On Monday mornings Tony Jones (pictured) joins 3AW‘s Tom Elliott for a round the grounds wrap up of sports from the weekend. This Monday, the last week for Tom before the summer break for metro announcers, he wrapped up saying to Tony that listeners would hear him again soon as Tony has covered over the festive break for the last decade.

To which Tony replied he wouldn’t be covering for Tom and instead taking a well earned break, which appeared to not be something Tom knew prior.

Summer programming is an interesting beast where often the understudy warms the seat they hope to get one day, like Tom Elliott’s stablemate on 2GB in Sydney Mark Levy for example, who has had a great year shaking off Ray Hadley‘s shadow.

Tony Jones isn’t an understudy. This well respected and liked sports journalist and presenter seemingly fills his bucket wherever he is needed and on occasion having to step back from roles due to being overcommitted. He’s as authentic as they come but last year saw himself in strife for comments made in jest towards tennis champion Novak Djokovic and Serbian fans, which perhaps this year is his additional reasoning for the break.

2GB announced their summer lineup last week, but 3AW have not yet. There must be many who would love a morning show across the summer. Just not Tony Jones this year. He will be missed.