ABC Sport, formerly ABC Radio Grandstand, is a live radio sports focused commentary and talk-back program which runs on the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

(ABC) local radio network across Australia and on one digital-only station.

History

From the first week in November 2020, the ABC rebranded all of its sports coverage as "ABC SPORT", renaming the ABC Grandstand on

digital radio Digital radio is the use of digital technology to transmit or receive across the radio spectrum. Digital transmission by radio waves includes digital broadcasting, and especially digital audio radio services. This should not be confused with In ...

as well as its

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

accounts to this name.

Description

Sports that covered by the station include Test,

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

and One-Day International

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

(live),

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

(mostly in

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 ...

and

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

), the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the King ...

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 ...

games,

Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

and

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

matches, including games involving the Socceroos and the

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

competition.

Programming

Grandstand cricket

ABC Grandstand has been broadcasting cricket since the 1930, and is the only national

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 ...

n radio station to broadcast live Test, One Day and domestic

. The lead ABC cricket commentators are as follows: * Jim Maxwell – A highly experienced and highly regarded cricket commentator, Maxwell has covered Australian One-Day, Test, and World Cup matches. He also has broadcast

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

, and

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

, and

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

. *

Ian Chappell Ian Michael Chappell (born 26 September 1943) is a former cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. Known as "Chappelli", he is considered as one of the greatest captains the game has seen.

– Former captain of Australia. He has played over 90 Test and One Day cricket matches for Australia and has a Test batting average of 42.42. *

Alison Mitchell Alison Mitchell is an English Australian cricket commentator and sports broadcaster, working for the BBC, Australia's Channel 7 and the Australian Open among others. She was the first woman to become a regular commentator on the BBC's '' Test ...

– Commentator of Channel 7's cricket coverage since 2018, first joined the ABC in 2014. She has also covered the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

and four Women's Cricket World Cups. Other notable callers include Andrew Moore, Kristen Beams,

Dirk Nannes Dirk Peter Nannes (born 16 May 1976) is an Australian-Dutch cricket commentator and former cricketer who has played internationally for both Australia and the Netherlands, one of the few players to represent multiple international teams. From ...

, and Stuart Clark.

Grandstand rugby league

Grandstand Rugby League is the ABC's flagship

NRL The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

programme in the northern states. The programme calls every game live each week of the season including the

State of Origin series The State of Origin series is an annual best-of-three rugby league series between two States and territories of Australia, Australian state representative sides, the New South Wales rugby league team, New South Wales Blues and the Queensland ru ...

and Finals with in depth previews and reviews, analysis, extensive talkback and interviews, and live score updates of other matches.

Grandstand AFL

''Grandstand''

AFL AFL may refer to: Education * Angel Foundation for Learning, a Canadian Roman Catholic charity * Ankara Science High School, a high school in Ankara, Turkey, natively referred to as ''Ankara Fen Liesi'' * Assessment for learning Military * ...

is the ABC's flagship sports programme in the southern states. The programme calls six AFL games live a week with further match preview, analysis, and talkback of the game. An introduction in 2008 was the Sunday Inquisition with Gerard Whateley highlighting the good and the bad of the AFL games for the past week. Coverage preference is given to local teams in their state. National coverage for games outside the home state is determined by the match with the highest appeal. ABC's coverage of the 2024 AFL season included: Play-by-play commentators * Corbin Middlemas * Matt Clinch * Ben Cameron * Kelli Underwood * Andrew Mayes * Joel Peterson * Lauren Bordin * Brett Sprigg (NSW) * Daniel Garb (NSW) * Quentin Hull (NSW, QLD) * Michael Price (QLD) * Aaron Bryans (SA) * Neil Cross (SA) * Clint Wheeldon (WA) * Mitch Turner (WA) * Chris Rowbottam (TAS) * Michael Maney (TAS) * Rob Cross (NT) Special comments *

Mick Malthouse Michael Raymond Malthouse (born 17 August 1953) is a former Australian rules footballer and coach, who played for the St Kilda Football Club and Richmond Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). After finishing his playing career, ...

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 ...

Brett Deledio Brett Edward Deledio (born 18 April 1987) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played 243 games over 12 seasons with the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL), and a further 32 matches over three sea ...

Brent Harvey Brent Harvey (born 14 May 1978), often known by his nickname "Boomer", is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the North Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He holds the record for most matches played ...

Adam Ramanauskas Adam Ramanauskas (born 19 November 1980) is a former Australian rules footballer for the Essendon Football Club. Of Lithuanian descent, Ramanauskas was selected at no. 12 in the 1998 AFL Draft and was mainly a defender or midfielder. In 2000 ...

Luke Ball Luke Patrick Ball (born 25 May 1984) is a former professional Australian rules football player who played for the and football clubs in the Australian Football League. From 2003 to 2009 he played 142 games for the St Kilda Football Club where ...

* Nathan Burke * Brad Sewell * Marc Murphy *

Chad Wingard Chad Jordan Wingard (born 29 July 1993) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Port Adelaide Football Club and the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was drafted to Port Adelaide ...

* Callum Sinclair * Kerryn Peterson *

Tadhg Kennelly Tadhg Kennelly (born 1 July 1981) is an Irish-Australian former international sportsperson turned recruiter and coach. He is most known for his top-level careers in both Gaelic football and Australian rules football being the first holder of bo ...

