ICON – Media Inductee
Radio/Television/Newspapers
Commentator/Journalist – 1972-current
> ABC radio covering NWFU, NTFA and TFL, 1972-1979
> From 1979 onwards: radio, television and press commentator covering VFL / AFL with outlets including ABC and 3AW (radio), ABC and Network Ten (television), and The Age newspaper
> MCG Media Hall of Fame, 1999
> Inaugural Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame Inductee and Legend, 2005
> Highly regarded and regular compere of the Australian and Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame induction ceremonies
Timothy ‘Tim’ Lane is the quintessential Tasmanian sports journalist and commentator. Having covered all major football leagues in Tasmania he moved to Melbourne to cover the VFL / AFL with great success. With his broad knowledge of sports, precise descriptions and endearing personality, he is regarded as one of Australia’s most accomplished sports commentators.
Lane began his broadcasting career in 1972 when given the opportunity to broadcast North West Football Union games – unpaid – on Devonport station 7AD. His first professional assignment came the next year, with the ABC in Launceston, broadcasting Northern Tasmanian Football Association games. Tim gained a full-time post in the ABC’s Hobart office during 1974 and remained there broadcasting Tasmanian Football League games until gaining a position in the national broadcaster’s Victorian Sports Department in 1979.
Lane began calling a wide variety of sports including tennis, cricket, athletics and Australian Rules football matches in the Victorian Football League and Australian Football League. He was primarily a radio commentator but also became a regular face on ABC TV, and was a key member of the coverage team for the 1987 VFL season when the television broadcast rights fell to the ABC. In addition, he spent time as the sports presenter for ABC Television’s primetime news bulletin in Melbourne.
As a commentator for such a variety of nationally (and sometimes internationally) broadcast sports, particularly for the highly popular AFL and cricket, Lane became one of Australia’s best-known commentators and one of the ABC’s most familiar personalities. In 1999 he was inducted into the Melbourne Cricket Ground Media Hall of Fame and is now on the panel to select future inductees.
Tim Lane joined Network Ten’s AFL television coverage in 2003 and remained there until Ten lost the rights at the end of 2011. Lane resigned from his full-time role with the ABC in 2003 but continued as a part-time AFL commentator on ABC radio, predominantly for Friday night games, until the end of 2009. In addition to his role as an AFL commentator he is also a regular sports columnist for The Age newspaper.
At the end of the 2009 football season Lane left ABC radio and in 2010 joined 3AW. Lane leads the Sunday pre-match discussion and calls Saturday and Sunday games.He replaced Dennis Cometti as a Saturday caller.
Tim, along with his sports journalist daughter Samantha, is an avid supporter of the Carlton Football Club. However, he may have to switch allegiance if Tasmania succeeds in its push for an AFL club of its own. Tim is one of the most vocal and passionate advocates of the need for Tasmania to be given an opportunity to join the
AFL and make the competition truly national.
Tim Lane is a proud Tasmanian who is also one of the most widely respected and credible Australian Football media representatives in the country. He was an inaugural media inductee in the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame in 2005 and was elevated to Legend status the same year.
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