Monday night trial fuels extra game debate

St Kilda's Nick Riewoldt & Justin Koschitzke, Collongwood's Simon Prestigiacomo and Nathan Brown in action during the AFL Round 07 match between the Collingwood Magpies and the St Kilda Saints at the Docklands Stadium. Slattery Images

Monday night football is a concept that has been tried again and again and again. The latest ‘and again’ came earlier last week, with the Collingwood-St Kilda clash at Etihad Stadium.

The game itself was less than inspiring – the Saints won with a blowout 88-point margin.

But the AFL were quick to pronounce the night a success, pointing to the healthy crowd of 46,880 and the fact it was the second-highest rating game on television so far this season.

Of course, there’s only so much you can read in to one game of footy. It’s hard to judge the long-term viability of the concept based on a match between the high-flying Saints and the crowd-drawing Magpies.

Historically, when the AFL has gone beyond just one Monday night footy trial in a season, the crowds have not been too overwhelming.

In 1997, four Monday night games were scheduled. The biggest crowd was 38,170, the smallest was 22,464.

In 2000, three Monday night games were scheduled. The biggest crowd was 33,947, the lowest was 24,908.

But this isn’t likely to hold the AFL back from further experimentation, however. Should the AFL push ahead with the introduction of two extra teams, one extra game will be created for each weekend.

The AFL has several options for the newly-created timeslot. Hence the need to try a few of them out.

“We have obviously tried Thursday night to start the season, we’ve had a Saturday twilight in Tasmania, and now we’re having a look at Monday night,” league chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan said last week.

Those three appear the most likely contenders.

But McLachlan is sensitive to possible ramifications of a weeknight slot: “Monday night games are interesting as they change the structure of the week. Does it make the football week too long? I don’t know, but it is something we will look at.”

Another option perceived to be in consideration is an additional Friday night game, following on from the success of the NRL’s double-headers. Though given the AFL hasn’t come out with a trial, and also given a typical AFL game lasts an hour longer than that of the NRL, it seems unlikely.

As it stands, there isn’t enough evidence to suggest that a Thursday or Monday night fixture will work week in, week out. More experimentation in years to come will provide a clearer picture, but perhaps further tinkering with the concepts is needed.

The 8PM start to the broadcast on Monday night made the game run close to 11PM. For a weeknight, this may be pushing it a bit. If we are going to look to the NRL for guidance, perhaps we should look at their version of Monday night football and its 7PM start time, for example.

Until the time comes where one of the slots can provide a working model going forward, the Saturday twilight option will become an increasingly attractive alternative.

It worked well on Anzac Day (with the game in Tasmania), and its main appeal to footy fans is that it equates to non-stop footy all day Saturday.

And hey, even the traditionalists would like it – five-game Saturdays would be back!

At the end of the day, the sway of the broadcasters will play a significant part in the AFL’s decision-making. Even if it means taking a larger risk in terms of crowd numbers.

It’ll be interesting to see how this situation plays out.