Ric Salizzo has brought his long running Sportscafe media brand to Australia. A New Zealand born, YouTube-first sports show, also available as a podcast, the brand builds on two fundamentals – sport is filled with incredible stories, and most sports professionals and fans are open to, if not already enthusiastic about, other sports as well as their primary passion.

Ric himself was a boxer, then Union player, as well as a journalist who became a Rugby Union consultant and the All Blacks Media Liaison Officer. There’s a great story about how he failed his journalism course at Auckland Technical Institute. He’d been at a cricket match and got involved in an altercation that saw him have to front up in court the next morning. Unfortunately for Ric it just happened to be the same morning that his classmates were all also at the Court to watch and learn from proceedings. He’d managed to get a little too involved.

He did go on to become a newsreader and sports journalist at Whakatane’s Radio 1XX, then a stint playing rugby in Italy before moving in front of the camera as a sports reporter for TVNZ. He was famed for his frown apparently which is so counter to the man I met, who was funny, empathetic and I got a real sense that not much gets past him unnoticed.

Ric’s childhood sporting hero was Muhammad Ali.

“When I was young, Muhammad Ali was a bit of an outcast because he was so controversial. When Ali was fighting, we would all go to the TV store and stand on the corner of the street and watch the colour TV through the window.

I grew up in South Auckland, which is pretty tough area, and there’d be 200 people on the corner of the street watching the fight live in the shop. He was so engaging outside of the event. You loved him. You hated him. 

I can still remember the the great fight against George Foreman standing outside in the street, trying to get through the crowd to be able to see the TV. It just stopped the whole world.’

In seeing how Ali transcended sport and often working on the outside of the tent, as it were, Ric came to learn how important liking sports people was to getting bums on seats at matches and events. Together with rugby union great Sir John Kirwan who Ric calls one of his best friends, they created the now legendary video The Good, the Bad and the Rugby, directed by Ric, featuring John and taking fans behind the scenes of the All Blacks’ 1989 tour of Wales and Ireland.

“It was huge. We sold 150,000 copies, which was, back then, three times as many people than who had bought the most popular book in New Zealand. It was just showing these people as people, not as sports stars.”

In 1996, 30 years ago, Ric launched Sportscafe on television which really was a smorgasbord of everything with sports at the forefront. It ran for nearly a decade, stopped, started again in 2008, paused again and then in 2011 started again for a short run series around the Rugby World Cup which was held in New Zealand, and won by the All Blacks, just 8-7, against France.

I feel that I also have to mention the man has had a No 1 hit too, involved in the production, alongside the late John Clarke who is so beloved in Australia, singing the Fred Dagg creation We Don’t Know How Lucky We Are:

In 2012 Ric’s wife Cathy died. Cathy, a broadcaster and journalist, was the first woman to anchor a New Zealand sports show. In a gentle return to TV afterwards, from something that initially was going to be a book, Ric and his friend and former Split Enz band member Mike Chunn created the TV documentary I Know This To Be True featuring interviews with 60 notable New Zealanders talking about what they have learnt in life. From Lucy Lawless, Neil Finn to Sir John Kirwan, Ric also held a space for surgeons, educators and philanthropists.

He told NZ publication Stuff at the time:

“This is not about celebrities. In fact I find the word slightly repugnant. They’re actually just people who have led really interesting lives.”

Ric moved to take on a role as Chief Engagement Officer for Rugby New York. He often would be asked when Sportscafe would return, again. The time was right to dabble with it as a podcast. Sportscafe-ish won Best Podcast and Best Sports Podcast at the 2025 NZ Radio and Podcast Awards.

For the man deeply aware of how lucky he is, and unafraid of trying something new, next was a move to Sydney and seeing if the Sportscafe concept would work here. We have a lot of podcasts that lean towards one sport specifically. The Howie Games is an example of multi sports and in depth conversation. Mark ‘Howie’ Howard however doesn’t tend to mix his Todd Woodbridges with wood choppers as Ric and his team will do though.

Sportscafe left to right – Ric, Chris Lynn, Tayla Montoya, Mark Ellis and Connor Watson

The debut episode here featured cricketer Matthew Hayden alongside Australia’s former World Tree Climbing Champion. Then NRL halfback for the Roosters Sam Walker alongside a Bondi Rescue lifeguard who also competes as a big-wave surfer. The panel is diverse too, current NSW Origin and Rooster’s hooker Connor Watson, BBL cricket star Chris Lynn, former The Hits Breakfast EP and cultural commentator Tayla Montoya and former All Black and NRL player Marc Ellis alongside Ric in weekly long form episodes.

Ric says:

“Elite performance and cheeky banter are not opposites. They often live side by side. Sportscafe exists in that space, where laughter and respect can co-exist. Humour’s a big part of what we do as well. We talk about more fun, less rules because, at the end of the day, we all get into sport because it’s fun.

I think being outsiders is valuable. We’ve obviously got people on the show that are inside the tent but why can’t we make it accessible to everyone? Why don’t you know? There are some people we talk to that their sport, say rugby league, is their life and they know all the details, and we can talk to it at that level. And there are some people that might just stumble on the show and only watch three games a year, and that’s okay too. It’s up to you to decide how you enjoy sport. There’s no rules and everyone’s own relationship with sport is just as worthy as the other.” 

• Instagram: @SportsCafeMedia 
• YouTube: Sportscafe Media

Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo.