Fox Footy steps up a level this week as the AFL Home and Away season starts with Round 1’s nine games with crowds back in the grounds. Two key Fox Footy contributors are former footballers Garry Lyon and Jonathan Brown. Mediaweek spoke to both of them in Melbourne about their media work.
There are plenty of similarities between Lyon and Brown – both are former AFL captains. Both co-host Melbourne breakfast radio shows. Both sit alongside Gerard Healy at Fox Footy’s On the Couch. (They share the sofa with Nick Riewoldt as the program celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.) And they both offer special comments during the weekend football coverage.
Garry Lyon
At Fox Footy this year, with Eddie McGuire not expected back on air immediately, Lyon will take on some extra weekend hosting duties in addition to continuing special comments at games and his role at On the Couch. “I love working at Fox Footy and I’m very happy to do whatever they want me to. I enjoy working with colleagues like Nick Riewoldt, Browny and Jason Dunstall – we all get on well and respect each other.
“I have done a lot of radio over the years and I have been lucky to work with people I connect with and have good relationships with. That’s the key for me. Tim Watson and I have a lot of fun at 1116 SEN, at the same time we also want to be credible when covering big footy stories. We do the best we can. I’m 53 and Tim’s 56 – if people like it well and good.”
The footy connections Lyon and Watson have are better than most, one of the reasons they snared a first interview with Richmond coach Damien Hardwick. “He had an interesting off-season obviously,” said Lyon referring to the coach’s new relationship. “We are not the biggest radio show going around, but he elected to do his interview with us. We respect him and we knew he respects us and he knew we weren’t going to go down a salacious path.”
Lyon paid tribute to the growth of SEN which was a single Melbourne station when Lyon first arrived. Just this week CEO Craig Hutchison announced a New Zealand expansion in addition to the 18 stations across Australia. “He has done an amazing job. Last year when it was tough for everyone he managed to grow the business with the launch of the Sydney station and hired people like Andrew Voss and Matty Johns. I am a big fan of Hutchy’s because he has a go. Some people remain critical because he used to be a journalist who broke footy stories.”
Lyon crossed paths with Hutchison when Lyon was hosting Nine’s The Footy Show after Eddie McGuire stepped away. “At the time we realised the only person who made it hard to break footy was Craig Hutchison, then at Channel Seven. We chased him and we got him to Nine. Now he has left us all behind and is a media baron!” [Laughs]
Lyon now works a long year on the radio with six months of nearly seven-day-a-week commitments on TV. “To do our job properly you have to watch as much footy as you can. But I have to admit I can’t watch nine games of footy on a weekend…it drives me crazy. I watch as much as I can and try and keep across the stories.”
Helping Lyon keep a distance from the game when needed is the ability he has to broadcast his SEN breakfast show occasionally from his property just outside Melbourne.
See also: Fox Footy all set for 2021 – Ready to adapt and be agile if needed
Jonathan Brown
Brown has just started his sixth year on Nova 100 in Melbourne. The former (pro) footballer in the Chrissie, Sam and Browny team told Mediaweek, “We still have the same team front and back of house”.
They are now the heritage breakfast show in the market after changes across Melbourne radio at the end of 2020. “We are the survivors…it’s amazing. It is great fun going to work and it was a big help during lockdown in 2020 being able to go into the studios at Nova and Fox Footy.”
Fox Footy’s Jonathan Brown
Like with Lyon and Watson, the first part of the radio show is often the best. “That’s because we are without Sam,” explained Brown, referring to Sam Pang who works from 7-9am four days a week on the show. “We love the first hour, it is a bit looser and not as many mums with kids in the car at that time of day. Working with Chrissie Swan is just fantastic – she is one of the great radio talents in Australia.” Brown also praised anchor Deano. “He has been a revelation. Who would have thought hitting the wrong button would turn you into a star. We love him and all the behind-the-scenes team is unbelievable. Ben Latimer is in charge of content and Jack Charles is our EP. The wonder kid…we are very lucky.”
On Fox Footy, Brown was unable to get to games, like Lyon, contributing his special comments from the multiscreen set-up at the studio. “At first I thought it would be challenging. Part of the role of the special comments person is to help out the viewer with what is going on off-camera. The wide view of the whole ground we got allowed us to do that. After a few weeks I started to enjoy it and it allowed us to do more games because it was not as onerous with no travel. In world sport it seems to have become accepted practice.
“A great example this year will be the Olympics. No one will think twice if Bruce McAvaney is sitting in his studio in Adelaide calling events. People love sport, and providing we can have it on TV after the year we have had that is the main thing.”
As a former Brisbane Lions champ, Brown said there have been times he feels frustration creeping into his comments about their performance when they play poorly. “You tend to become a supporter at times. I find I need to try and temper things.”
As the end of his playing career loomed, Brown was not certain what he would do after footy. “I am lucky to have worked for Nova since 2005. The then boss of Nova Brisbane Jay Walkerden grabbed me one day before I retired and told me he wanted me to have a real think about radio. Two or three years later I ended up down in Melbourne for Nova. An even better outcome was that I was able to stay very connected to the game through my work at Fox Footy.”
Although he loves his media work, Brown admitted he sometimes thinks about returning to football in some capacity. “There are times when I feel it would be good to return to the coalface. But I am very fortunate with what I have now. I have a young family and I get to spend plenty of time with them, watch plenty of footy and have fun on the radio in the mornings.”