Tara Rushton (born 2 July 1984) is an Australian sports presenter and journalist. Rushton previously presented 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 ...

series ''Kick Off'' and '' Sunday Shootout'' on

Fox Sports Australia Fox Sports Australia Pty Limited (formerly Premier Media Group Pty Limited) is the division of Foxtel that owns and operates the Fox Sports television networks and digital properties in Australia. The group operates nine Fox Sports Channels as w ...

as well as appearing on Fox Sports News.

Early life

Born in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, Rushton grew up on the

Mornington Peninsula The Mornington Peninsula is a peninsula located south of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is surrounded by Port Phillip to the west, Western Port to the east and Bass Strait to the south, and is connected to the mainland in the north. Geogra ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, before moving to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

where she attended school at

Oakhill College , motto_translation = With God as our leader , location = Castle Hill, Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = Australia Sydney , pushpin_imag ...

. She then completed a Diploma in Journalism and a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

Macleay College Established in 1988, Macleay College is an Australian accredited higher education provider located in Chippendale, New South Wales. It offers two-year Bachelor degrees in advertising and media, digital media, journalism and business; and one-ye ...

, majoring in Media and Communications. She moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

at the age of 18.

Career

In 2010, Rushton moved to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

and took on a television presenting role on

Singtel TV Singtel TV (formerly known as Singtel IPTV and mio TV) is a pay television service provided by Singtel in Singapore. It is transmitted through Singtel's broadband network via an IPTV platform which uses Ericsson Mediaroom (originally develope ...

's Mio Stadium channel. She hosted the

English Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

-focused ''Tiger Goals on Sunday'' series. In 2013, Rushton moved home to Australia and replaced the departing

Mel McLaughlin Melanie Louise McLaughlin (born September 1979) is an Australian sport presenter for the Seven Network. McLaughlin previously worked for Fox Sports where she hosted association football shows including ''Kick Off'', Indian Super League and '' F ...

on Fox Sports.Harris, Amy (19 August 2013
Tara Rushton named the new face of football at Fox Sports, replacing Mel McLaughlin
''

The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) ''The Daily Telegraph'', also nicknamed ''The Tele'', is an Australian tabloid newspaper published by Nationwide News Pty Limited, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of News Corp. It is published Monday through Saturda ...

'' As well as presenting match broadcasts of the

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

, English Premier League and

Socceroos The Australia men's national soccer team represents Australia in international men's soccer. Officially nicknamed the Socceroos, the team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is affiliated with ...

matches, she also began presenting the network's weekly A-League wrap show, ''Sunday Shootout'', alongside, as of 2016,

Mark Bosnich Mark John Bosnich (born 13 January 1972) is an Australian former professional footballer, who played as a goalkeeper, and sports pundit. He played in England for Premier League clubs Aston Villa, Manchester United and Chelsea. He also played in ...

John Kosmina Alexander John Kosmina (born 17 August 1956), known as John Kosmina, is an Australian former football (soccer) player and manager, most recently being the Senior Head Coach of Brisbane Strikers. He is a member of the Football Federation Australi ...

and

Ned Zelic Nedjeljko Zelic (born 4 July 1971), commonly known as Ned Zelic, is an Australian former footballer who played as a centre-back or defensive midfielder. Club career Zelic started his career in the old Australian National Soccer League, where he ...

. When not hosting from the studio, she is also often used as a

sideline reporter Sideline(s) may refer to: * Extended side, the geometric line that contains the side of a polygon * Sidelines, the lines that mark the outer boundaries of a sports field * Sideline (app), a smartphone app * ''Sidelines'' (newspaper), the studen ...

in matches that Fox Sports presents. In 2015, Rushton was nominated for an

ASTRA award The ASTRA Awards were the annual awards for the Australian subscription television industry. According to the Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association (ASTRA), the awards "recognise the wealth of talent that drives the Australi ...

, for Most Outstanding Female Presenter. According to

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

Rushton is set to co-anchor a

UFC Tonight The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA ...

style show for

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 Fo ...

on Australian pay television network

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 ...

called

UFC Fight Week The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA ...

that premiered on Thursday, 16 April 2015 In October 2021 Rushton join Network 10 Sport Football Commentary Team for All the A-Leagues, Matildas, Socceroos and FFA Cup matches as a sports presenter.

Personal life

Rushton is

mixed-race Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...

, being half-

Anglo-Celtic Australian Anglo-Celtic Australians is an ancestral grouping of Australians whose ancestors originate wholly or partially in the British Isles - predominantly in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. While Anglo-Celtic Australians do not form an officia ...

(through her father) and half- Burmese (through her mother). She is an avid Arsenal F.C. fan, having previously lived in

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nort ...

, near Arsenal's home ground. Her favourite player is

Thierry Henry Thierry Daniel Henry (born 17 August 1977) is a French professional football coach, pundit, and former player who is an assistant coach for the Belgium national team. Considered one of the best strikers of all time and one of the best players ...

. She has also played local football herself, for Lindfield F.C. on Sydney's North Shore. In January 2016, she started dating former

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

player

Cooper Cronk Cooper Patrick Cronk (born 5 December 1983) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. An n international and Queensland State of Origin representative , he played most of his club career for ...

.Phelps, James (2 January 2016
Cooper Cronk could quit final year of Storm contract to be closer to new flame Tara Rushton
''

'' They married on 14 December 2017. They have two sons, born in 2018 and 2021.http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/marriage/nrl-star-cooper-cronk-marries-fox-sports-presenter-tara-rushton-at-jonahs-in-whale-beach/news-story/44a1716b686a78b940bfbfb235712d11

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rushton, Tara 1984 births Living people Australian people of Burmese descent Australian soccer commentators Australian television presenters Australian women television presenters Fox Sports (Australian TV network) people People from Perth, Western Australia Rugby league players wives and girlfriends People educated at Oakhill College