One thing driving around Gold Coast, up to Northern Brissie burbs, across the West under the shadow of Mt. Cootha and then back across the South West burbs, back into town and back out again to the GC – - the number of sports precincts with a soccer pitch, perhaps 2 Rugby pitches, and an AFL oval – - – QLD really is a ‘cosmopolitan’ sports city – - –

I must point out to KB – - after residing for 2 nights at Currumbin – - that the RSL does okay meals, if a little light on mushrooms in the sauce, and the hot & cold seafood was a little too weighted in favour of ‘hot and crumbed’…………however, the ability to ‘hire’ Nintendo DS’s for the kids was great – - -and I drove past the PBC Football Club – - down Sarawak Drv – - and the sign…………….I saw was dawbed and tagged reading “PBC Foot-thing Club”…..tagged “KB” I do believe……………anyway, there were some lovely looking AFL ovals I spotted quite regularly through my travellings. Good to see.

The NRL GF – - – what’s it say about a game when the vanquished of a major final can be held scoreless………….that’s under 8s stuff and why so often people don’t keep the scores………….but, we’ve also seen MVFC def AUtd 6-0 in a GF in the HAL………..which was the worst hammering? Or, was Geel over Power last year the AFL equivalent of a 6-0 soccer match or a 40-0 RL socreline).

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re the tv ratings – - – we’ve already learned, have we not – - that comparison of NRL with AFL is often skewed for obviouis reasons – - i.e. the NRL has benefitted greatly over the last 3 years from Melb Storm being involved – - thus, they get a 3 city viewership. That’s abnormal when Melb/Vic has a 1/16 make up of the comp. The NRL also benefits via this by being AFTER the AFL GF – - either the next evening or in this case, the next week – - that helps.
The AFL benefitted greatly via a series of GFs that especially the 2 of Syd vs WCE were tremendous for national ratings exposure to markets and non traditional markets at that.
Year on year comparisons within codes don’t hold overly well.
So – it’s hard enough then to try to draw absolute distinctions based on timeslots – - that said, the NRL had the wonderful scenario this year of a straight comparison to last year based on combatants. The fact the NRL ratings were down – including in Melb – may or may not illustrate something relative to more day time BBQs vs night time gatherings- – - – and may illustrate in Melb that it’s a curiousity if on at an accessible time…………….but, it’s cricket season now.

Both GF’s would attract their share of groups, the AFL is in prime BBQ time. Last year the NRL game was on at 7pm, this year 5pm (out of prime time). With the same teams and all the publicility/controversy the game rated about 400K fewer than last year, mostly it seems in Melbourne.

Ch 9 and the NRL were reluctant I understand to move the game start time back to a more BBQ and family friendly time in line with the AFL GF which starts at 2:30pm.

Back to the topic of this aticle, did it make any difference? – not to traditional NRL fans, but it hurt their national TV audience.

I think it’s relevant to point out these numbers in light of some of the hoopla around the TV money both codes attract. Most NRL fans think the AFL does not deserve to get more, at least that is my impression, however when you consider that the AFL was able to out rate the NRL with its 2:30pm ‘fans only’ timeslot, then I think they should re-consider. As soon as a melb team is not in the NRL GF combined with its afternoon start the NRL GF would be a fair bit behind in its national numbers.

Amazing when you consider NSW and QLD make up 55% of the Australian population.

Redb

p.s. apologies to Cosmos, unable to produce a suitable haiku.

how do they determine how many people watched?

Do they take into account pubs/bbqs as well?

Looks like they’ve declared the winner – AFL.

From SMH website:

“Overall the AFL rated 3.247 million to the NRL’s 3.070 million from the five capital cities and regional networks. The NRL grand final rated extremely high in the bush – one of its traditional supporter bases – with a regional audience of 996,000. The AFL’s regional figures were 756,000. Of no surprise was the fact the NRL rated higher in Sydney than Melbourne and the reverse was true for the AFL.

The only disappointing aspect to the twilight grand final kick-off – seemingly well received in Sydney – was the reduced audience in Melbourne, compared to last year’s grand final, which also featured the Storm.”

Redb

I don’t Fremantle could be classified as regional, nor do i think Penrith is.

Redb

When I said the NRL usually does better I was referring to relative to the AFL’s regional audience jump from 5 capital city to include regional. the regional audience is substantially bigger for the NRL than the AFL due to the bigger size of the NSW and QLD regional pop.

Redb

Whilst NRL fans always talk about winning against the AFL, I was just posting the facts known at the mo. Based on the five mainland capitals the AFL GF easily out rated the NRL GF despite the NRL containing a Melbourne team thus ensuring a large Melb audience.

The NRL GF is actually down 20% from last year, relevant to this article did the 5pm timeslot reduce the TV audience?

The AFL GF peaked at 3.9M nationally. That is the number the NRL fans will be aiming at. How much satisfaction to be gained is questionable as the AFL GF is played at the very TV unfriendly time of 2:30pm Saturday afternoon and many many people watch the game at a BBQ.

Redb

Redb

Those numbers are for the 5 capital cities only. The NRL usually does better when the regionals are included due to a bigger regional population in NSW and QLD.

The 5 captial cities audience is heavily influenced by the teams involved.

Redb

Comparisons aside well done to both codes. Code wars sometimes get heated on this site – and I’m a culprit I admit – but we’re in a lucky land in terms of the quality of sporting events we can enjoy live and on TV.

Rugby League Grand Final Nine 2.074

Seven’s AFL: Grand Final Seven 2.460

On regional the NRL ratings will be higher, however I’m pretty sure the NRL got circa 2.6M for its 5 capital cities ratings in 2007 with the same teams but the 7pm timeslot.

Th AFL GF rated about the same as last year, albeit with two Vic teams this year. In previous years of 2005 and 2006 when the Swans were in the granny the Sydney numbers jumped much higher for the AFL as the NRL numbers in 2007 and 2008 would reflect with a Melb team playing.

Read into that what you will.

Redb

For serious fans it would have been perfectly timed either after a BBQ starting at 1 or 2 in the arvo, or before a dinner and/or night out.

For more casual viewers it was late enough no to interefere with the day’s activities but (and this is more important than many understand) it did not clash with the 7.30 timeslot that contains shows popular with many other family members. As oikee said, the missus and I didn’t have to fight over the GF vs Australain Idol

I was glad to see ANZ at 80K capacity too. I’d been worried about the finals attendances earlier in the series (e.g. the sub-30K attendances at the SFS the week before) but the GF crowd was loud and proud.

Anyway for mine it was a perfect bit of scheduling.

I have to admit I didn’t mind it – it felt weird sitting down for a proper meal AFTER a GF, but weird in a good way. I’d be happy for 5pm to stay..

I agree with the link, the dew hadn’t hit yet and there was less slipping and sliding which made for a more attractive game…..It’s just a pity only Manly were playing it….

If anything it increases the liklihood of a dry track which improves the footy on show.

Almost as perfect as the Raiders performance in the 20’s!

I liked it.