General view of a Netflix microphone Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images
By Sam Neumann on

Netflix is sending a Motley Crew of personalities Down Under for the first regular-season NFL game ever played in Australia.

The streamer revealed its full broadcast team for the 49ers-Rams matchup at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, with Elle Duncan hosting studio coverage alongside desk analysts Michael Irvin, Nick Foles and Clay Matthews III, while Noah Eagle calls play-by-play with Luke Kuechly as his analyst and MJ Acosta reporting from the sideline. The game airs Thursday, Sept. 10 at 8:35 p.m. ET, kicking off Netflix’s expanded five-game NFL slate.

Netflix expanded its NFL footprint from two games to five for the upcoming season, and Duncan, the face of the streamer’s fledgling sports division, told Sports Media Watch that Netflix intends to run a consistent crew across that entire slate.

“We want every single one of our events to, yes, have a through-line and some consistency, and you’ll get that with the desk and the talent,” Duncan said.

Irvin, who already has Netflix experience, having worked the desk during last season’s Christmas Day doubleheader alongside Devin McCourty and Austin Ekeler, is the closest thing this lineup has to a returning face. Foles and Matthews are both making their Netflix debuts. Foles won Super Bowl LII MVP with the Eagles during an 11-season career across six teams, but has no real broadcasting track record beyond his own The SZN podcast, which recently joined NBC Sports Philadelphia’s podcast network. Matthews, a longtime Green Bay Packers linebacker and Super Bowl champion, has built what media presence he has the same way, joining Bussin’ With The Boys last year as its self-described “consistent fourth chair” alongside Will Compton, Taylor Lewan and Delanie Walker, after FanDuel lured the show away from Barstool Sports.

Kuechly, a Panthers legend entering the Hall of Fame this year, beat out a competitive field for the No. 1 analyst job, according to The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand, auditioning alongside Eagle himself earlier in July before winning the role outright. Front Office Sports previously reported Eagle would call the Melbourne game specifically, with NBC producing the broadcast in place of CBS, which had handled Netflix’s NFL coverage in prior seasons.

MJ Acosta-Ruiz rounds out the crew. She’s worked as a sideline reporter on ESPN Deportes’ Spanish-language Monday Night Football coverage since 2024, and outside of game duties, she’s also hosted for NBA TV and anchored programming on NFL Network.

Netflix’s past two Christmas Day doubleheaders leaned on a rotating mix of talent pulled from other networks, and that supply has only constricted since. ESPN and Fox reportedly declined to release their own talent for Netflix’s broadcast last year, leaving the streamer to lean primarily on NFL Network and CBS personnel, a well that’s since run dry now that NFL Network sits under the ESPN umbrella.

This is the crew Duncan says Netflix is building around for the rest of the season, not just Melbourne.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann