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AFL is on a winner with Thursday night football

Expert
19th June, 2015
19
1432 Reads

For all the talk in recent years about the AFL’s experiments with different timeslots, Thursday night footy has proven itself a winner.

Take this week’s Adelaide-Hawthorn clash, a perfect example of how the timeslot can bring excitement and build-up to a night that’s usually footy free.

We had the Crows, on their home turf and coming off a week of rest. We had the reigning premiers, hungry to start really building that win tally after an off-and-on start to the season.

From the opening minutes, thanks to some fast scoring at both ends, it was clear the match was going to deliver quality viewing. From a TV perspective, the whole thing just worked.

Now, that’s not to say the same match on a Friday night would not have drawn a bigger audience. The free-to-air ratings say that Thursday’s match drew a national audience of 635,000. Port Adelaide and Geelong last Friday – another South Australia-Victoria battle, only further down the ladder – had 63,000 more tune in.

But you can’t have nine Friday night games, so it’s smart work by the AFL to move in on a night that would otherwise be bereft of live, primetime sport.

The sports media landscape in Australia hasn’t yet been saturated to the point it has in the United States, where the idea of a night without any live, primetime sport is pretty crazy. Between the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, college football, college basketball and everything else, there’s almost no nights off for the diehard sports fan in the States.

Of course, it might very well be a good thing that isn’t replicated here in Australia. But for the AFL to maintain the best possible competitive footing, it can’t afford to think that way. It has to be savvy and pay attention to any market that isn’t being tapped.

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Adding an extra night to the weekly calendar – if only for a handful of games each season – is savvy, because the reality is people want to come home after a long day at work and watch sport.

This week, State of Origin and all, proved it more than any other.

Yes, Thursday night footy can cause disruptions. You certainly couldn’t do it every week, given the need for six-day breaks. Fantasy footy fans might be able to recite in an instant their poor experiences with the earlier trading deadline.

But aside from the build-up and aside from the commercial advantages, Thursday night footy is also good because it spaces out the games.

This week, again, provided a great example. When you looked at this round’s games, it wasn’t hard to spot juicy match-ups.

Adelaide-Hawthorn was hard to tip. Richmond-West Coast was a real head scratcher to tip. Carlton-Port Adelaide seemed easy enough, but then you realised the Blues under John Barker have been building towards this exact type of upset.

GWS-North Melbourne? Let’s throw a Shane Mumford injury into calculations, hey?

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Under a less-spaced-out fixture, viewers might have had to pick and choose between games such as these. Instead, the diehards among us can direct their full attention to each of these games and ride all the waves they bring.

The format just works. Thursday night footy, in its current dosage, is great for the AFL fixture.

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