Rex Hunt and Brian Taylor are the two loudest callers in AFL football and they effectively swapped roles last summer.

Taylor was recruited on a multi-year deal by 3AW football, and Triple M decided to get Hunt to fill the hole left by "Bristle" in their Saturday afternoon slot.

So, while Tuesday's ratings survey has been reported as a stunning victory for Hunt, the reality is it's a massive tick for Triple M Football. It's a victory for a broadcast that feels and sounds like a group of mates working as a team and a blow for 3AW's decision to assemble a group of big names seemingly without friendship and certainly lacking in chemistry.

Let's get the disclaimer in early. I worked for 3AW on Sports Today and the football coverage, but was dismissed by the station in 2007 because of a perception that the match broadcasts had become too "vaudeville" in its approach. Yes, legal proceedings were launched and we eventually reached a confidential settlement.

Back to this year's ratings and some analysis. As the time-honoured footy cliche says, it's perhaps a case of a champion team containing champions beating a team of champions ... who work as individuals.

While totally its own flavour, Triple M's Friday and Saturday pre-game shows contain the same affectionate "hanging shit on your mates" humour that great radio shows like the Coodabeen Champions, Punter-to-Punter, The Grill Team, Ross Stevenson & John Burns and Hamish & Andy did and still do possess.

They also have a great self-regulating ability to add footy-cred whenever things get a bit silly and naturally add humour to the mix if the debate is too serious.

You could picture Garry Lyon, James Brayshaw, Danny Frawley, Billy Brownless, Jason Dunstall and Damian Barrett having the same conversations at the local as they do on-air, and it was this environment that Taylor chose to walk away from at the end of last season.

He and other gilt-edged stars like Leigh Matthews, Dennis Cometti, Mike Sheahan and Matthew Richardson have combined to deliver 3AW football's most spectacular ratings drop since management sacked myself and Craig Hutchison in mid-2007.

For the AM station, the numbers are poor at first glance and woeful on further analysis. AW dropped by two points to 9.4 on Saturday afternoons, while Triple M gained 1.7 to 12.2.

But then factor in that on Mondays to Fridays, AW leads Triple M 15.4 to 5.5.

So according to the official Nielsen survey (the fifth of the year) 3AW loses 6.0 points, while Triple M gains 6.7 points on a Saturday afternoon. That is a massive switch-on/switch-off factor.

Apart from the poor ratings, the similarity to 2007 is the lack of "3AW people" on air.

So rightly or wrongly, the axing of Hutchison gave the station an opportunity to "go back" to Tony Leonard and the late Clinton Grybas. Wayne Carey and Shane Crawford were also pushed back and out for more of Robert Walls and Tony Shaw. Rex was told to tone it down and the axing of yours truly saw stats man Graeme Bond return to the director of football position that he had been replaced from two years earlier, after Triple M had won the ratings.

This time around, the options aren't as obvious because, as new station AM talk-station MTR has found out, the older 3AW listener needs a very big reason to change the dial because of the comfort factor of familiar voices.

As such it raises an eyebrow at Taylor being so keen to recruit another foundation member of Triple M's football coverage in Dr Peter Larkins.

The irony of the "throwing together" of Taylor, Cometti, Matthews and Richardson, is that it is very "FM" in management style.

A starting point for too many FM radio executives is this: "He's on telly, she's a good sort, he tells jokes and he played sport, so go and pay them too much money". The football equivalent of this thinking is to say: "He's a great caller, he's also a great caller, he's a legend and he's a great player who just retired."

So full credit to Rex Hunt for the resurrecting his career, and good on Taylor for having the balls to get out of the comfort zone that he was in at Triple M, and have a crack at being the "main man" at 3AW.

But while the former is now enjoying adding a new chapter in an off-Broadway role in front of a new audience, it was the public demise of his "vaudeville" style of radio that saw the beginning of the end for him at the venue that had made him an institution.

Taylor should keep in mind that he was voted radio's most popular caller by the populist Herald Sun's readers by not just being talented, accurate and well-researched, but by being bloody entertaining in a strong team environment during his 13 years at Triple M.

So come on Brian loosen up a bit ... and listen to the fans!

"Racetrack" Ralphy Horowitz is a full-time racing analyst for private clients and media commentator for Sport 927. He is a former producer at The Footy Show, Sunday Footy Show, 3AW & SEN.