Loss of Voss part of poor Channel Nine footy programming

 
jamesb Roar Guru

By , 12 Mar 2012 jamesb is a Roar Guru

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    As a keen NRL fan, on the weekend I was watching the usual Sunday NRL shows on Channel Nine, the Sunday Footy Show and the Sunday Roast.

    But something odd occurred. The two shows merged with each other, rather than being run like separate shows.

    A genuine mix-match of two shows rolled into one. In the first week I thought at the time that it was going to be a one off, because Channel Nine were going to show a midday game from Auckland, the New Zealand Warriors vs Manly, due to the fact the cricket was scheduled later that day.

    But it happened again on the weekend.

    On the Sunday Roast, there was a completely different panel.It was hosted by Tim Gilbert with Adam MacDougall, Andrew Webster and Andrew Ryan.

    They were there in place of Andrew Voss, Mark Geyer, Phil Gould and Terry Kennedy (I was happy TK was gone).

    As a viewer it was hard to follow. Am I watching the Sunday Footy Show or ‘The Roast’. As the guys on the panel of ‘The Roast’ were discussing, they also included the guys from the Sunday Footy Show (who were busy tweedling their thumbs).

    So you have two sets of panel shows talking to one another. Unusual.

    A real shame, because I always found those two shows, especially ‘The Roast’ very entertaining. It certainly puts the Thursday night’s Footy Show to shame.

    Another thing that was unusual is what has happened to Andrew Voss? Voss normally hosts the The Roast, but has been replaced by Gilbert.

    This adds with Voss’ reduced role at Nine after he was demoted to the third main caller behind Ray Warren and radio 2GB Ray Hadley. He will only call games either in New Zealand or interstate, with Warren noted for his dislike of flying.

    Voss also had a segment of the Thursday night footy show ‘Stuff that you may have missed’, but he also has been replaced by Darryl ‘Big Marn’ Brohman.

    You could say that Voss is on the outer at Nine. Reasons for his reduced role at Nine is all speculative.

    I remember Voss did make light of Ray Warren’s statue last year, which did upset his arch-nemeis Hadley, and more importantly David Gyngell, the boss of Channel Nine.

    But surely there is something else to this story which hasn’t been brought to light yet.

    In my opinion, I don’t think Voss is the main caller for a network, but he is more than capable.

    Voss will also be used as part of Channel Nine’s Olympic coverage later this year, but after that, his future at Nine is clouded.

    You could say Channel Nine covering the NRL next year is also under a cloud, with the likes of Channels Ten and Seven keen to get rugby league to their respective networks.

    Maybe Voss is looking at his options right now as we speak with perhaps a possible move to Channels Ten or Seven.

    There have been many criticisms of Channel Nines coverage of the NRL in recent years, but yesterday’s mix-match of the two shows, along with the absence of Voss, I’m sure has raised a few eyebrows.

    There are many NRL fans out their that would want Channel Nine to lose the rights to the NRL. The irony here is, come season 2013, theres a possiblity Voss could be calling NRL games, but Channel Nine might not be covering it.