Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, ''Saturday Night Footy'' (formerly as ''Saturday Night Football'') is the broadcasting of

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) Saturday night matches on

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

. ''Saturday Night Footy'' is generally considered to be one of the biggest stages and generates publicity for the clubs involved. It is for this reason that clubs involved generally want to perform at their best to avoid large-scale criticism from the

media Media may refer to: Communication * Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Interactive media, media that is inter ...

. The

Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...

has held the primary broadcast rights for the AFL since the start of the 2012 season. The commentary team is led by

Basil Zempilas Basil Anthony Zempilas (; born 30 July 1971) is an Australian politician who is the leader of the Western Australian Liberal Party and the member for Churchlands in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, serving in both roles since March ...

Cameron Ling Cameron Ling (born 27 February 1981) is a former Australian rules footballer and three-time premiership player who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A tagger at and , Ling was also a premiership-win ...

Luke Darcy Luke Darcy (born 12 July 1975) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League (AFL) and now works for the Seven Network and Triple M covering the AFL and the Olympics. Early life L ...

and Matthew Richardson.

Samantha Lane Samantha Lane is an Australian sports journalist. Specialising in the Australian Football League (AFL), she also wrote on a range of other sports for ''The Age'', and was a panellist on ''Before The Game'' (about AFL) on Network Ten for over a ...

provides reports during the match and also features as a reporter during the pre-match segment, which runs for 45 minutes (or one hour for matches played in Adelaide or Perth) before the match is played. Dr. Peter Larkins provides injury updates during and after the feature match. The show begins at 6:30pm every Saturday night, immediately following ''

Seven News Seven News (stylised 7NEWS) is the television news service of the Seven Network and, as of 2021, the highest-rating in Australia. National bulletins are presented from Seven's high definition studios in South Eveleigh, Sydney, while its flags ...

'' in most markets. The pre-match show, titled ''The Kick'', is anchored by Darcy and runs for one hour in the lead-up to the feature match. This portion of the telecast includes, among others, segments such as: interviews with players and the coaches involved in the feature match, going behind the scenes of a team's training session, and featuring various celebrity guests.

Rachael Finch Rachael Finch (born 8 July 1988) is an Australian TV host, model and beauty pageant titleholder. She was awarded the 'People's Choice Award' for the 2006 Miss Teen Australia and finished as 3rd runner-up at Miss Universe 2009. Career Modelling ...

Lleyton Hewitt Lleyton Glynn Hewitt (born 24 February 1981) is an Australian former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) fo ...

and

Redfoo Stefan Kendal Gordy (born September 3, 1975), better known as Redfoo, is an American singer, rapper, songwriter, record producer, DJ, dancer, and tennis player. He came to prominence as one half of the duo LMFAO, formed with his half-nephew Sky ...

, among others, have featured as guests on ''Saturday Night Footy''. The post-match show, anchored by Darcy, reviews the match in detail and includes interviews with the players and coaches from both sides. The team also crosses to

Sam McClure Sam McClure (born ) is an Australian sports journalist who works for the Nine Network, ''The Age,'' 3AW and Sports Entertainment Network. Career McClure began his media career at 3AW as a broadcasting assistant in 2011, before moving into the ...

, at ''Footy Central'', to recap the rest of the day's matches, and also to provide injury and player updates from those matches. The original ''Saturday Night Footy'' telecast may not air into some states, as the current broadcasting contract requires the local teams to be televised into their respective states (for example, Saturday night matches involving the

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions are a professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that compete in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. Brisbane are the ...

must be televised into

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

). The pre-match show may also be omitted from the schedule if a local team's match being played in the twilight timeslot (i.e. 4:35 pm) is televised and overlaps into the 6:30pm timeslot. During Seven's exclusively live broadcast of the AFL Grand Final as part of the 2012-2016 Broadcast Deal, the Saturday Night Footy team host both the pre-match show and the post-match show. In 2018,

James Brayshaw James Antony Brayshaw (born 11 May 1967) is an Australian media personality and retired cricketer working in television for the Seven Network and radio for Triple M. For Seven Sport, he hosts and calls Test cricket during summer and Australian ...

will join the Saturday Night Footy team.

References

{{reflist

External links

AFL Game Day – Basil Zempilas – Yahoo!7 Sport

AFL Game Day – Cameron Ling – Yahoo!7 Sport

AFL Game Day – Luke Darcy – Yahoo!7 Sport

AFL Game Day – Matthew Richardson – Yahoo!7 Sport

Seven AFL Media Kit 2012

Seven AFL Media Kit 2013
Australian Football League Seven Network original programming Network 10 original programming 2002 Australian television series debuts 2010s Australian television series Australian sports television series Sports telecast series Simulcasts

See also

References

External links