Michael Sheahan (born 3 March 1947) is an Australian journalist who specialises in
Australian rules football
Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...
. He was chief football writer and associate sports editor for the ''
Herald Sun
The ''Herald Sun'' is a Conservatism, conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the American Rupert Murdoch, Murd ...
'' for 18 years. Although he left these positions at the end of 2011, he still writes special columns for the newspaper, including his yearly "Top 50" player list. He was also a panelist on the
Fox Footy
Fox Footy (stylised as FOX FOOTY) is an Australian rules football subscription television channel dedicated to screening Australian rules football matches and related programming. It is owned by Fox Sports Australia operated out of its Melbou ...
program ''
On the Couch'' and former media director for the
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...
(AFL, formerly VFL). He also joins
Brian Taylor,
Matthew Richardson,
Matthew Lloyd
Matthew James Lloyd (born 16 April 1978) is a former professional Australian rules footballer, who played for the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
A highly decorated full-forward, Lloyd's AFL's honours include ...
and
Leigh Matthews
Leigh Raymond Matthews (born 1 March 1952) is a former Australian rules footballer and coach. He played for Hawthorn Football Club, Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League (1897–1989), Victorian Football League (VFL) and coached and the ...
in the
3AW radio station's pre-match football discussion on Saturday afternoons. In addition he conducted a weekly interview program on Fox Footy, ''
Open Mike
An open mic or open mike (shortened from "open microphone") is a live show at a venue such as a coffeehouse, nightclub, comedy club, strip club, or pub, often taking place at night (an open mic night), in which audience members may perform on ...
'' until September 2020 when he would be retiring after an 19 year stint at Fox Footy. In February 2018 he joined a podcast with former St Kilda coach
Grant Thomas and former co-host of ''
The Footy Show'',
Sam Newman, entitled "Sam, Mike and Thomo", it aired once weekly and talks about all trending topics, with a sprinkling of commentary on AFL. However, upon that being cancelled in March 2019, in August that year he joined another podcast, entitled "Sam Mike and Don, 'You Can Not Be Serious'", with Newman and former VFL footballer
Don Scott. The podcast airs in a similar format and covers similar topics to the previous one. He was a part of this until June 2020, when he quit the podcast for a second time due to the fallout of a comment made by Scott about former AFL footballer
Nicky Winmar
Neil Elvis "Nicky" Winmar (born 25 September 1965) is a former Australian rules footballer best known for his career for and the in the Australian Football League (AFL), as well as in the West Australian Football League. An Indigenous Austra ...
.
One of his most widely known contributions to football writing is his bi-annual list of the Top 50 players in the Australian Football League. Sheahan prepares a ranked list at the beginning of each season of the 50 players he believes will be the best or have the most influence during the upcoming year; then, another list at the end of the season ranking the 50 best players of the year. The lists are always hotly debated. In 2008, Sheahan was given the task by the AFL to compile a list of the Greatest 50 players of all time, to be published in the book ''The Australian Game of Football'', which honoured the 150th anniversary of Australian rules football.
The media centre at AFL House in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
is named in his honour.
Sheahan is the cousin of former
Test cricket
Test cricket is a Forms of cricket, format of the sport of cricket, considered the game’s most prestigious and traditional form. Often referred to as the "ultimate test" of a cricketer's skill, endurance, and temperament, it is a format of i ...
er
Paul Sheahan. He had a brief football career himself, playing 66 senior matches for the
Werribee Football Club
The Werribee Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers, is an Australian rules football club based in the suburb of Werribee. The club was formed in 1964 and currently plays in the Victorian Football League (VFL). It is the western-most Melbourne-base ...
in the
Victorian Football Association
The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...
and for
North Hobart Football Club in the
Tasmanian Football League
The Tasmanian State League (TSL), colloquially known as the Tasmanian Football League (TFL), was the highest-level Australian rules football competition in the state of Tasmania. It disbanded following the end of the 2024 TSL season, 2024 season ...
. Sheahan has stated, when commenting on which team he supports, that he is more a fan of the game, than of a particular team, but has stated he has a soft spot for the Melbourne Football Club.
References
External links
Mike Sheahan's statisticsat AustralianFootball.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheahan, Mike
Australian rules football commentators
Werribee Football Club players
North Hobart Football Club players
Living people
Australian television presenters
1945 births
Journalists from Melbourne
Australian sports journalists
Australian rules footballers from Melbourne
Television personalities from Melbourne