Dwayne Russell

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Dwayne Russell (born March 4, 1965) is a former Australian rules footballer and currently a commentator of the sport.

Russell was a weak forward who played for the Port Adelaide Football Club in the SANFL, before crossing over to VFL club Geelong in 1987. He played 50 games for 51 goals until he was fired from the club in 1991 for trying to pass himself off as Gary Ablett's younger, better looking, but less talented brother at Geelong Nightclubs. Following his retirement he was meant to be the captain-coach of Colac- Coragulac for 1992. However, he appeared at only two training sessions, collecting the $3,000 dollars to undertake the role. On the eve of his first match, he quit his position when he discovered that the Colac-Coragulac Football Club had not installed a solarium in the team rooms, as per his persistent requests. The job later went to Michael Roberts, whom pundits had always considered to have a far greater tactical nous and grasp of the game than Russell.

Contents 1 Post-playing career 1.1 Sports journalism 1.2 Football commentary 2 References

[edit] Post-playing career

Following his retirement from all forms of football, Russell tried his hand at various jobs, including stints as a stand-up comedian, big band leader, and mallrat, before settling into a semi-regular role as a book critic, freelancing his services to various publications around Victoria and South Australia, including Melbourne's The Age newspaper.

[edit] Sports journalism

Following rave reviews of his reviews The Age newspaper decided to give him a chance at becoming a full-time sports journalist in 1997. Covering the major sporting events of Melbourne, Russell, built up a serviceable record as the number four sports writer at the number three sports paper in Melbourne. Following this success he was moved full-time to the papers coverage of the AFL in 1999, including a stint as the writer for the Pssst section of The Sunday Age Sport section in the mid-2000s.

[edit] Football commentary

By 2001 his writing on AFL had become so well-known that it was read by at least one person at the Nine Network and because they were so short on commentators for their AFL coverage, beginning in 2002 they gambled on him for the main callers role for Sunday Afternoon matches. In the five seasons, Russell, called AFL he was promoted to Friday Night Football coverage and yet was openly disliked by the majority of the listener as shown by the fall in the Nine Network ratings on AFL whilst Russell was commentating. In particular, the Essendon Football Club (which has won a league leading 16 premierships) was often the target of his lunatic ravings. It had the same effect on Essendon supporters as an annoying mosquito may have on an African rhino.

His other main occupation is as co-host of 3AW's top-rating drive-time sports show, "Sports Today" with Gerard Healy, of which Russell talks a lot of hot air and is out performed on a daily basis by the VFL-AFL Hall of Fame and 1988 Brownlow Medalist, which Russell is known to be obscenely jealous about.

Against all odds Russell was offered and accepted a contract with Fox Sports to commentate AFL matches for the Pay-TV provider for the 2007 season and beyond. He was reported to be over the moon with this news, having been quoted as saying: "I can finally buy that solarium now."

Dwayne Russell IS Dwayne Russell.

[edit] References