Andrew Maher
Andy Maher | |
|---|---|
 Maher hosting a Network 7 pre-game show ahead of the inaugural AFL Women's match in February 2017 | |
| Born | Andrew Maher 16 July 1964 |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation(s) | television and radio personality |
| Years active | 1996-present |
| Known for | The Front Bar |
Andrew "Andy" Maher (born 16 July 1964) is an Australian journalist and television sports presenter for Network Ten and Melbourne sport radio station 1116 SEN. He is best known for covering both Australian rules football and the Big Bash League for the Ten television network, as well as hosting AFL review program Before the Game.
Maher was a boundary rider for the 2004, 2007, 2009 and 2011 AFL Grand Finals for Network Ten.
Maher hosted The Fifth Quarter (post-match show, following Saturday Night AFL), between 2004 and 2007 (with Michael Christian), and 2009 and 2011 with rotating expert commentators Malcolm Blight, Matthew Lloyd and Luke Darcy.
Early career
Maher began working for weekly football newspaper 'Inside Football' as a staff writer. He progressed to be the paper's assistant editor. He then moved on to The Sunday Age, where he worked as Football Editor in the late 1990s.[1]
Television career
In 1996, he joined television production company Vuecast (now AFL Films) after it landed the contract to supply content for the Pay TV operator 'Sports AFL' as part of the Optus Vision network. [citation needed] As part of its Pay TV coverage of AFL football, Andrew mixed duties as host of 'One on One', the producer of its Monday night show, Football Feedback, and as the station's boundary rider on its exclusive match-day coverage. Joining Channel 7 in 2001, he produced the highly acclaimed "Talking Footy" while sharing boundary line duties on Channel 7's football coverage.[1]
In 2002, Maher moved to Channel 10 after they, with Channel 9 and Foxtel won the rights to broadcast the AFL from Channel 7. He has multiple roles at Channel 10, working on-air and also as a part of their AFL/Sports production teams.
Maher's Channel 10 on-air contributions are as the boundary rider for their Saturday afternoon coverage, the host of their Saturday night preview show "Before the Game" as well as on the Saturday night review show, The Fifth Quarter as co-host (with Michael Christian).
Maher has also been credited with coining the phrase "spotfires" - to describe those occasions where small melees or other acts of physical aggression between opponents were breaking out during a game. This terminology is now a regular feature of football commentary - as in the sentence: "spotfires are breaking out all over the place".[citation needed]
In September 2011 Fox Sports announced he hosted the football (soccer) panel show Fox Sports FC.[2]
In 2013 Maher commentated for Network Ten's coverage of the T20 Big Bash League. In addition to the Cricket, Maher is a roving sport reporter across the board for Ten Sport, including the Formula 1; MotoGP; Golf; Tennis and Athletics (Commonwealth Games and Stawell Gift) among others. Maher continued his hosting duties for popular AFL show Before the Game on Network Ten as well, until it was axed at the end of 2013.[3]
From 2015 Andrew took on the role of co-host on the Friday Front Bar, aired on afl.com.au (2015-present) and across the Channel 7 network (2016-present) following the conclusion of 7's coverage 'Thursday' or 'Friday Night Footy' AFL fixtures. This show also hosted by Mick Molloy and Sam Pang seeks to take a comedic view on news from that week in the AFL community.
Radio career
Maher was the host and presenter on Melbourne Radio Station SEN 1116 morning show Morning Glory until end of 2015, where he took over from Garry Lyon, after beating Jim Wilson and Tony Jones for the role.[4] He now hosts Afternoons from 12pm weekdays.
AFL
Maher contributes on the following programmes:
- Monday's Experts, Monday review show showing highlights of the just-past round of AFL with analysis and stat's, co-hosted with former AFL footballer Jarrod Molloy
- FREE Friday's Tip-Off, where he and, SEN partner, Billy Brownless preview the round of football that is about to commence and provide information about why and who punters should tip in their tipping competitions.
References
- ^ a b "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2 January 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-03.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Knox, David (30 September 2011). "Andrew Maher joins Fox Sports FC". TV Tonight. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
- ^ "Channel 10 axes AFL comedy show Before the Game". 13 December 2013.
- ^ McClure, Geoff (6 December 2004). "Sporting Life". The Age. Melbourne.
External links