''Talking Footy'' was an

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 ...

television program on 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 ...

broadcast from 1994 to 2004 and 2013–2020. The show was hosted mainly by

Bruce McAvaney Bruce William McAvaney OAM (born 22 June 1953) is an Australian sports broadcaster with the Seven Network. McAvaney has presented high-profile events including the AFL Grand Final, Melbourne Cup, Australian Open, Test cricket and both Winter ...

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 ...

in both runs of the show.

Original format (1994-2004)

The program was first broadcast from 1994 until 2004. It was created by Gary Fenton, the Seven Network's then Director of Sport. The show was hosted by

from 1995 to 1998 and from 2001 to 2002, Tim Lane in 1999,

Gerard Healy Gerard Healy (born 1 March 1961) is a former Australian rules footballer and commentator. Healy attended St Bede's College in Mentone, where he was the senior football captain. Gerard is a trained physiotherapist. VFL career Melbourne Dem ...

in 2000 and

Tim Watson Timothy Michael Watson (born 13 July 1961) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). After retiring from the game, he has continued working in the Australian footb ...

in 2003 and 2004. Regular couch members included

Mike Sheahan Michael Sheahan (born 4 March 1947) is an Australian journalist who specialises in Australian rules football. He was chief football writer and associate sports editor for the ''Herald Sun'' for 18 years. Although he left these positions at the ...

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 ...

Terry Wallace Terry Wallace (born 13 December 1958) is a former professional Australian rules football player and coach. As a player, his career spanned three VFL/AFL clubs; most notably Hawthorn where he played in three premierships. After one season with ...

, Caroline Wilson and

Leigh Matthews Leigh Raymond Matthews (born 1 March 1952) is a former Australian rules footballer and coach. He played for Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and coached and the . Squat, short-legged and barrel-chested, Matthews earned the ic ...

. It was initially screened on Monday evening at 8:30 pm in 1995, then on Monday at 10:30 pm for the remainder of it run. In 2004 it was shown late on Tuesday nights. The program struggled in the last few years due to the network not having the rights to broadcast the AFL while also having poor ratings, the show was axed in 2004.

New format (2013-2020)

In August 2013, the Seven Network revived the series, which aired on a Thursday night throughout the 2013 final series with

Wayne Carey Wayne Francis Carey (born 27 May 1971) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the North Melbourne Football Club and Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A dual-premiership captain at North Melbou ...

and

Andrew Demetriou Andrew Demetriou (born 14 April 1961) is an Australian businessman, sports administrator, and former Australian rules football player who was chief executive officer (CEO) of the Australian Football League (AFL) up to June 2014. Demetriou pl ...

as panelists. The following year saw the show return to Monday nights at 7.30 pm on

7mate 7mate is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, which was launched by the Seven Network on 25 September 2010. The channel contains sport and regular programs aimed primarily to a male audience, with programming drawn from a c ...

in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, and on delay at midnight the same day in Sydney and Brisbane. The show is hosted by

with

and Jacqui Felgate. It is broadcast from Seven's Docklands studios in Melbourne. Other panellist to appear on the program included Brian Taylor, Campbell Brown, Sam McClure and Mick Warner. In June 2020, the program will be temporarily axed along with ''

AFL Game Day ''AFL Game Day'' was an Australian television program broadcast on the Seven Network in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania and on 7mate in all other states. In Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania it a ...

'' due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The show was confirmed cancelled by Seven's head of sport Lewis Martin in March 2020 with a new “Footy Magazine” set to replace it.

Segments

Various segments on the show include: *"The Blowtorch" *"Inside 50" *"Say That Again"

Parodies

In 2005, comedian

Andrew Startin Andrew Startin is an Australian performer, impersonator and television personality. Startin came to prominence in 1997 as a result of a video tape of him impersonating Sam Newman being sent into ''The AFL Footy Show'' in an attempt to win a t ...

appeared on the rival

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

with a send-up of the show on '' The Footy Show''.

Gary Ayres Gary James Ayres (born 28 September 1960) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is currently the senior coach for the Montrose Football Club in the Eastern F ...

was sent up with his catchphrase "at the end of the day" and "You've got your

Buckley Buckley may refer to: Businesses and organizations * Buckley's, a Canadian pharmaceutical corporation * Buckley Aircraft, an American aircraft manufacturer * Buckley Broadcasting, an American broadcasting company * Buckley School (California), ...

s, your

Hird The hird (also named "Håndgangne Menn" in Norwegian), in Scandinavian history, was originally an informal retinue of personal armed companions, hirdmen or housecarls, but came to mean not only the nucleus ('Guards') of the royal army, but also d ...

s, your Ricciutos";

with "what do you think?"; and

with "Special!".

Theme song

The lyrics to the song are as follows: The weekend's come and gone,
As we talk up a storm,
'Bout our team, bout our form,
And how it could be.
But when Monday comes around,
Talk around the town,
It's what happened on the weekend in the footy.
Monday nights, we're Talking Footy. When the show switched to a Tuesday night timeslot (which led to its demise), the lyrics changed somewhat. During the 2014 relaunch, only the second verse is used. In the original season, the theme song was " Monday's Experts" by

Weddings, Parties, Anything Weddings, Parties, Anything. was an Australian folk rock band formed in 1984 in Melbourne and continuing until 1999. Their name came from The Clash song "Revolution Rock". Musicologist Billy Pinnell described their first album as the best Austr ...

References

{{Seven Network programming 7mate original programming Seven Sport Television shows set in Melbourne Australian rules football television series 1994 Australian television series debuts 2002 Australian television series endings 2013 Australian television series debuts