Nathan Brown: ‘It’s disrespectful to the rest of the panel’

One Sunday Footy Show panellist described it as the topic “everyone in Australia wants us to talk about” but an order meant the team couldn’t discuss it.

Time On is your wrap up of all the footy gossip and banter

As Nathan Brown put it, “the whole of Australia wants us to talk about it”, but there was one topic off limits when the Sunday Footy Show returned on Sunday.

Host Tony Jones was embroiled in an international storm of controversy during the Australian Open in January after he apologised to Novak Djokovic for offensive comments made during a live news segment.

Jones rejoined the panel of Brown, Matthew Lloyd, Damian Barrett and Rory Sloane, the replacement for Kane Cornes, but they had to relay the news that it was a taboo topic.

Instead they replayed a string of Jones’ gaffes including the infamous non-kiss with Bec Judd, which had also been banned, and previous tennis and football incidents.

The Djokovic saga was off limits to the 2025 Sunday Footy Show panel.

“It’s disrespectful to the rest of the panel that everyone in Australia wants us to talk about it and we’re not allowed to talk about it,’’ Brown said.

They said Jones had gone to management to get the subject off the table but it’s believed a legal issue could be at play given the Serbian Council of Australia called for the Human Rights Commission to investigate.

Jones called for the team to “drop it” and they duly plonked a load of tennis balls on his head.

Tony Jones called for the Sunday Footy Show team to ‘drop it’.

On Triple M’s Sunday Rub Brown elaborated and sympathised with Jones.

“We can’t talk about that, (it was) frosty, tense, aggressive,’’ Brown said.

“We weren’t allowed to, it came from the top.

“I thought that TJ copped it unfairly. We know he’s not that funny. I thought that pile on was really big and we can’t talk about it too much so I should probably say no comment.”

Originally published as Nathan Brown: ‘It’s disrespectful to the rest of the panel’