Here is a review of the latest in the AFL this week.
I give you, the AFL Three.
1 and 2. Byes and TV
The dreaded byes are in full swing – three rounds of six games. Yes, 6-6-6 – clearly the work of the devil ruining the momentum of the AFL season.
It’s been tumbleweeds for AFL on free-to-air TV. The last two Sundays have had stand-alone blockbuster fixtures of West Coast versus Greater Western Sydney and St Kilda versus Gold Coast in the 4:40pm twilight time slot on Foxtel only. No free-to-air football the last two Sundays – this has been going on for years and really needs to stop.
As I see it the AFL have a three alternatives.
They can keep the current arrangement of split rounds and bye rounds, but the AFL, Channel Seven and Foxtel need to sit down and restructure the broadcast rights agreement to make sure that every weekend of the home-and-away season has at least one game on free-to-air TV every Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.
The AFL might also want to consider fixturing a half-decent game on a Sunday if it’s a stand-alone game. Also should the only Monday night football game of the season, St Kilda versus Carlton, really be on Foxtel? It seems pointless playing on Monday night if it’s not on free-to-air TV.
If the broadcast agreements can’t be changed then at least use the available AFL-free airtime to showcase different levels of football. The AFL Under-18 Championships started on Sunday with Vic Country playing Vic Metro at 11am in suburban Sandringham. This game could have been played as a curtain raiser to the St Kilda versus Gold Coast game at Etihad Stadium and broadcast on TV.
The Western Bulldogs versus Melbourne in the Women’s Exhibition Match is coming up on June 29, but what better way to give this game exposure than on a Sunday afternoon in one of the bye rounds with no AFL on free-to-air TV.
Thirdly, the AFL could reconfigure the way clubs are given their two breaks during the season.The AFLPA want two byes in the 22 game home-and-away season so we are looking at a 24-week season. However, rather than taking the byes in blocks why not have rolling byes. Have nine games in the first three rounds and the last three rounds of the season and eight games in all the other rounds.
Two teams would have a bye each week which could mean Thursday night football, a time slot the AFL are dabbling with currently, could be come a permanent fixture through the middle 18 rounds of the season. The two teams who had the bye on the weekend could then meet on the Thursday night the next week to start the new round. Of course with the standard round now containing eight games the broadcast deals with Foxtel and Channel Seven would need to be renegotiated.
3. Umpires
They just can’t take a trick. Umpire Troy Pannell was knocked out in an accidental clash with Sydney’s Nick Malceski in the Essendon versus Sydney game. Well played Essendon fans, not content with booing one of their own players, Brent Stanton, a few seasons ago, they have now booed an injured umpire as he was stretchered of the ground.
The umpires were also in the firing line for not hearing the three-quarter-time siren during the Adelaide versus Collingwood match at a noisy Adelaide Oval. The solution is obvious: the umpires need to be wearing Foxtel ‘Alert Shirts’.
The Alert Shirt is a shirt with an attached electronic device wired up to live-game data that “converts this data into powerful sensations that simulates the live sporting contest”. Basically, if a player gets crunched in a tackle you get electronically crunched by your fancy shirt. It sounds like a pointless gimmick but it could have a practical use.
Sounding the siren in the umpires’ earpieces may make them aware the quarter has ended, but hooking them up with an ‘Alert Shirt’ and giving them a fair dinkum ‘electronic’ hip and shoulder as the siren sounds is guaranteed to alert them to blow their whistle. Of course an alternative is the ground could install louder sirens. No, I think the Alert Shirt is definitely the way to go – shocking the umpires into awareness that the quarter is over.
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