Veteran presenter Anthony Maroon sensationally stormed off the air after becoming enraged by his colleague’s jokes at his expense at Sydney radio station Triple M on Sunday afternoon.
The sequence started as a seemingly playful joke between Fox Sports’ James Hooper and Maroon regarding cash-in-hand jobs escalated. The 32-year veteran clearly was not pleased as he became the butt of the joke.
After jokes were made about him failing to declare his invoices to the Australian Tax Office while he MCs sporting events across Sydney, Maroon warned Hooper and fellow panellist Paul Kent, from the Daily Telegraph and Fox Sports, and NRL legend Gorden Talis that the jokes were not going down well. As they continued, Maroon finally snapped and began to reference Hooper’s turbulent driving record.
“I don't have a problem with the ATO, I welcome it, mate, but I am just wondering when are you going to be back on the road, Hoops?” Maroon said, going for the jugular live on air to the show’s listeners. Hooper responded by simply asking: “Why are you jumping around like a cat on a hot tin roof?”
Maroon refused to relent and declared he was ‘fed up with the bulls***’ and was ‘blowing up’ because he was ‘sick to death of it’. He then implied Tallis failed to follow Covid rules during lockdown in Queensland as well as that Kent was often the last person to leave his local pub as he was ‘drinking until 3am’.
“Let’s keep going, boys…because when it comes to you three, I live a very boring life,” Maroon added. He claimed the trio had their own secrets that they wouldn’t want people to know, about.
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He then proceeded to storm out of the studio in Sydney's CBD and didn't return, with Kent taking over as host for the rest of the program. 2GB morning host Ray Hadley gave his opinion on the sequence of events, calling out Triple M management at Southern Cross Austereo for not addressing the issue before it came to a head.
“To say it's distressing is one word, embarrassing is another,” Hadley said. “I have some concerns about Anthony Maroon because he stormed off-air and hasn't been in contact with anyone since.
“The other people that had a role in this [Hooper, Kent and Tallis] need to have an examination of themselves as well...they owe him [Maroon] an apology.”
On Wednesday, Triple M released a statement confirming the matter is being 'managed internally’.
“On Sunday 1 May, during Triple M's NRL broadcast, the on air team Anthony Maroon, Gordon Tallis, Paul Kent and James Hooper had a disagreement which led to Maroon leaving the broadcast,” the statement read. “SCA is managing the issue internally.”
