Andrew Maher is an Australian sports journalist and broadcaster for the

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by Seven West Media Limited, and is one of five main free-to-air television networks in Australia ...

and

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

sport radio station

1116 SEN 1116 SEN (call sign 3AK) is an Australian radio station in Victoria. Owned and operated by Pacific Star Network, it broadcasts a sports radio format from Lower Plenty to Greater Melbourne. First broadcast on 29 November 1931 as 3AK, the sta ...

. 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 AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

review program ''

Before the Game ''Before the Game'' was an Australian rules football comedy panel television show which aired on Network Ten on 1 March 2003 until 27 September 2013. The show was hosted by Andrew Maher with regular panelists Mick Molloy, Dave Hughes, Anthony ...

''. Maher was a boundary rider for the 2004, 2007, 2009 and 2011

grand finals for Network Ten. Maher hosted The Fifth Quarter (post-match show, following Saturday Night AFL games from 2004 to 2007 (with

Michael Christian Michael Christian (born 21 August 1964) is a former Australian rules footballer and media personality from Busselton, Western Australia who played for East Perth Football Club, East Perth in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and Coll ...

), and 2009 and 2011 with rotating expert commentators

Malcolm Blight Malcolm Jack Blight AM (born 16 February 1950) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for and coached the North Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and Woodville Football Club in the South Australian Nati ...

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

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 ...

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 ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...

'', where he worked as Football Editor in the late 1990s.

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 Optus Television is the cable television division of Australian telecommunications company Optus. History Its immediate predecessor was Optus Vision, a joint venture between Optus and Continental Cablevision, with small shareholdings by media ...

network. 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. In 2002, Maher moved to Channel 10 after they, with Channel 9 and Foxtel won the rights to broadcast the

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 "

" as well as on the Saturday night review show, The Fifth Quarter as co-host (with

). 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. In September 2011

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

announced he hosted the

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

panel show Fox Sports FC. In 2013, Maher commentated for Network Ten's coverage of the T20 Big Bash League. In addition to the

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

, Maher is a roving sport reporter across the board for

Ten Sport ''10 Sport'' (known as ''Ten's World of Sport'' from 1992 until 1996) is the brand that all sporting events broadcast on Network 10, an Australian free-to-air commercial television network. Sports streamed on Paramount+ in Australia since Au ...

, including the Formula 1; MotoGP;

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

;

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

and

Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

(

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

and Stawell Gift) among others. Maher continued his hosting duties for popular AFL show

on Network Ten as well, until it was axed at the end of 2013. Since 2015, he has co-hosted

The Front Bar ''The Front Bar'' (formerly ''Friday Front Bar'') is an Australian Football League-based talk show that airs on the Seven Network. The show is hosted by journalist Andy Maher and comedians Mick Molloy and Sam Pang. Hosts * Regular ** Andy ...

, aired on afl.com.au and on Channel 7 along with comedians

Mick Molloy Michael Molloy (born 11 July 1966) is an Australian comedian, writer, producer, actor and television and radio presenter who has been active in radio, television, stand-up and film. He currently hosts '' The Front Bar'' on the Seven Network. ...

and Sam Pang, seeks to take a comedic view on news from that week in the AFL community.

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

footballer

Jarrod Molloy Jarrod Molloy (born 12 May 1976) is a former Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League. A key position player, Molloy was trialled in both attack and defence as his career progressed, with most success enjoyed near the go ...

** ''FREE Friday's Tip-Off'', where he and, SEN partner,

Billy Brownless Anthony William Brownless (born 28 January 1967) is a former Australian rules footballer and radio and television media personality who represented in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the 1980s and 1990s. Early life Brownless was ...

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

External links

SEN Profile – Andy Maher
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maher, Andrew Australian radio personalities Living people 10 Sport Australian television presenters Australian rules football commentators People educated at Marcellin College, Bulleen 1964 births