Kelli Underwood on the outer
Kelli Underwood will no longer be calling AFL matches for TEN after the network opts to discontinue the bold move.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
Kelli Underwood, the first female to call AFL football on television will no longer be calling matches for TEN / ONE after the network opts to discontinue the bold move.
Underwood has been relegated to boundary-line duties after two seasons.
She will also be calling netball plus some AFL games for ABC Radio.
Underwood’s calling had attracted considerable debate amongst AFL fans, many of whom preferred hearing the traditional male voice calling the game.
TEN’s head of football David Barham told the Herald Sun, “It’s not a never, and she was always calling on a trial basis. She never had a full-time calling gig, so she is not going to do it this year.”
Underwood said, “It is disappointing but I am a pretty positive person and pretty resilient. I have done 12 games over two years.”
Originally employed as a sports reporter for TEN News, Underwood’s role expanded to include feature stories on Sports Tonight, AFL boundary riding, the Brownlow Medal Red Carpet Special and hosting and commentating netball.
In other news, ONE announces two new AFL shows: a Thursday night preview show The Gameplan, and a Sunday night review show The Final Siren.
Source: Herald Sun
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- Tagged with AFL, Brownlow Medal, Sports Tonight, TEN News, The Final Siren, The Gameplan
32 Responses
Even boundry rider is too much . She is unsuitable ( voice and knowledge) and shouldn’t be involved anywhere in the game.
Have to agree with many respondents here. It has nothing to do with her gender, she just wasn’t very good at it regardless of whether it was football, netball or tiddly winks. It’s like Bruce McAvaney – he annoys the crap out of me and while he is very knowledgeable about sport, he is still an annoying commentator. And yes, the Fox Sports girls are fantastic – by far the Best female sports readers/commentators on Australian television.
I am disappointed……. that she’s still commentating the Netball! Aside from the irritating nasal voice, she knows very little about Netball which is more annoying than her voice. Surely there are a multitude of former Australian Netball players who could do the job.
It’s already been previously announced that TNL is dead, buried, and cremated. Disappointing.
Hello David,
Remarkably, I am in agreement with David Penberthy over at The Punch.
I appreciate your site is not a link fest, but if you would indulge me …
thepunch.com.au/articles/one-thing-kelli-underwood-lacked-as-a-commentator/
the reason why she wasn’t flicked earlier, was because is a woman and 10 didn’t want any backlash from it. there isn’t any doubt about it. in my eyes. most women footy fans think she’s terrible as well. she got the job because 10 wanted to look good
Awesome person and sports journo, bad TV commentator……every time I hear that voice she sounds like she has a nasty cold, it was irritating and took the joy out of watching the match, personally I’d prefer the noise of nails scratching down a rusty old chalk board…….I’m just sayin