Football television has been part of the fabric of the game for almost 70 years.
Shows have sprawled over every night of the week, ranging from prime-time panel slots, breaking news, analysis and comedy. All had their niche, and with that, the interest from the fans.
Trying to rank the greatest football programs of all time is no easy task. Some changed the way the game was discussed. Some entertained generations of supporters.
But who takes the cake as the best of the best?
These are the greatest footy shows ever produced.
3Talking Footy – Channel 7 – 1995 – 2004 (original run)
The original run of Talking Footy gets the nod because it quietly changed the way football was discussed on TV. While The Footy Show was making all the noise over at Nine, Seven's late-night couch show arrived in 1995 with Bruce McAvaney, Mike Sheahan and Malcolm Blight with the likes of Leigh Matthews, Tim Watson, Caroline Wilson and Robert Walls joining throughout its run treated the game like it deserved proper grown-up conversation.
It was simple, but that was the point: a couch, a few sharp football minds and enough room to actually unpack the weekend. Blighty brought the lateral footy brain, Sheahan brought the news sense and Bruce gave it the polish. Together, like the song they became Monday's Experts, working out how the game was lost, won and where the whole competition was heading next.
Perhaps its most infamous moment was in 2001 when Robert Walls and Kevin Sheedy had it out on the couch is still talked about.
Seven has tried to revive Talking Footy a couple of times since, with varying degrees of success, but it's the original 1995-2004 run that really matters.
That version set the scene for everything that followed: On The Couch, Footy Classified, AFL 360, The Agenda Setters and every other Monday night review show built around debate, tactics, news and proper footy argument.
It proved there was an audience for football television that was not just highlights, jokes or coach-speak. Low-key, smart and hugely influential, Talking Footy made Monday night footy television appointment viewing.
