In a market where football shows are scattered from here to NITV, it's almost astonishing that The Bounce came and went so quickly. Catherine Ellis, we hardly knew ye.

To be honest, Seven was always going to struggle with this one. Although the network won the rights to broadcast the AFL in 2007, the only ancillary show it managed to get on the air was the tepid talkfest Game Day. That meant that Ten's Before The Game," Nine's The Footy Show and Footy Classified, Fox Sport's On The Couch and Before The Bounce and NITV/Channel 31's The Marngrook Footy Show all had massive head starts on anything Seven threw up.

Still, the notion of a new "family friendly" football show, produced by Kath and Kim bigwig and former Fox Footy Channel boss Rick McKenna, hosted by ex-Rove comic Helliar and featuring Matthew Richardson and Leigh Matthews, definitely sparked some interest.

Why then did it last just five weeks? How did it all go so wrong?

Problem #1: Too much talk up front.

Channel Seven and executive producer McKenna made no bones about the fact that they were swinging for the fences, even considering a Thursday 9:30 pm start to compete with The Footy Show. That alone set the bar at Steve Hooker-esque heights. And by going for the family audience, there was no chance of tucking the show away somewhere in late night and letting it grow.

Problem #2: Behind-the-scenes drama.

Don't forget that before the second show, a producer and several writers walked out or were sacked, depending on who you listened to. I'm not privy to the details, but suffice to say that isn't the best way to launch a new show. Further complicating things was the fact that the departed were former Rove staffers that Helliar would have known and worked with. Perhaps those who left were the problem. More likely, they sensed the show itself had problems. Either way, something was rotten at Docklands.

Problem #3: Pete Helliar as host and focal point

Pete's a funny guy who loves his footy, and was an integral part of Before The Game. But his best work on that show, and also on Rove Live, was as a team player firing away with his jokes, not a host trying to steer the ship. Helliar's strength is not setting up other people's material, it's not disseminating vital information and it's not throwing to and from commercial breaks. He's a comedian for God's sake. There's a reason why so many radio shows with comedians have a host who can play "traffic cop" and let the comedians be funny. The sheer number of comments from viewers and critics that Helliar "looked nervous" on screen tells you how he came across as host of The Bounce.

Problem #4: Thursday night

I've been in Melbourne since 1999 and Thursday night television means one thing to me - The Footy Show. Love it or hate it, you cannot deny that Channel Nine's show is an institution. Personally I don't think there's room for another comedy/footy show on Thursday night. Fox Sports gets the serious viewers with the no-nonsense AFL Teams, while the rest of the audience waits to get their fix at 9:30.

Problem #5: What was it?

Remember the old proverb about the blind men and the elephant? The Bounce looked suspiciously like five or six different shows depending on when you may have tuned in. While a little variation can make for good television, ultimately you need to be consistent. I'm not sure that kids who laughed at the pseudo-Punk'd sting on Steele Sidebottom would have wanted to sit through nuts and bolts team analysis with Lethal and Richo. The Colin Banks character was Strauchanie Lite, and featured too many Channel Seven staffers and not enough bellylaughs. Peter Rowsthorn - whose taxi driver character was one of the show's highlights - was sadly underused, while the roles of Dave Lawson and Catherine Ellis changed weekly. It looked like a show in search of a purpose.

Channel Seven insists The Bounce has not been axed, and will return in September for the Finals. In the meantime, it's been replaced by The Vicar of Dibley, and there's no truth to the rumour that Dawn French will be reading the teams out prior to each show.