Former Australian netball captain Liz Ellis has launched a passionate defence of Erin Molan following Channel Nine's decision to axe The Footy Show this week.
Molan, who hosted the show this year, has borne the brunt of the criticism after the struggling weekly show was unable to stop its ratings slide in 2018.
On Tuesday, Channel Nine officially announced the the long-running show wouldn't be back in 2019, with plans for post-Thursday night football coverage instead.
Molan has copped a huge amount of criticism online for the show's demise, but netballing legend and fellow Channel Nine personality Ellis stuck up for her in a column on Wednesday.
Ellis claimed the anger directed at Molan was because she was a woman attempting to replace Paul 'Fatty' Vautin as host of one of the longest running shows in rugby league.
"Anyone taking over from Fatty Vautin was always going to be on a hiding to nothing; he was synonymous with the show and is well loved because of it," Ellis wrote.
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"So whoever the new host was, male or female, they would have come under fire when the show got axed.
"But the commentary about Erin has been incredibly personal, including attacking her for going on maternity leave, so it leaves you no choice but to think this is about her being a woman and daring to take on The Footy Show.
"I thought things had changed, but maybe they haven’t."
Ellis said The Footy Show had been suffering from falling ratings for years and that Molan's elevation to host couldn't have stopped the freefall in the face of the introduction of Thursday Night Football.
"The fact of the matter is, the show was on its last legs by the end of last year," she wrote.
"The ratings had gone downhill for a number of years, and once Thursday Night Football became a regular thing its fate was sealed.
"Here’s a woman who took on hosting an iconic TV show and gave it her best shot. She, along with the team who made the show, couldn’t turn it around. And that’s okay. It happens."
