Bruce McAvaney starts world and national big-event telecast career leading football team on ADS Channel 7 in 1980s

Bruce McAvaney began calling horse races on Adelaide radio station 5DN before joining ADS Channel 7 in 1978.
Image courtesy Entertainment Bureau

Bruce McAvaney was the most famous product of ADS Channel 7’s Adelaide football coverage, pioneered in the 1970s by Bob Jervis, Blair Schwartz and South Adelaide premiership player Ian Day.  A post-match Football Report was televised Saturday evening and on Sundays a panel of coaches, retired players or umpires, would review the round of football.

In the 1970s, McAvaney was working as a Telecom clerk, after attending Woodville High School (and failing Year 12). He developed an early interest in sport and race calling and, in 1976, at a race meeting in Killmore, Victoria, he met Adelaide race caller Kevin Hillier who suggested McAvaney be his assistant.

This opened McAvaney to joining Adelaide radio station 5DN, calling horse races and later hosting a sports show. He joined ADS7 in 1978 to read sport news and produce the weekly Racetrack. When colleague Sandy Roberts covered the 1980 Moscow Olympics for Seven, McAvaney hosted Adelaide’s part in the telecast.

From 1981-83 McAvaney was the chief sports presenter for Seven News in Adelaide and lead commentator for its telecasts of the South Australian National Football League competition, calling the 1983 grand final with former player Robert Oatey. He also hosted the league's Magarey Medal telecasts.

In 1983, he moved to join Ten Melbourne to read sport news and was  secondary host and commentated track and field events at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics for the Ten Network. Between 1985 and 1988, McAvaney called the Melbourne Cup and hosted major Ten sporting telecasts, including the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games, 1987 world athletics titles in Rome and 1988 IAAF Grand Prix in Berlin. He was a host for the 1988 Seoul Olympics telecast.

In 1989, McAvaney negotiated a two-year end to his contract with Ten and returned to the Seven Network so he could cover the 1992 Olympics. With Seven Network, McAvaney became a big-game commentator for the Australian Football League coverage and host of its Brownlow Medal presentation for two decades between 1990 and 2018. He has presented high-profile events including the AFL grand finals, Melbourne Cup, Australian Open tennis and every summer Olympics from Moscow 1980 to Rio de Janeiro 2016.

McAveney was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2002. He retired from Australian Football League commentary in 2021.