''The Winners'' was a long running Australian television series that shows highlights of

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 ...

matches.

Original show (1970s and 1980s)

The original version was broadcast from 1977 until 1986 on the

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on Sunday mornings. It was normally hosted by Drew Morphett with a panel consisting of former players and pundits. Two matches from the previous day's

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL) fixtures would be screened and the panel would speculate about the games along with the league ladder and the

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and play of the day. The format of the show was comprehensive, yet devoted mainly to matters on the field. Today it appears simplistic when compared with modern football's more saturated and market driven media coverage.

Newer show (2000-2011)

A new version of ''The Winners'' returned on the

Fox Footy Channel The Fox Footy Channel was a channel exclusively dedicated to Australian rules football. It was owned by Foxtel and operated out of their Melbourne based studios. From 2002 - 2006 it was available on Foxtel, Austar, Optus Television, TransTV ...

in 2002, hosted by

Clinton Grybas Clinton Andrew Grybas (9 February 1975 – 5 January 2008) was a leading Australian rules football and sports radio and television commentator. Career His media career began at the South East Melbourne Magic basketball team as club journalist ...

, showing highlights of all eight

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 ...

games from the weekend in a one-hour show. From 2007 to 2011, it was shown on

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 the Monday night following the round. Following Grybas' death in 2008,

Dwayne Russell Shane John Russell (born 4 March 1965) known as Dwayne Russell is a former professional Australian rules footballer and currently a commentator of the sport. Born in Adelaide, Russell made his senior football debut as a sixteen-year-old in 198 ...

became host of the program until the end of 2011. In 2012, the show was originally meant to be part of the new

Fox Footy Fox Footy (stylised as FOX FOOTY) is an Australian rules football subscription television channel dedicated to screening Australian rules football matches and related programming. It is owned by Fox Sports Pty Limited, operated out of their Me ...

but was subsequently was removed as

AFL 360 ''AFL 360'' is an Australian television talk show that covers current issues in the Australian Football League (AFL). It airs on Fox Footy at Mondays to Wednesdays during the AFL season. It is hosted by Gerard Whateley and Mark Robinson, and f ...

expanded from one night to four nights a week.

Rebooted (2015)

A new iteration of the show was launched in 2015, known as ''The Winners Rebooted''. Hosted once again by Drew Morphett, the show once again aired on

. This version of the show focused on archival footage and extended highlights of historical games rather than as a recap of contemporary football. The show ended at the end of 2016.

References

Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming Australian rules football television series 1977 Australian television series debuts 1986 Australian television series endings 1990s Australian television series 2000 Australian television series debuts 2010s Australian television series Fox Sports (Australian TV network) original programming Fox Footy original programming English-language television shows {{Sport-tv-prog-stub

Original show (1970s and 1980s)

Newer show (2000-2011)

Rebooted (2015)

See also

References