“I Never Made That Statement”: Fox Sports Commentator Dan Ginnane Stands By Controversial Remark

Commentator Dan Ginnane from Fox Sports has addressed the situation surrounding an apparent F-bomb he dropped during the Knights vs. Tigers match on Friday night.

Just after winger Greg Marzhew scored to put the Knights ahead in the second half, Ginnane jokingly remarked that Newcastle were close to “mucking it up”.

However, the combination of the referee’s whistle and a soundtrack that played alongside a Fox try graphic obscured the beginning of his word, making it sound “suspicious” at first listen.

Ginnane listened to the audio replay for the first time during an appearance on Triple M on Sunday afternoon.

“When I hear that, it sounds like the F-word, but I can assure you I didn’t say it,” Ginnane clarified.

“From my perspective, if someone were to utter that in the commentary box, the other commentators would be turning their heads like owls,” he said.

“But they didn’t react at all. Cooper Cronk, Steve Roach, and our tech guy Daniel didn’t bat an eyelid. I said ‘mucking’.”

He admitted that he was unaware the clip had circulated on social media until Saturday morning when he woke up to a flood of messages, all referencing “mucking”.

Ginnane opted not to listen to the clip to avoid overthinking the situation.

“Until I heard that audio, I thought people may have manipulated it,” he shared.

“But it’s clear that what was broadcast sounds questionable, and I acknowledge that.”

He also disclosed he received a call from Fox Sports managing director Steve Crawley on Saturday, who assured him that he didn’t believe he had sworn.

“I’ve been in live broadcasting for over 20 years. I’ve never uttered the F-word on air. However, I understand how it could be misinterpreted. It can happen, but it didn’t happen in this case,” he insisted.

When he returned to the Fox Sports commentary booth during the Dragons vs. Bulldogs match on Saturday, he light-heartedly addressed the kerfuffle following a mistake made by Lachlan Ilias.

“(Mick) Ennis was discussing the error, and I jokingly said, ‘Just a tip for commentary, don’t say he mucked it up. That’s a bit of a tightrope to walk,” he quipped.

“It was all in good fun, ha ha, case closed. Two minutes later, another error occurred, and what did I say? ‘They mucked it up’. It seems that phrase is just embedded in my brain.”