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Triple M fires Barry Hall for crude on-air joke

Former AFL player Barry Hall has been dragged off air and fired after making a crude comment during Triple M Melbourne’s pre-game coverage of Western Bulldogs versus Geelong on Friday night.

Hall’s comment came during banter about fellow panelist Leigh Montagna’s pregnant wife Erinn. Discussing a medical procedure carried out by a doctor, Hall said: “The doctor was a good looking rooster about 40 years of age. He did a sweep with his fingers and licked his fingers afterwards…”

The audio can be heard via this link.

Within minutes, Hall was removed from the broadcast and dropped by the Southern Cross Austereo owned network.

Head of content Mike Fitzpatrick then issued a statement saying: “Tonight on Triple M Football there were unacceptable and inappropriate comments made by a member of the commentary team.

“The commentator was removed immediately from the broadcast and an apology was issued on air afterwards.

“Immediate action was taken with the termination of employment for one team member.”

At the time of posting, Triple M had not responded to a request for comment from Mumbrella about whether there had been a breakdown in the “dump button” procedure, designed to prevent offensive comments going to air.

Hall was only announced as part of Triple M’s footy call team two months ago.

At the time, the network said: “Just when you thought a line-up could not get much better, there’s even more additions to the Triple M footy team this season with Sydney Swans premiership winning captain, the big, bad, bustling Barry Hall

Hall was a contestant on IACGMOOH

Since the end of his football career, Hall had made inroads into the media, including as a contestant on the first season of Ten’s I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, and with the Fox Footy team, although that role ended last year.

Hall has also worked with brands including Kleenex and more recently was part of Optus’s “Splashies” lilo race around the Commonwealth Games.

The controversy is not the first for Triple M Melbourne involving on-air comments about women. In 2016, breakfast host Eddie McGuire apologised for joking that he wanted to drown The Age’s Caroline Wilson.

More recently, Triple M was at the centre of controversy over this year’s Ozzest 100 countdown, which it ran on Australia Day after the ABC’s Triple J moved its own Hottest 100 countdown to a less culturally sensitive date.

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