You know the name, you know the voice, you know the face. We recently sat down with a pillar of the Australian media industry, Andy Maher, to have a chat about his break into the sports media world, his favourite Aussie sporting moments and his worklife. Read on for a peak behind the curtain of the sports journalism world.
So first question: I have always wanted to ask someone like you how often do you get recognised by people?
A bit! It happens pretty regularly nowadays. The Front Bar has been the catalyst for that, it's probably been beyond our expectations in terms of longevity, success and popularity. Ever since it's taken a bit of a foothold and got a bit established, you rarely go for a walk without anybody recognising you. In fact, at Woollies yesterday, I was just picking up some fruit on the way to work and an elderly couple, they would have been in their late 70s, early 80s were doing their shopping together, and they came over and said, ‘Oh, we're so thrilled. We've seen the show, we’re going this Thursday night and we can't wait to watch.’ We had a great little chat. They were lovely people. So yeah, it happens a bit, and most of the time its lovely.
Now I kind of want to jump into your early career a little bit because I did do a bit of research and reading for this but I also want to test your knowledge and see if you remember, so can you please tell us about the significance of David Barrum in your career and how you met him?
When I was a print journo, Dave Barham was a TV news cameraman and editor who started his own company. It was a company called Viewcast, which eventually became AFL Films, and along the way it picked up the right to run the AFL Library, and then it became the provider of all the content for the first ever Aussie Rules Channel on Optus Vision. I'd met Dave through my role as a journo and then when he got the contract to provide all the content for Sports AFL, which is what it was called, he rang me up and said, ‘listen, what are you doing? Do you want to come and work for me and do this thing that we're starting up?’ I was thrilled and it sounded great, and I was never going to be a very good journo. I jumped at the opportunity, and he's been one of the most important people in anything I've been able to do. I couldn't have done any of it without him. His guidance and enthusiasm and friendship has been invaluable to me.
So, were you friends before all this?
No, no. We met through a mutual friend at the AFL, and we both got invited to the gameday lunches and stuff.Collingwood was playing Carlton. I would come along to the lunch, and Dave and I met at a few of those. We got on well pretty much straight away. When he got the contract to provide all the content for AFL films, he must have thought, ‘geez I need to scramble around here and get some people’ and he thought about me, which was one of the luckiest turning points in my life.
Yeah, that's good. I believe the first game that you ever commentated was between Fremantle and Port Adelaide at Football Park. Do you remember anything from the game, who won, or the leadup and preparation to that game?
That’s true, that’s very good! Port Adelaide won, it was a twilight game at the old Footy Park, not the Adelaide Oval, and it was a grim midwinter night. The weather was poor, and we were calling the game, but all the regular commentary booths were full. I was calling the game with Peter Donegan. Craig Kelly was our expert comments man, but now he’s CEO at Collingwood. We had to call from an old timber trestle table that had been set up at the back of a grandstand and such. All the boxes were taken, and I remember I had to call the game with a lip mic. Do you know what a lip mic is? I don’t know if you have watched much cricket, but a lot of cricket commentators instead of having the headset with the mic they have a lip mic.
Yeah, I have seen them. They use them very often over in England when they commentate Premier League games. I believe they hold it right up to their lips, right?
Yeah, they do. If you don't want to be heard, you just take it away and you can talk. It’s a directional mic, so I had to call the game using one of those which is not ideal for calling a game of footy. But that was my first game, and to this day, it’s the only game I’ve ever called on television. I do all the radio stuff, but that is the only AFL game that I’ve ever called on television.
Is there a difference between calling a game on TV compared to calling it for the radio?
Massive difference. On TV you have got to always assume that the person who is listening and watching can see what you're seeing. I can’t call what people can't see and it’s not good to overexplain stuff. On radio you've got to fill in every single detail, because people can't see what you're calling. On television they can see it, so you don't have to be as expansive in your descriptions on television as you do on radio.
So, you would you'd say commentating on radio is a lot harder because you pretty much have to describe the whole scene to the audience?
You've got to use more words, which I like more. I like calling on radio. I think it's great, it's fun. You can have some fun and set the scene a bit more. You sort of have to be a bit more descriptive on radio than you do on television, and I like that!
Keeping on the theme of commentating, what’s your favourite or most memorable game that you’ve commentated?
There's been a lot, and maybe this is a bit of a recency bias, but I was lucky enough to call the Carlton vs. Melbourne semi-final this year. I know you're a Collingwood supporter, so I’ll also add the game from the year before, when Carlton's finals ambitions were thwarted by Collingwood at the MCG
Yeah, I remember watching the SEN video of you in the commentary booth just with your face in your hands!
