MCG Podcasts

The best MCG listening starts just after play, when the result is fresh and everyone still wants to argue about what they saw. Coverage is thin, though. Podcasts usually treat the ground as the setting for a match rather than a subject with its own dedicated history, culture or design.

The one direct MCG episode

Willow Talk Cricket Podcast offers the clearest starting point with Swann & Healy react to England's historic win at the MCG | Melbourne Day Two. The title promises immediate reaction rather than a retrospective, and that suits the show’s brisk panel dynamic. Its appeal is the feeling of joining a cricket conversation already in motion: practical judgments, technical detail, blunt disagreement and the occasional digression before everyone circles back to the match.

This is the rare episode that puts the MCG itself in the billing. If you want an episode unmistakably connected to the ground, begin here.

Boxing Day arguments

Cricket Unfiltered approaches the same territory with more heat. Ashes Boxing Day Test Review: A Broken Spectacle frames the match as something to prosecute, while Ashes Boxing Day Test: Day 1 Wrap - Record Crowd Watches Test Spiral Out of Control moves straight toward crowd, collapse and disorder. The follow-up, Ashes Boxing Day Test: Day 2 Wrap - England's Insignificant Win, makes the show’s combative posture plain before the discussion has even begun.

Expect fast, partisan cricket talk aimed at listeners who already know the game. The MCG is present through the Boxing Day Test, but the real subjects are selection, performance and whether the occasion delivered what it should have.

For something drier, Cricket Et Al has RECORD STORE DAY: 20 Wickets on Day 1 in Melbourne. Its two-writer conversation is looser and more observant, mixing close cricket analysis with jokes and stray details from around the match. BARMY: England Win After Two Wild Days continues the story through the result rather than through the venue. This is the better choice if you enjoy the strange texture of a match as much as the verdict.

The Telegraph Cricket Podcast is more measured. England finally win in Australia offers the cleanest result-led companion to the louder reaction shows, while England must change after another Ashes defeat supplies the broader series argument. Neither is a dedicated study of the MCG; both place the listener inside the questions surrounding England’s cricket.

Where to start

Start with Willow Talk Cricket Podcast for the only episode explicitly centred on an MCG result. Choose Cricket Unfiltered next if you want sharp arguments about the Boxing Day spectacle. Try Cricket Et Al for a more companionable account of a remarkable Melbourne day, or The Telegraph Cricket Podcast for calmer series-level analysis.

Featured shows below are part of the PlayNext catalog. Updated weekly.