Welcome to March. Unlike in the spring, the changing of the seasons is somewhat blurred, and at this time of year, it’s not uncommon for a multi-sport fan to feel somewhat overwhelmed.
In the spring, there’s a clear divide. The AFL and NRL will have their grand finals. Then the cricket, A-League and the NBL will start.
In its early years the A-League started their season in August, but found October a better time to hit the ground running.
There’s a clean break between the winter and summer codes.
At the other end, the distinction is increasingly blurred. The days of a six-month split is long gone, as the seasons overlap.
As the heavens opened over the last two weekends, staying indoors with the Foxtel remote was an attractive option. And it was hard not to be blown away by the amount of live sport on offer.
The A-League season sees home-and-away games continuing through March, with the finals to come in April.
Rugby union is already going strong in 2013, with the Super Rugby season having started in February.
There have been some pre-season games televised, but from this weekend the NRL is under way. They’ll play 26 rounds before the finals.
Rugby league has two weeks’ start on the AFL. Their season has only two games in the first weekend and the remainder over Easter.
The AFL will play 23 rounds before the finals. Selected pre-season games are televised as interest builds for the season to come.
Such is the volume of sport on offer that the India versus Australia cricket Test series has found itself shunted to viewers’ choice on occasions. The international players flew out weeks ago, but domestic cricket continues for a few more weeks. Attendances are low, but the action continues.
For sports like basketball, struggling to find time in the spotlight, the squeeze continues. The NBL season plays on through March, with the finals in early April; but other than a Friday night game on delay and an early Sunday game on Channel Ten, it struggles to generate publicity.
In motor racing the V8s have started and the Melbourne Formula 1 Grand Prix is coming.
It’s heaven for the multi-sport fan, flicking the remote and flocking to multiple events over a frantically busy weekend.
But it’s not always as great as it sounds.
For the season ticket holder of multiple sports, there’s always the dilemma of what to do when home games and finals clash. There’ll be plenty of fans forced into making tough decisions over the next few weeks.
And overlapping sports can place pressure on venues.
In a weird quirk of scheduling, all five venues that host A-League games this weekend also host NRL games.
If the weather turns nasty, the surface can be badly chopped up by the first game, leaving a poor quality surface for the second game. And there’s the confusion of different ground markings being visible.
With finalists in the A-League unknown when the winter codes’ fixtures were made, there’s potential for some angst with ground availability.
With ANZ Stadium unavailable on A-League grand final weekend, and a capacity of over 30,000 required, a Mariners or Wanderers home grand final will be held at Sydney Football Stadium, which would be a free kick for Sydney FC if by some miracle the Sky Blues could get there.
And the SFS will have already hosted a rugby game on the Friday night.
If Melbourne Victory host the grand final, with Docklands booked by AFL on both Saturday and Sunday of that weekend, the grand final would have to be played on the Friday night, which would rate well on TV but make it difficult for away fans to attend.
On the first-class ovals, the showdown is between cricket and AFL. Cricket has tradition and pre-existing contracts over the grounds, but matches are poorly attended.
The AFL is keen to start their season a week earlier, partly to provide a second bye during the season but also to peg back a week of the headstart that the NRL enjoys. At the moment, they can’t do that because of cricket.
But money talks. Cricket can’t fill the big stadiums in March, but AFL can. If the AFL wants to add a second bye in future seasons, or ever wants to lengthen their season, it’ll be hard to resist.
So if you like sport, plenty of different sports, settle back and enjoy the ride. It can be overwhelming at times, but the weekends are certainly jam-packed.
In the immortal words of HG Nelson, too much sport is never enough.
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