Weekends roll a bit differently to weekdays. Monday to Friday, I’m usually behind the desk — planning, organising, chasing stories, booking cameras and working with the team to pull together the best local sports coverage we can muster.
Sundays though… they’re a bit more hands-on. A two-person operation. That usually means I’m out and about — doing interviews, chasing updates, waiting (a lot of waiting) for injury news or a whisper to follow up.
Sunday, August 10
Port Adelaide v Fremantle follow (Saturday night game)
Crows v West Coast (4:45pm ACST)
Other footy
Local sport (Reds, 36ers, Strikers, T-Birds)
Best international sport
7:30am – Wake up. Coffee. Shower. The standard three-step Sunday startup.
8:00am – Fire off an early message to Port Adelaide’s media manager. I’m chasing updates on Jack Lukosius and Brandon Zerk-Thatcher. Both picked up knocks last night. Apologise for the early text — the job waits for no one — and ask whether either of them headed for scans. No confirmation yet.
8:45am – Drive to Calvary Hospital. You never know — players sometimes turn up without notice. It’s a long shot, but part of the gig.
9:00am – Quick phone catch-up with a colleague chasing a basketball story. We toss around whether there’s enough in it to run. I give him the lowdown from my hospital stakeout and we agree to check in again in an hour.
10:00am – Still waiting. Use the downtime to sketch out the coming week — presser times for local footy clubs, likely gaps in coverage, and story opportunities. We’ve already got a few pieces banked — Cornesy Says, Coach Campo, Goal of the Week, etc. It’s all about staying ahead. But things change fast, especially at local clubs.
10:45am – Still nothing from the hospital. Time to call it. I’ll check in with Port again later, but for now it’s back to the office.
11:00am – Log on. Time to plug everything into the rundown — the order of stories, time allocations, graphics. Check the local papers and sports sites to make sure we’re not missing anything obvious. Quick follow-up with Port on those injuries — still no movement.
11:50am – Thinking one step ahead. Message the Crows to ask what time they’re flying back from Perth tomorrow, and whether anyone’s going to be put up for interviews. Booking cameras early helps keep Monday morning chaos to a minimum.
12:30–3:30pm – The quiet patch. Wrote and cut a short 30-second basketball script for our presenter to read live. Subbed my colleague’s Port Adelaide follow. Got a small update on the injured players — nothing concrete.
Kept one eye on the AFL games and SANFL scores, scanning for anything that might become a yarn. Our rundown is never set in stone.
4:00pm – Start locking things in. Crows v Eagles highlights will be written and cut in real time — and we’re aiming to air it by 6:45pm, even though the game will still be in the third quarter. Live cutting is one of the more intense parts of the job. No safety net — if you stuff it, it’s on you.
4:40–6:40pm – Game time. Most tipped a walkover for Adelaide. West Coast had other ideas. I watch live, writing and clipping as I go. At each break I voice the previous quarter and cut the edit together. Repeat for the second and third. By 6:35pm, I’m laying down my final voiceover, overlaying the last few highlights, and hitting publish just in time. It’s pressure work. You’ve got to be sharp, or the whole thing unravels.
6:45pm – Head into the control room to check everything’s on time. If anything’s running long, we’ll have to drop items. Better to be there in person.
7:00pm – Final sweep. Check emails for anything I’ve missed for Monday. Clubs often send out weekly media updates Sunday night. Watch the final quarter and head home by 7:15pm.
That’s a fairly standard Sunday in the sports department. If there are home games, there’s more to wrangle — more cameras, more live crosses, more moving parts.
The rhythm of the day is weird — slow early, frantic late. But if you’re organised, you give yourself a fighting chance when the pressure hits. Sport is unpredictable — and that’s the best part. You never really know what the day will throw at you. But when it all clicks, when the package hits with seconds to spare… there’s nothing like it.
That’s Sunday. Back at it tomorrow.