On the eve of the new season, Seven has revealed its AFL Women’s commentary team for season nine of the competition.
Dual AFLW best and fairest award winner, Erin Phillips, will join Seven’s AFLW team for the 2024 season following her first full season behind the mic for Seven’s men’s AFL coverage.
Fresh off the back of her decorated career with Adelaide and Port Adelaide, Phillips will be part of Seven’s commentary team for the opening clash between the Sydney Swans and Collingwood at North Sydney Oval from 7.00 pm AEST live on 30 August on Seven, 7mate and 7plus.
In addition to the team’s new recruit, Seven also welcomes back a lineup of the game’s best callers and experts in 2024, including Jason Bennett, Libby Birch, Nigel Carmody, Natalie Edwards, Melissa Hickey, Abbey Holmes, Sam Lane, Kate McCarthy, Alister Nicholson, Sarah Olle and Jo Wotton.
Seven’s AFLW team will also include 7NEWS’ Ryan Daniels, Theo Doropoulos, Anna Hay, Kate Massey, Alissa Smith and Laura Spurway for matches in their home states. Joining them will be former AFLW player Akec Makur Chuot, in her commentary debut.
Throughout Round One, a group of the game’s most well-known voices – Matthew Richardson, Dale Thomas and Nathan Jones – will also form part of Seven’s commentary.
Following Round One, Seven will launch its new weekly AFLW talk show, Talking W, starring host Abbey Holmes and expert panellist Kate McCarthy, alongside a rotating group of current and former players.
Every Monday night, Abbey and Kate will be met by a special guest to tackle all the biggest women’s footy headlines dominating the news cycle, while providing expert match analysis from the previous round, live and free on 7plus.
Holmes said: “After an unbelievable 25 weeks of the AFL season, I couldn’t be more pumped to have arrived at the beginning of another AFL Women’s season.
“The players have been working incredibly hard throughout a long off-season to ensure they are prepped, primed and ready to roll, so we can all be assured the game will go to yet another level in season nine.
“North Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane are once again three sides that I feel will be the hardest to beat this season, however I’m very excited to see what a young Hawthorn group can do under the new leadership of Daniel Webster,” she said.
Network director of sport, Chris Jones said: “This season, Seven will deliver footy fans more AFL Women’s content than ever before, and we couldn’t be more excited.
“As we embark on a new digital era for sport in Australia, where everyone can stream every round of the footy and the Australian summer of Cricket live and free on 7plus, there’s never been a more exciting time,” he said.