(NSW) * Joel Patfull (NSW) *

Dean Brogan Dean Scott Brogan (born 14 December 1978) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Port Adelaide Football Club and Greater Western Sydney Giants in the Australian Football League (AFL). He also played basketball ...

(NSW, SA) *

Alicia Eva Alicia Eva (born 2 April 1991) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Greater Western Sydney Giants in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She previously played for the Collingwood Football Club in 2017. Eva was selected in the AFL Women's All- ...

(NSW) * Jeff White (QLD) *

Matthew Primus Matthew Richard Primus (born 12 January 1975) is an Australian rules football coach and former player. He has served as the head coach of the Southport Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) since 2025. Primus previously played ...

(QLD) *

Jason Akermanis Jason Dean Akermanis (born 24 February 1977) is a former professional Australian rules football player who played in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is a Brownlow Medallist and triple premiership player who played for the Brisbane Bears ...

(QLD) * Jamie Stanton (QLD) * Josh Francou (SA) * Rod Jameson (SA) * Scott Thompson (SA) * Stephen Williams (SA) *

Chelsea Randall Chelsea Randall (born 14 June 1991) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Adelaide Football Club#AFL Women's team, Adelaide Football Club in the AFL Women's competition. She is one of the club's inaugural AFLW team co-captains, and ...

(SA) *

Sharrod Wellingham Sharrod Wellingham (born 7 July 1988) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Collingwood Football Club and the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). A pacy wingman from Western Australia, W ...

(WA) * Kara Antonio (WA) *

Shane Woewodin Shane Woewodin (born 12 July 1976) is a retired Australian rules football player who played 200 games with the Melbourne and Collingwood Football Clubs. He was the recipient of the Brownlow Medal in 2000. Early career Born to Ukrainian paren ...

(WA) *

Chris Waterman Chris Waterman (born 19 September 1968) is a former Australian rules football player and coach. Waterman's playing career started in Rossmoyne's junior football zone where he was eventually recruited by the East Fremantle Football Club at the ag ...

(WA) *

Joel Bowden Joel Francis Bowden (born 21 June 1978) is an Australian politician, former union leader and former professional Australian rules footballer. He was elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly at the 2020 Johnston by-election, repre ...

(NT) Boundary riders * Lauren Bordin * Tim Hodges * Jess Webster * Rory Campbell * Ian Cohen * Tom Maddocks * Ben Cameron * Andrew Mayes * Declan Byrne (NSW) * Poppy Penny (NSW) * Adam Shirley (NSW) * Zane Bojack (QLD) * Jamie Stanton (QLD) * Liz Walsh (SA) * Josh Money (SA) * Bridget Lacy (WA) * Akash Fotedar (WA) * Andrew Cooling (TAS) * Charlie King (NT) Journalists *

Jake Niall Jake Niall is a sports journalist at '' Fox Sports Australia'' and ''ABC Radio Grandstand'' based in Melbourne, Australia. He specialises in covering the Australian Football League, and currently appears on '' AFL Tonight'' on Fox Sports News ...

- Chief football reporter at The Age

Grandstand A-League

Beginning in the 2013/14 season, ABC Grandstand began covering every match of the

live on either local radio, digital radio, or via a dedicated mobile app.

Presenters

Simone Thurtell

Simone Thurtell was a presenter for Grandstand.profiles
/ref> She formerly shared the hosting of the summer Grandstand program with others, including

Karen Tighe Karen Anne Tighe (pronounced "tie") is a former Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio and television sports presenter. She grew up and was educated in Sydney, and completed a Bachelor of Arts in communications and psychology at Macquarie Uni ...

, Tracy Holmes and Peter Walsh. She was ABC's around-the-ground reporter during international cricket matches played at the SCG. She is probably best known for her ''Grandstand Active Show'', which featured regular guests, including

Kerry O'Keeffe Kerry James O'Keeffe (born 25 November 1949) is an Australian former cricketer and a current cricket commentator for Fox Sports. O'Keeffe played 24 Test matches and two One Day Internationals between 1971 and 1977. Due to his comedic anecdotes ...

Geoff Huegill Geoffrey Andrew Huegill (born 4 March 1979) is an Australian swimmer and dual Olympian who won seventy-two international medals, including two medals in Olympics and six world champion titles, throughout his career. He held eight world records, ...

and Al Baxter, and covered the sporting issues of the day, overnight scores and live crosses to sport. Thurtell initially worked for

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

TV Sport, before switching into the ABC Radio Grandstand team. She covered major events such as the

2000 Sydney Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

and

2006 Commonwealth Games The 2006 Commonwealth Games, officially the XVIII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Melbourne 2006, were an International sport, international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth held in Melbourne ...

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

. She called many sports, particularly

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender's goal ring while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own. It is one of a ...

. She presented Drive on

1233 ABC Newcastle ABC Newcastle (call sign: 2NC) is an Australian radio station. It is the Newcastle station of the ABC local radio network, and is licensed to, and serving Newcastle and surrounding areas. It operates on the AM band at 1233 kilohertz. Formerly kn ...

in 2007 and 2008, before returning to Grandstand in 2009.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Abc Radio Grandstand Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio programs English-language radio programs Australian sports radio programs