Well, I’m glad it makes you laugh! But yeah, it was pretty amazing. It went gangbusters, that bit of vision. But with the Carlton vs. Melbourne game, I got to call that in a Carlton biased call. It was just a Carlton bias commentary call, and I did it with Wayne Johnson and Mark McClure, two former Carlton premiership captains, or certainly captains and premiership players. It was the most fun I’ve ever had. It was dramatic, the game was gone, then it was won, and it was loud, but overall, it was a fantastic game to be at and I was lucky enough to call and have some fun.
Well, it wasn’t fun from a Collingwood fan perspective, but how did the idea of a Carlton bias commentary call come about? I personally have not heard of such a thing before.
Craig Hutchison, who owns a radio station, it was his idea. It’s not novel, it’s been done before. Fox Footy did it with Eddie McGuire, so they had the thing called ‘Press Red for Red,’ so you could have an Eddie McGuire, Collingwood specific call. They tried that a bit. I don’t know what sort of success that had, but I know SEN’s Carlton call on a couple of metrics was a raging success. Hopefully there will be more of it.
Now I’ve always wanted to know: do you keep track of how many games you have commentated? For example, do you have milestone games like ‘Ok, this is my 100th game, or this is my 200th game’ etc.?
I don't, but some might. I have got no idea how many, because I've been doing it for a long time now. It depends really. I normally do a game a week. Sometimes I do two games a week, and I've been doing that for a while. You could probably come up with a rough guess as to how many I’ve done if you sat down and really thought about it, but no, I’ve never. If I guessed within fifty of how many games I have called, I’d be pretty proud of myself just for having got so close.
Now I know since you’re a sports journalist in general, I’m guessing you have been to multiple sporting events, such as footy and a lot of cricket. Having said that, what is the greatest live sporting moment you’ve had the pleasure of seeing live?
Well, I was lucky enough to be at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. I was there when Cathy (Freeman) won the gold in the 400m. That night I was working the Olympics; I was lucky enough to be there that night. That was just a spectacular night, the whole night of athletics was phenomenal, but Cathy Freeman was clearly the standout, so if I had to pick one moment, that would probably be it. Along with that, I’ve been lucky enough to go to the US Masters twice, and if I had to pick out one event out of all the events including grand finals and boxing day tests, I think that’ll be it. I’d say that the Masters is the best event I’ve ever been to.
Oh really? So not a Carlton premiership or something?
I mean they’re the days that you have the most fun! But just in terms of uniqueness, those events have the magnitude of a global event that the AFL Grand Final just does not quite have. Uuntil you go to the Olympic Games, or grand slam tennis, major gold, or whatever it is, you don’t really have a sense for how big things are outside of our little Aussie bubble.
So, having said that, what is it like being at the Olympics? Can you just describe the vibe? I feel like it would be very different watching athletics as opposed to watching a game of footy or cricket?
Yeah, it’s amazing, and when you’re working at the event, you have an to access pretty much all press areas pass and you can go wherever you want. It’s hard to describe really because it's so big! The Sydney Olympic precinct was massive, there were events taking place all over the joint and you get people from all over the world coming in. It’s a celebration, it’s joyous, Sydney was magnificent, and they hosted the games brilliantly. But there’s a whole lot of moving bits and pieces that are quite hard to describe unless you have been there.
That sounds amazing. Maybe I’ll get down to 2032 in Brisbane and experience it for myself one day!
Make sure you do if you can! I fully encourage any of your mates and yourself. It will be a lifetime experience for you and you won’t regret it!
Now I want to move away from your journalism aspect and discuss some other things. I have seen that you’re very involved with the Old Marcellin Collegians football club. My first question is what position did you play?
Well, I played as an undersized full forward my whole life until I got into the First XVIII in the Marcellin Old Boys. I was too small to play that position, so they stuck me out on half forward flank or on the wing. But I spent most of my time on the bench, to be honest! But loved it, I played a heap of footy and cricket at the Old Boys. Never wanted to stop playing. But work and age eventually dictate that you have to make these decisions. But I still nick down a couple of times a year to watch them play. They’re not exactly going as well as we would have hoped at the moment- they’re struggling to hold their ground, but I feel like they’re about to turn a corner, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed.
I’ve also read that you managed to kick 97 goals in one season alone. Is that correct?
That is incorrect- I kicked 99 goals in that season! It’s a tale of woe, people seem to take great joy in hearing it spoken about occasionally. But yes, 99. I kicked 2 goals 7 (behinds) in the grand final that we lost by 3 points. It has taken me a long time to get over it!
