FOX FOOTY is back.

We loved a fair bit of what was offered on the original channel when it aired between 2002 and 2006 and the news that the channel is to be resuscitated in 2012 is welcome for any footy fans.

The new Fox Footy will exist in a changed media landscape now. Online and social media have grown massively in the last five years, as have radio outlets such as SEN 1116, so the channel will face stiff competition as the first destination for content-starved AFL fans, particularly on non-game days.

The old Fox Footy served up three games per week and was usually stuck with the least attractive matches each round. This beast will screen all nine games each weekend, with five of them exclusive.

For media types, the fascinating story all year will be how the ratings stack up when both Seven and Fox Footy are showing the same game live, particularly during the prime-time and lucrative Friday and Saturday night timeslots.

Upon signing the new $1.25 billion AFL TV rights deal, Seven boss David Leckie said viewers on Seven wouldn't mind the commercials after every goal. Four months out from its first match (the NAB Cup opener between Richmond, North Melbourne and Hawthorn) Fox is already pushing the "no commercials" angle really hard, while over at Seven, it will enter next season with five new faces, headlined by Mick Malthouse and also featuring Cameron Ling, Brett Kirk, Brian Taylor and Luke Darcy.

How Malthouse fares on TV without any hint of a club allegiance will be fascinating. The early tip? He will star.

Back to Fox Footy. The dearly missed Clinton Grybas was the face of the station back in 2002, even though he was largely unknown at the time.

In 2012, it will be the ever-present Eddie McGuire. As the host of Nine's AFL coverage from 2002-06, McGuire was a polarizing figure. He commentated Collingwood games while president of the club and as he has subsequently revealed, did so pretty much on orders from the top brass at Nine.

We felt sorry for McGuire in that respect. The passion and excitement that he brought to Friday Night Football went missing whenever the Pies were playing. In striving so hard to be objective, he often sounded less so.

This time around commonsense has prevailed and McGuire will be nowhere near a microphone when the Pies are playing. Hopefully his presence will do for Fox Footy matches what they did for Nine on Friday night. McGuire helped build the Friday night franchise, where the excitement of the games was matched by first-class production values and a sense of theatre and journalism.

McGuire still takes every opportunity to tell us he is first and foremost a journalist. Fox has loaded up its commentary teams with former players and while their knowledge of what's happening on the ground is usually faultless, they sometimes miss the big stories off it.

You can't imagine that happening with McGuire in the commentary box from next season and the element he will add to the Fox Footy broadcasts is terrific.

CLUB BY CLUB
GEELONG: An exceptional group of footballers has been to the well about as often as could be expected and hoped for. Cameron Ling, Brad Ottens, Cameron Mooney and Darren Milburn move on from a group that needs to regenerate and replenish. With the talent remaining and that coming through, there is nothing to suggest the Cats won't be thereabouts once again.

COLLINGWOOD: Collingwood's new membership slogan is It's us against them. It is a line borrowed from the first page of any football psychology manual, but it is hardly uniquely Collingwood. "Side by Side" was distinctly Collingwood and therefore, so much better.

HAWTHORN: The departure of defensive coach Ross Smith (to Richmond) and strength and conditioning coach Peter Burge (St Kilda) means that the team Alastair Clarkson brought in at Hawthorn when he started has almost been entirely broken up. Only fitness coach Andrew Russell and high-performance coach David Rath remain. It is how Kevin Sheedy used to run things at Essendon - he would remain in charge, but would regularly shake-up the staff beneath him.

WEST COAST: Really quiet out west, with Fremantle making all the noise out of Perth. John Worsfold still needs to secure one last assistant coach to replace the departed Peter Sumich.

CARLTON: So the plan now is for a tall forward line - Shaun Hampson, Matthew Kreuzer and Jarrad Waite, with Lachie Henderson now designated a permanent key defender. The Blues need further depth through the midfield.

SYDNEY SWANS: Looking forward to seeing what Tommy Walsh has to offer.

ST KILDA: Zac Dawson to Fremantle and a reunion with Ross Lyon continues to gain momentum. Hard to imagine there being no casualties from the Saints' salary cap squeeze.

ESSENDON: James Hird is planning another devilishly hard pre-season. The key will be to ensure the Bombers have some miles left in the legs at the end of the season, because they faded badly in some big games in the second half of 2011.

NORTH MELBOURNE: Following three weeks in Utah, no team in the AFL can surely be fitter. You would imagine the Utah trip ticks so many boxes for the Kangaroos.

WESTERN BULLDOGS: It's not pre-season training according to new coach Brendan McCartney, it's pre-season education process. Which is quite fitting for someone who makes his home on the grounds of Geelong Grammar.

FREMANTLE: Former coach Mark Harvey has predicted a top four finish for Freo in 2012, but history suggests the club might take a step back before the great leap forward. St Kilda missed the 2007 finals in Ross Lyon's first year in charge, while the side came to terms with his radical new gameplan.

RICHMOND: After more than a century, the Richmond Cricket Club has located out to the suburbs, meaning the football club has full use of Punt Road Oval for 12 months a year.

MELBOURNE: It was made very clear to the Melbourne boys by new coach Mark Neeld that they were not to be seen anywhere near Flemington during Cup week. It's all about the football already.

ADELAIDE: A week on, the Crows must still be beaming at the good fortune of an opening six weeks of the season that should yield them at least four wins and the opportunity to make a big start to their season.

BRISBANE LIONS: Mark Harvey will make a great addition to the Brisbane Lions' coaching staff. The circumstances under which he is joining the Lions aren't all that different to those by which he joined Fremantle. 

PORT ADELAIDE: Maths is not our strong suit but the addition of Shaun Rehn, Tyson Edwards and Brad Gotch to the coaching staff at Alberton suggests that the number of coaches at Port has nearly doubled in the last 12 months.

GOLD COAST: Has unashamedly followed Collingwood's well-worn path to Arizona. Like the Pies, it will take a year or two for the benefits to become apparent.

GREATER WESTER SYDNEY: Look for the NRL to schedule a Parramatta-Penrith clash, which features two western Sydney rivals, to go head to head with the Giants-Swans AFK season opener on March 24.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs