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It’s long been speculated, but this week saw the official announcement.
AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan announced to the media that the 2015 season would be put back to start on the Easter weekend, with the first game on Thursday second April.
Only one bye will be held during the season, with the grand final to be held on Saturday third October.
The reason for delaying the season is the Cricket World Cup. One-day internationals to be played through February and March, finishing on Sunday 29th March. There are cricket matches on the MCG, SCG, Adelaide Oval, Gabba, Blundstone Arena and Startrack Oval – all grounds that will host AFL matches in 2015.
The AFL wish to avoid a clash. And that’s understandable.
They have a track record of co-operating with other sports. They moved the 2000 season forward a month to accommodate the Sydney Olympics. They avoided scheduling at the MCG before ANZAC Day in 2006 to accommodate the Commonwealth Games. They played Carlton versus Port Adelaide in an unpopular Sunday night timeslot last year to accommodate the Grand Prix.
And with their venues being contracted to cricket, they didn’t have much choice. Or did they?
They wouldn’t have been able to get on the MCG or SCG until Easter. But Adelaide Oval hosts its last game on the 20th March. It would have been available by the 28th. The Gabba and Bellerive even earlier.
Docklands, Metricon, Subiaco, Kardinia Park, Showgrounds, ANZ Stadium and York Park are not World Cup venues. They would have been available for the last weekend of March.
It wouldn’t have been hard to schedule a full round of games for the last weekend of March without the MCG and SCG. They scheduled Round 1 for this year without using any cricket venues.
Scheduling two rounds would have been tricky. But scheduling one round for the last weekend in March was certainly possible.
It could have been done. But the AFL chose not to.
Cutting the season down to one bye is curious. The Players Association lobbied long and hard for a second bye, which came in for 2014.
With the ever-rising injury toll, having two byes during the season enabled players to get much-needed recovery time. Cutting back to a single bye will inevitably see more big-name players sit out games, possibly avoiding interstate travel, in the name of recovery and injury rehab.
Why not have a second bye and push the grand final back to 10th October? It’s not like there’s ever any cricket on the MCG before November anyway.
For the AFL’s newest franchise, GWS Giants, the later start to the season is bad news.
The Giants play their home games at the Showgrounds, known as Spotless Stadium. But during Easter, the Showgrounds is home to Sydney’s Royal Easter Show. During this time, the arena has a dirt track around it, and is chopped up by horses, the grass is eaten by cows; and it takes about a month for it to recover to football-readiness.
By not starting the season until the Easter weekend, there’s no chance for the Giants to get on there before the Easter Show. Which means no home game until about Round 7.
There could be an away derby against the Swans during those rounds. And probably a couple of the Giants’ Canberra games would be played then.
But it’s a long wait until the Giants get a home game at their home ground. A ground which would have been available in March but isn’t in April.
Possibly the long wait could be averted by playing a stand-alone game the weekend before round 1, similar to what happened in 2012. But that’s unlikely.
The upside is avoiding a clash with the cricket. Downsides are the loss of a bye week and the GWS Giants scheduling. And there’s another downside.
In recent years, the start of the AFL season has crept earlier. Partly to accommodate the second bye. But also because the sporting media in March is usually dominated by the NRL and A-League.
Australia is a very crowded and competitive sport market. Until the AFL season starts, it struggles to get a look-in with media coverage. The NRL and A-League, playing on rectangular non-cricket venues, will have business as usual and will play on through the cricket in March.
To hold the AFL season back until April is a reversal of recent policy. Whether it’s a success is dependent on the success of the Cricket World Cup.
In recent years, we’ve seen fans gravitate to the domestic T20 Big Bash League – while Test cricket remains strong. But one-day internationals have struggled to draw a crowd.
While games involving Australia will draw plenty of interest, other games may struggle. I can’t see the Australian sporting public getting enthused about games like Pakistan v Zimbabwe.
That’s the AFL’s gamble.
If the Cricket World Cup captures the public’s imagination, if there’s a huge groundswell of interest, the AFL will have done well to avoid it.
But if there’s little interest in the cricket by the end of the summer, then the AFL have handed a massive free kick to the NRL and the A-League.
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