Wow, so 99 goals. What about 100? Was it a bit like Fevola against Hawthorn back in 2008?
John Longmire did the same thing, so I’m in good company. It was just one of those days. 97 going into the grand final, I had kicked the first of the game, but there was a big weather change that came through. It was early spring, and we got one of those big southerly changes, it went from 24 degrees at the start of the game to about 12 degrees by quarter time! There was rain and wind, and it was coming down sideways. I’m more of a ‘give me the footy’ type of player and less so of a ‘go in and get it myself’ type of player. But unfortunately, I just couldn't find the middle when I needed.
Well, at least you’ve moved on from it now and it’s all in the past. Sticking on the sports theme, I saw that you were a runner for Carlton’s AFLW side for the 2019 season. How did that come about and is it a difficult job being an AFL runner? I have seen situations where runners have gotten in the way, especially in the 2018 grand final when it cost Collingwood so dearly!
I was actually the runner for 4 years. Daniel Harford was the coach- former Hawthorn, and Carlton player- and I knew him well. When he got the job he said, ‘do you want to be my runner?’ and I jumped at the chance. But yes, it’s not as easy as you might think! It’s easy to get in the way and you’ve got to be mindful of where the ball is because you don’t want to give away a freekick for running into an area you shouldn’t be running into. But you know what footy is like. The ball can move around so quickly. One minute you’re in a safe place waiting to give a message, and then suddenly the ball comes and you have got to get out of the way. You sort of have to have your head on a swivel the whole time. So yeah, there's a quite a bit going on!
Did you ever give away a free kick?
No, thank goodness I didn’t! I think for the most part I was ok. I can’t remember a moment where I thought, ‘oh no she’s going to blow the whistle here,’ but there's a lot of good female umpires in the AFL so no, just lucky.
I don’t want to hold you up for too much longer now, for this one I want you to rank these five Australian sporting moments in terms of the most significant and enjoyable to watch. So, I have Steven Bradbury winning gold at the 2002 winter Olympics, Cathy Freeman winning the gold medal in the 400m race at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, John Aloisi’s penalty against Uruguay to send Australia into the 2006 World Cup, Shane Warne’s ball of the century, and finally, Leo Barry you star!
Right, so I would say Cathy Freeman number one, John Aloisi two, Shane Warne, Steven Bradbury and then Leo Barry.
I thought Steven Bradbury would be a little bit higher just because of how miraculous that win was?
Yeah, phenomenal. And it was miraculous, in an event that we (Australia) just don’t win gold medals at the Winter Olympics. We have won a few since the girls have been amazing at the freestyling and in the aerials and stuff. But you’re right. I mean, Aloisi to break the 32-year World Cup drought in such dramatic fashion, and Cathy Freeman, they were about much more than sport. We can spend an hour talking about that so I don’t want to dismiss what Steven did, but I’d have the others just shadowing it. Warnie as well, just the greatest leg spinner ever, and arguable the greatest bowler ever, and to do that on your first ball on English soil, is just a ridiculous thing that will never, ever be forgotten. Not that Bradbury won’t be forgotten but that Warnie ball will never, ever, ever, ever, be forgotten.
I know you are a massive Carlton fan so my last question: would you rather win a grand final, but lose Patrick Cripps and Sam Walsh the season after, OR, you lose a grand final against Collingwood, but get to keep both of those players.
You got to win. You got to take the grand final and then you say to Crippa (Patrick Cripps) and Walshy (Sam Walsh) thanks for everything and whatever you’re doing next. You’re a part of Carlton folklore and Carlton history from this day forth, so you take the flag I think, don’t you? I mean you don’t want to lose a premiership to Collingwood ever!
And before I let you go, do you have any words of wisdom for people looking to get into journalism, or fields such as broadcasting or commentating or even radio?
Probably not. No words of wisdom, but I will say to kids who come through any workplace, is find something that you love doing and something you love in life. iIf you like growing apple trees, go get involved in that. If you like horses, go and get involved with horses. You like footy? Go and do something in footy. If you follow your passions, then you are going to be ok. There is always something you can do in your life that revolves around your passions, with sport being mine. But if anybody is reading and thinking about pursuing a career in sports media, just be yourself. Don’t think you have to be the next Dennis Cometti, don’t think you have to be the next Bruce McAvaney, just be yourself. Be a good team member and know your role. Get along with people, which is the most important skill anyone will learn in their entire life. And if you work hard, you’ll be ok. You’ll find your way, and hopefully succeed in whatever path you’re looking to pursue.
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