The major talking points on the field after Round 15 is that the battle for the eight is still well and truly alive with eight rounds remaining, which is fantasic news.
North Melbourne’s embarrasssing loss to Brisbane at the Gabba could be the difference between making and missing out on the finals.
Meanwhile Adelaide had an on week, a pretty significant one too, by upsetting Port Adelaide in the Showdown.
However, a major lowlight was the poor attendance for Sunday night football at the MCG in the middle of winter for the clash between Carlton and Collingwood.
The Sunday night fixturing hasn’t worked, especially in Melbourne this year, with the league scheduling the matches on a Sunday either at the start or in the middle of the school holidays.
They have also drawn the clubs that have the biggest fan-bases, like Collingwood, Carlton and Essendon, but there was a crowd on Sunday night of 40,396 – the lowest at the MCG between these two sides in 93 years.
The AFL has admitted Sunday night games hasn’t succeeded like they were hoping in regard to crowd attendance, and believe Thursday night would be a better option to play matches on an extra day in the future.
The league shouldn’t have put a match at the MCG in late June, no matter the teams. It gets cold in Melbourne at this time of the year and last Sunday was colder and wetter than usual.
The Blues only had four wins going into that game against the Magpies, although when fixturing this match the AFL would have probably been confident that both Carlton and Collingwood would be in finals contention.
There are some footy fans from all clubs who would attend matches in the driving rain at any time and anywhere, and even in Carlton’s current on-field parlous state, a Saturday afternoon meeting would have drawn around 60,000.
Sunday night is traditionally family time in most households and school holidays means a change in routine for Mondays, but going to the football isn’t the favoured option, as the crowds have indicated.
The Friday night clash, two Saturday afternoons, one Saturday twilight, two Saturday nights, an early Sunday clash, the 3.20 Melbourne time Sunday match and the twilight Sunday meeting cater the nine games and works well.
Carlton and St Kilda play a Monday night match. With less-than-moderate success crowd-wise and with both teams seemingly rebuilding, if that fixture continues, crowd numbers could dwindle even further. And of course, Good Friday Footy is coming. Some people can’t get enough of the game and for the brodacasters, it’s all about revenue making.
People will still watch in home on TV, but the AFL have always been proud of their crowd figures. If they don’t get the fixturing right, the public will vote with their feet – even at the traditional blockbusters like Carlton versus Collingwood.
It just shows how much the game has changed that two Showdowns every year between Port and Adelaide, especially now that they are played at the Adelaide Oval, are becoming bigger drawcards and even more relevant than when the Blues and the Pies meet twice.
Sunday night when it’s freezing outside, playing scrabble has more appeal than putting on thousands of layers of clothing and heading to the footy – no matter who is playing.
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