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Former Western Bulldogs favourite Robert ‘Bob’ Murphy slept right through the beginning of his ABC Melbourne radio show on Friday, spelling a disastrous start to his tenure with the network.
The radio host, 42, who started at The Sharnelle & Bob Show with journalist Sharnelle Vella in January, saw a lacklustre start to the year when the breakfast show’s ratings dipped from 7.9 per cent to 6.3 per cent market share.
Now, the ex AFL star has left his co-host hanging after his alarm failed to go off and he missed the 5:30am live start to his show, rocking up 45 minutes late.
‘Good morning Melbourne, well it does say Sharnelle Vella and Bob Murphy, but it is just me this morning, on my own,’ Sharnelle told listeners when the show started with no Bob in sight.
‘People are texting about where Bob is. He will be here shortly, no one panic.’
However, it took 45 minutes for Bob to arrive to the studio as he sheepishly slid into his chair.
Former Western Bulldogs favourite Robert ‘Bob’ Murphy, 42, slept right through the beginning of his ABC Melbourne radio show on Friday, spelling a disastrous start to his tenure with the network. Pictured with co-host Sharnelle Vella
‘Good morning everyone… it has been quite the morning,’ he said, adding it was his wife of 16 years Justine who had to get him out of bed.
‘Somehow overnight the phone charger must have dislodged a bit. My darling jumped out and said, “It is 5:30am.”‘
He went on to say, ‘I feel like I have let you down. I suppose it had to happen,’ but Sharnelle took the mishap in stride, joking: ‘I’m off to the shops to buy him a charger.’
It comes after the revered footy figure got off to a shaky start with ABC Melbourne this year when he failed to impress in the ratings for the first survey of the year.
Bob and Sharnelle saw their audience share dip from 7.9 per cent to 6.3 per cent.
Ominously, the ABC’s 4.7 per cent share of radio listeners over all time-slots was the first time the network has ever fallen below the 5 per cent mark in Melbourne.
Bob was also recently slammed by a well-known radio presenter for being ‘woke’ after he used a politically correct term to describe the AFL.
Bob referred to top-flight men’s competition as ‘AFLM’ in a recent newspaper column in a bid to separate it from the women’s AFLW, which begins in August.
The radio host, who started at The Sharnelle & Bob Show with journalist Sharnelle Vella in January, saw a lacklustre start to the year when the breakfast show’s ratings dipped from 7.9 per cent to 6.3 per cent market share
3AW Mornings host Tom Elliott didn’t mince his words as he told listeners he believes Bob is only using the term to draw attention to himself.
‘Does anybody else honestly want to call the AFL the AFLM?,’ he said.
‘In America, you have the NBA and then the WNBA, that works fine.
‘I think he [Bob] is the only person who does this. He persists in calling the AFL the AFLM… that is wokeness.’
In 2023, Bob and former Bulldogs teammate Jason Akermanis had differing views on AFL players choosing to disclose if they are gay.
As it stands, no AFL player—past or present—has come out publicly.
Bob said on ABC’s Four Corners program he was ‘disgusted’, ’embarrassed’ and ‘hurt’ by Jason’s comments, after the three-time premiership winner declared gay AFL players should remain mute about their sexuality.
When told Bob’s response to his comments, Jason labelled the decorated midfielder a ‘complete myth’ and a ‘sook’.
