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Friday and football, there’s nothing quite like it.
For the fans, it’s a chance to unwind and watch two teams go head-to-head under the lights, either at the game or on the couch.
For the players, it’s a chance for redemption. A fresh start, a chance to right the wrongs of last week and dispel any rumours of lack of endeavour or attack on the footy.
Footballers tend to talk in weeks. They don’t think too far ahead. They take it one game at a time. It’s all about the little things, the week-to-week preparation that gets them up on game day.
And so while Friday night football presents as a stage to dispel any misgivings from the week before, it also presents as a stage to dispel football talk as just cliché.
Apart from the Anzac Day clash between Collingwood and Essendon, Friday night football is the biggest stage in the home-and-away season. It sets the tone for the week in footy and invariably attracts large crowds at the game, and even bigger support from those watching from the comfort of their homes.
It’s of little surprise, then, that the tone of Friday night football in 2015 has so far been one of monotonous pessimism. The reason? Carlton has featured more than any other team.
And this Friday Carlton will again take centre stage against Geelong at Etihad Stadium, the Blues’ fourth Friday night appearance in eight rounds.
While the AFL could not have predicted the miserly state the Carlton Football Club currently finds itself in, it’s odd that a team that performed so poorly in 2014 was rewarded with prime-time slots.
Carlton finished 13th last year, yet, by the end of 2015, they will have played seven times on Friday night. To put that into perspective, the five teams that finished below Carlton – St Kilda, Melbourne, Western Bulldogs, Greater Western Sydney and Gold Coast – play a total of two Friday night games between them for the entire 2015 season.
Indeed, Collingwood will be the only team to have played more Friday night games than Carlton. They, too, finished outside the eight in 2014, begging the question as to why teams that under-perform are rewarded with Friday night fixtures.
Of course, Collingwood tends to attract massive crowds, so commercially they are a sound option for the AFL, Channel Seven and Fox Footy. But the story is different with the Blues, where the Carlton faithful appear to have lost just that: faith.
Last week against GWS, less than 17,000 watched on at Etihad Stadium. So why not reward clubs that are winning games with prime time slots?
The 2014 premiers, Hawthorn, will only play two Friday night games this year, which seems absurd considering they have not only dominated the competition for the past two years, but they also have a strong supporter base.
In fact, at writing, they have more than 71,000 members for 2015 – that’s only 2000 behind Collingwood, who have traditionally had the largest fan-base in the AFL, if not Australia.
Carlton, conversely, have signed up only 46,375 members, many of whom have taken up quasi memberships, such as a the three-game membership on offer to allure disillusioned fans.
When the AFL touted fan engagement as one of their main priorities for 2015, we were all relieved.
Last season was a shocker for fans: the bizarre twilight fixtures on Sunday and the exorbitant price of tickets made the game less accessible. Now that the price of tickets is back to being fan-friendly, the game is once again accessible to the majority.
But how many people really want to turn up to the MCG or Etihad Stadium to watch Carlton play in another Friday night game? It’s a shame the load isn’t more evenly spread, both among the other Victorian teams and those interstate.
The AFL have put far too many of their eggs in the Carlton basket. And unfortunately, it won’t be stopping any time soon, with Carlton scheduled to play the Swans on Friday in Round 9.
It’s a problem the AFL couldn’t have predicted, but it’s also one that could have been avoided by distributing Friday night games more evenly among the competition.
For now, the Friday night Blues continue.
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