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 broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...

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 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 oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

and the

Big Bash League The Big Bash League (known as the KFC Big Bash League for sponsorship reasons, often abbreviated to BBL or Big Bash) is an Australian professional club Twenty20 cricket league, which was established in 2011 by Cricket Australia. The Big Bash Le ...

for the

Ten Ten, TEN or 10 may refer to: * 10, an even natural number following 9 and preceding 11 * one of the years 10 BC, AD 10, 1910 and 2010 * October, the tenth month of the year Places * Mount Ten, in Vietnam * Tongren Fenghuang Airport (IATA code ...

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

grand finals for

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of five ...

. Maher hosted The Fifth Quarter (post-match show, following Saturday Night AFL games from 2004 to 2007 (with Michael Christian), 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 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.

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 Channel 7 or TV7 may refer to: Television networks, channels and stations ;Algeria *TV7 (Algerian TV channel) ; Argentina *Channel 7 (Argentina), a government-owned Argentine TV station * Channel 7 – Bahía Blanca, an Argentine TV station in Bue ...

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 Foxtel is an Australian pay television company—operating in cable television, direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV streaming services. It was formed in April 2018, superseding an earlier company from 1995. The service was establi ...

won the rights to broadcast the

from

. 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. In September 2011 Fox Sports 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 ''Fox Sports FC'' (formerly ''Total Football'') was an Australian football (soccer) discussion show that televised on Fox Sports. History Aired at 8:30pm every Tuesday night on Fox Sports, the show was split into two halves, with the first half ...

. 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 striki ...

, 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 Augu ...

, including the

Formula 1 Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

;

MotoGP Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the premier class of motorcycle road racing events held on road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held since the start ...

;

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 wi ...

;

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), competiti ...

(

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 The Stawell Gift is Australia's oldest and richest short-distance running race. It is the main event in an annual carnival held on Easter weekend by the Stawell Athletic Club, with the main race finals on the holiday Monday, at Central Park, St ...

) among others. Maher continued his hosting duties for popular AFL show Before the Game on

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 Mahe ...

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

Sam Pang Samuel Pang (born 3 November 1973) is an Australian comedian, radio and television presenter, writer and producer. Pang co-hosts '' Chrissie, Sam & Browny'' on Nova 100 with Chrissie Swan and Jonathan Brown and co-hosts ''The Front Bar'' with Mi ...

, 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 Sen may refer to: Surname * Sen (surname), a Bengali surname * Şen, a Turkish surname * A variant of the Serer patronym Sène Currency subunit * Etymologically related to the English word ''cent''; a hundredth of the following currencies: ** ...

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

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