy to whack Cornes who’d gone hard on Magpies star Nick Daicos cramping against the GWS Giants, declaring he hadn’t prepared well enough over the summer.

“This might be your worst take of the year in the Opening Round,” Riewoldt said. “You have gone early.”

When the topic of conversation switched to Collingwood great Scott Pendlebury, Riewoldt certainly earnt his cheque.

“I haven’t seen him play live for two years, Hutchy so it wasn’t the Scott Pendlebury that I was accustomed to seeing play.”

NOT QUITE SURE …

One area which may need some work is the segment headers with some landing and others not so much.

From The Horse’s Mouth was a look at a coach’s press conference which this week was Sydney’s Dean Cox.

Caro’s Call is the same as Caros Arrow from her Classified days while Roo’s Marks is linked because Riewoldt took a lot of marks throughout his career and now is offering marks (ie A+ of C-) on moves from the games.

The Spill and The Swipe are basically Classified’s Good Call Bad Call with a lot of in-house jokes including Cornes having a crack at his mates on his former show The Sunday Footy Show for not confronting Tony Jones about Novak Djokovic.

Craig Hutchison hosts Channel 7’s new show. Pic: Sam D'Agostino

EVERYWHERE KANE TOO MUCH?

Cornes overkill is the most obvious problem moving forward for the show. He first gives his opinion the night before on Ch 7 at the end of the round, he then hosts a morning breakfast on SEN and there is even a live cross into the nightly news to present his opinion again before The Agenda Setters even starts where he delivers that same opinion again.

Across on Nine, Footy Classified rolled out just after 9pm with its new line-up of Sam McClure in the hosting chair, Jimmy Bartel and Matthew Lloyd bringing the ex-footballers vibe and journo Damian Barrett.

Quickly they had news reporter Tom Morris on talking about breaking news which included a looming extension for Essendon coach Brad Scott.

Jimmy Bartel, Matthew Lloyd, Sam McClure and Damian Barrett – the Footy Classified 2025 team. Picture: Ch9/Supplied

A lot of the same topics as The Agenda Setters got a run with a couple of new segments – The Sledgehammer which is Lloyd spraying someone – and The Water Cooler which is supposed to cover off what people in the office are talking about although it didn’t quite hit the mark.

They end with a funny clip for Cornes about leaving them for the big money of Seven and then showing footage of him sitting on the stairwell at the Hawthorn-Sydney game. “They had no money left to get him a seat,” is the perfect whack.

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

Unfortunately for Footy Classified, there is no getting away from the fact that losing Wilson – the only woman on any of the footy shows – is the biggest blow.

She has been the key to the whole dance since Classified first started back in 2007 and without that female voice and appeal, you can’t escape the feeling that something is missing.

The fact viewers can find that something on the rival channel is what is going to keep hurting Classified who at least can take solace in that Georgiades career only lasted 15 games and that The Agenda Setters may have peaked early.

Originally published as Media Street: Who landed the first blow in the free-to-air footy TV war?