Fox Footy has released details of its AFL Grand Final week action.
The detail comes after Fox Footy had its biggest crowd ever, recording an average audience of 552,000 for the Richmond v Greater Western Sydney game on Saturday September 23. It became the highest-rating AFL game of all time on subscription TV, surpassing previous best of 543,000 (2016, Saturday twilight game in finals week three between GWS Giants v Western Bulldogs).
As part of the new AFL rights deal Fox Footy was not able to simulcast Seven’s AFL Brownlow Medal coverage for the first time in a number of years last night.
The special Grand Final week programming includes:
• The Mike Sheahan-hosted Open Mike on Wednesday night will celebrate 50 years of football for the great Kevin Sheedy, in a Finals special episode.
• At 11am on Friday, the annual Grand Final Parade will be broadcast live with Jason Dunstall and Sarah Jones hosting.
• There will be Grand Final eve Friday editions of AFL 360 and Bounce live from Yarra Park.
• On Grand Final Day the Mazda North Melbourne Grand Final Breakfast, hosted by Fox Footy’s Dwayne Russell will be broadcast live from 9am at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.
• At 10am the Fox Footy Longest Kick will be held. Bryce Gibbs will return to defend his title against the likes of Josh Kennedy (WCE), Matt Suckling (Bulldogs), Jayden Hunt (Melbourne), AFLW superstars Katie Brennan (Bulldogs) and Sarah Perkins (Adelaide), legends Brendan Fevola and Dustin Fletcher, plus Wildcard superboot James Pennycuick who roosted a 73.9m kick at last year’s competition.
• Although Fox Footy doesn’t broadcast the Grand Final, it is promising the best pre-, halftime, and post analysis of the Grand Final. Eddie McGuire, Sandy Roberts and Sarah Jones will lead the AFL commentary team, made up of Paul Roos, Dermott Brereton, Jason Dunstall, Jonathan Brown, Gerard Healy, David King, Ben Dixon, Nick Dal Santo, Cameron Mooney, Brad Johnson, Mark Ricciuto, Mark Maclure, Brian Lake, Matthew Pavlich and Alastair Lynch.