More Than a Game

"More Than a Game" is a song recorded by Australian musician Chris Doheny. The song was written by Darren Sanicki and John Albert as the theme song to the Nine Network's Australian rules football variety program The Footy Show. It was released as a stand-alone single in 1994, and remained the program's theme song until its demise in 2019. The song was also the subject of multiple legal disputes raised by Sanicki over copyright and intellectual property infringement. Background and release The genesis of what would become "More Than a Game" was conceived when Nine Network television producer Harvey Silver approached Doheny about penning a theme song for the pilot of a new football television program (what would become The Footy Show). Silver was a fan of Doheny through his work as front man of Melbourne pop rock band Geisha, and introduced him to both Darren Sanicki and Josh Abrahams, who would end up writing and co-producing the song respectively. Nine then licensed the song from Sanicki annually for a fee of A$10,000, with the agreement beginning on 12 April 1994 and renewing each subsequent year. The phrase "more than a game" then began to be used frequently in newspaper headlines and captions to highlight the increasing relationship between commercialism and the sport itself. Surpassing football entirely, Reverend Tim Costello used the slogan "it's more than a game" as part of his campaign as a candidate for the Australian Constitutional Convention in November 1997. Costello himself was critical of Footy Show host Eddie McGuire's own ticket as part of the Australian Republic Movement, ultimately linking the phrase and the television program from which it was sourced. A legal dispute arose in February 1998 over the name of a television special also entitled More Than a Game, which was produced by McGuire's production company McGuire Media and was to be broadcast on successive Thursdays ahead of the return of The Footy Show in March. Nine's Victorian managing director Ian Johnson described the copyright dispute brought upon them by Sanicki's solicitors Roth Warren as "one fight we're going to win". The specials would eventually be broadcast under its intended title.