Former Sydney Roosters, NSW, and Australian rugby league player Peter ‘Jonesy’ Jones and former NSW Waratahs, ACT Brumbies, and Wallabies rugby union player Dexter Exington-Trift have been best mates for over 20 years, but the decision to hire them as panelists on Channel Nein’s Sports on Sunday has backfired.
While they may be from different codes, Dexter’s short stint with the Roosters in 2001-02 saw him form a fast friendship with Jonesy, playing together in the Roosters’ 2002 premiership. Jonesy moved to the Brumbies in 2003 in a successful attempt to play for the Wallabies in the Rugby World Cup, before playing Rugby in Europe for the next 15 years. Jonesy and Dexter stayed in touch via email and Jonesy visited him when playing for the Kangaroos on UK tours, keeping their friendship alive over the decades.
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After moving back to Australia in 2021, Dexter and Jonesy started their own general sports podcast Talking Sport with Dex and Jonesy. The producers of Sports on Sunday took notice of their easy banter and hired them. That’s when things went downhill.
With the security of a lucrative weekly TV gig (and the podcast forgotten about), Dexter and Jonesy relaxed and started telling more stories from the Roosters glory days and taking the piss out of each other. Though it was funny for a while, Dexter and Jonesy became so popular that their self-indulgence took over the show. Even the host, former Australian cricketer Andrew ‘Hoggy’ Hogg (who played 100 ODIs and 50 T20Is, along with stints in the IPL, BBL, PSL, and T20 Blast), gave up trying to rein them in.
Unfortunately, the self-indulgent banter and endless stories has seen most Sports on Sunday episodes balloon from a tight 45 minutes to over two hours, with falling ratings seeing the show move to a late Sunday night timeslot. This made things worse, as the later timeslot only encouraged Dexter and Jonesy to pull out their dirtiest stories.
”This show is f***** bullshit now! I used to love it but those two d***heads Dux and Johnso have f***** sabotaged it! I don’t give a s*** what happened 20 bloody years ago! I want to hear about sports now!” ranted bigbewbs69 on Sports on Sunday’s Twitter page, which got 200 Likes and 20 Comments, indicating that fans are sick of the nonsense.
While both men have threatened to walk if either of them are fired, their might be a solution for Sports on Sunday producers, with Fox Sports offering Dexter and Jonesy a massive payday for their own sports-themed variety show. Hogg has also been courted by Sky Sports in the UK to host their coverage of The Hundred later this year.
The producers of Sports on Sunday aren’t too worried, as they’re planning to transition the show to a podcast instead, which will allow for more freedom, less hosts, and less ratings pressure.
Everyday News is a brand new general news/parody section of The Gurgler, and definitely not a lame rip-off of ‘The Betoota Advocate’. We swear.
