YVONNE Sampson is the face of a new-look Monday night Footy Show that will air next month, as Sydney prepares to be gripped by finals fever.

With one week remaining in the NRL regular season, five of the eight teams vying for the NRL top eight are Sydney-based clubs — including the Roosters, Souths, Cronulla, Canterbury and St George Illawarra.

And the Nine Network is planning to give fans their fix, with Sampson hosting Footy Classified NRL Finals, an hour-long show aimed at analysing each team’s finals performances beginning on Monday, September 7, at 9.30pm.

Joining Sampson on the panel will be league Immortal Andrew Johns, former premiership winner Brett Finch and Test fullback Billy Slater.

Experienced commentator Phil Gould will also be conducting one-on-one interviews with the prominent figures involved in the series.

Footy Classified NRL Finals will air every Monday for four weeks until the grand final on October 4, and will be televised in addition to Nine’s Footy Shows on Thursday night and Sunday.

media_camera Monday Night with Matty Johns panel.

With Fox Sports’ hugely popular Matty Johns show set to also continue throughout the final series, Monday night will provide fans with a smorgasbord of rugby league entertainment and analysis.

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Nine’s head of sport, Steve Crawley, said the program would have a ‘’heavy footy focus’’ while declaring Sampson, who has hosted Nine’s Sunday afternoon football this season, a television natural.

“Yvonne is a star,’’ Crawley said.

“They (other panel members) all respond well to her, they like working with her and she doesn’t pretend to know what she doesn’t know. We don’t care if you’re male or female, we don’t want people pretending to know what they don’t.

“We’ve got the experts — the people who know more than anyone — already sitting on the panel.

“This show is about drawing on that expertise to break down and analyse the performances of the players and their clubs over the finals.”