Nick Riewoldt is the latest big football name to join Seven’s AFL coverage for next year.
Riewoldt will join departing Nine talent Kane Cornes, Caroline Wilson and Craig Hutchison at Seven in 2025.
The former St Kilda champion, who retired as a player in 2017, will return to Australia for the new media gig after moving to his American wife Catherine’s home state of Texas with their three children at the end of 2022. Before his move to the US, he worked in a commentary role with Fox Footy.
While Riewoldt’s return has been welcomed with open arms from the team at Seven, the ongoing media shake-up has not gone down well with everyone. Speaking to Channel Nine’s Today on Thursday morning, Eddie McGuire labelled the departing Nine trio as “list-cloggers”.
“End of the season, you get rid of the list-cloggers, and you move the new superstars in,” McGuire said, prompting laughter from presenters Karl Stefanovic and Sarah Abo, along with a caution to be “careful”.
“And that’s what we’re doing. The Footy Classified with Caroline Wilson and Craig Hutchison. That started 18 years ago,” McGuire continued.
“We commissioned it when I was up in Sydney, actually. And it’s been fantastic. And it’s great that Channel Copycat is just taking something we’ve done for 18 years and putting it on air.
“So that’s OK. While they’re doing that, we’ll come up with something fresh, new and exciting for next year and do what we always do.”