Bar live matches from Sydney when the Swans shifted north, there were few live games of what was then the Victorian Football League on the ABC or Channel Seven. It was left to highlights programs, such as The Winners, to help keep the masses happy.

Thanks to Morphett, having recently approached Fox Footy chief Gary Burns, those days will be relived on a Wednesday night on subscription television.

Morphett is reliving, well, often himself of 30 years ago and, of course, those matches from the time – with only tapes of programs between 1982 and 1986 still available because of cost-cutting measures from those days.

Morphett will also have a player or two in the studio from the showcased match, adding context to that particular time.

"I went in and saw Gary Burns and put it to Gary: 'Nostalgia is king, so why don't we rehash The Winners? We'll get a guest in every week to talk about the game he played in 30 years ago'," Morphett said. "Within five minutes he said: 'Go for it'. So, here we are."

For Morphett, having lost his job with ABC Radio as part of budget cuts, the show complements his calling for Perth radio station, 6PR. And for football supporters, young and old, it provides a chance to see what the league was once like.

"It's a flood of memories. It's great for people my age and may be a bit younger to remember those days but, hopefully, there will be some interest in it from young kids who probably haven't heard of most of the players going around," Morphett said.

"But it's chance to look at the VFL as it was in those days, with suburban grounds, games at Windy Hill, games at Junction Oval, games at the Lake Oval, Arden St. It's a bygone era. And the game was played differently. Blokes had opponents and they played on each other time after time.

"Memories come flooding back of muddy grounds, old venues, old players. You'll see blokes and think: 'Gee, he did all right – that bloke finished up being coach of so or so'."

It's also a chance to learn about, or relive, bygone commentary voices, when the likes of Clarke Hansen and Doug Heywood, alongside Tim Lane and Morphett, were prominent names.

Former Test cricketer Paul Sheahan, David Grant – who made a name for himself as the original boundary rider during World Series Cricket – Peter Booth and Gareth Andrews also hosted The Winners. Morphett said television commentary had changed through the years – and not necessarily for the better.

"I reckon we said less then. We identified the players and threw in a comment about 'getting on top, getting better the further game goes, good win there against the odds' – that sort of stuff," Morphett said.

"These days, and I am not meaning to denigrate the current callers, but they are doing radio calls for television. You don't have to be saying: 'He looks up, the kick's on its way'.

"That's not television commentary – you can see the kick is on its way. We were more into what you believe is classic television commentary, rather than just wall-to-wall words."

Unfortunately, many of the original tapes of The Winners from the late 1970s through to the early '80s are no more. As Sports Watch has detailed about Seven's handling of its old vision, the ABC would also reuse the old three-inch tapes at the time because of cost-cutting and storage issues.

"The video-tape box was like a suitcase you would go away with for six weeks' holiday. They were just so bulky. That's why they erased them and recorded over the top of them," Morphett said.

The tales from the time weren't also confined to what happened on the field. Producing The Winners was its own adventure, including ensuring a tape was put on a plane bound for Western Australia early on a Sunday morning so ABC viewers in that football-mad state had their weekly fix of the big league on that same night.

Then there was the challenge of trying to find a particular highlight on the film required for the mark and goal of the day, which could take about 40 minutes.

"These days … you can do it in about two seconds," Morphett said.