Garry Lyon, John Longmire, Adam Simpson and Gerard Whateley have been caught out with backstage footage streamed in public.
Wednesday’s instalment of Fox Footy’s AFL 360 hit a snag when off-air footage appeared to be inadvertently broadcast on another platform outside of Kayo and Foxtel.
That stream included comments made by Demons legend Lyon about Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek.
Lyon on Thursday apologised to the Member for Sydney after his joke was picked up by a hot mic.
On one broadcasting platform, footage and audio of the studio aired for the entire three minute duration of the ad break
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Former Swans coach Longmire and former West Coast coach Simpson were also mic’d up preparing to begin their weekly segment.
The quartet were seen running through some banter for one point of discussion about Demons players arriving for their match against Carlton at the MCG wearing casual clothes instead of club merchandise.
Viewers watching the late stream could tell immediately something wasn’t right when one camera was wheeled in front of the recording camera and Whateley started humming to a Fleetwood Mac song.
When quizzed about a recent trip to Canberra, Kangaroos legend Longmire responded: “I spent the day at Parliament House meeting with ministers and then caught up with Sam Mostyn our governor-general. Spent some good time with Sam”.
The streaming feed showed an image of Longmire posing for a photo with Swans chief executive Matthew Pavlich, coach Dean Cox and Plibersek.
Lyon had a little laugh at Longmire’s attire for the occasion.
Longmire was sitting in front of a camera in Sydney while Simpson, Lyon and Whateley were at the 360 desk in Melbourne.
“Sheesh, have a look at horse (Longmire). Very regal. Regal looking horse,” he said.
Whateley then asked: “What’s Tanya Plibersek the minister for again at the moment?”
Lyon then appeared to say: “Bulls***”, leading to some laughter.
A laughing Longmire responded by saying: “Oh don’t say that”.
Later in the mistakenly streamed segment, while still clearly under the impression the broadcast was running ads, Lyon — having looked up the information on his phone — said: “Minister for Social Services of Australia.
“I think mine was more accurate.”
In a statement issued to news.com.au, Lyon said his comments were “disrespectful”.
“I apologise personally to Minister Plibersek,” he said.
“While the comment was meant in jest it was clearly disrespectful and I am sorry for the offence and embarrassment it caused.”
Fox Sports boss Steve Crawley also issued an apology in a statement.
“FOXTEL unreservedly apologises for a comment made in reference to Federal Minister Tanya Plibersek last night,” the managing director of Fox Sports said.
“The off-air comment was made by Garry Lyon during an ad-break on AFL 360 and while the comment did not go to air, it was inadvertently included in the program when it was uploaded to another platform later Thursday night.
“The comment during the break does not reflect our values and standards and was disrespectful to the Minister and the hard work that she and all politicians do in representing our community.
“We have apologised to the Minister this morning and reminded our presenters of the need to be respectful and professional at all times, both on and off camera.”
Simpson and Longmire have earned widespread praise as two of the best analysts in the business with their weekly AFL 360 segments proving to be must-watch TV.
AFL 360, Lyon and Whateley have continued to prove this season why the show is widely viewed as the best mid-week program in the industry.
Longmire had been in Canberra last week alongside other Swans officials meeting with Mostyn, a former director on the club’s board.
When given an indication from production crew they were back on air, the quartet were all class running through the hot topics swirling ahead of Round 4.
One of those was Carlton’s second half capitulation against the Demons.
Simpson addressed recent criticism about his casual coaching role at the Blues.
Channel 7 commentators Caroline Wilson and Kane Cornes earlier took aim at the 242-game premiership coach’s role at Princes Park.
“I hate to blame the part-timers, but I’m not a fan of part-timers at footy clubs, and one of them is Adam Simpson … how does it work that he’s a part-time mentor at Carlton, and talking about (them) on that show, when he’s there to fix that problem?” Wilson said.
Cornes added: “In all my time in football, I’ve never seen a part-timer have great success… the problem for Adam is you’re not getting his best as a media performer, because he’s not speaking honestly about the club … and they’re probably not getting the best of him at Carlton, because he’s not there full-time.”
Simpson responded on Wednesday night.
“I really enjoy the role. And it’s not a part-time role, I’m a consultant there, and I work on development plans with the assistant coaches and Vossy (Blues coach Michael Voss),” Simpson said.
He went on to declare the idea that he would accept a supporting role at the Blues only to aim to eventually try and take over as senior coach was a “ridiculous” conversation.
“It’s a little bit insulting, but I understand the questioning,” he said.
