For those who missed it, on Thursday the AFL released its 2015 fixture list, scrapping Sunday and Monday evening games, and introducing more Saturday afternoon football.
For years clubs and fans alike have been calling on the NRL to scrap Monday night football in favour of a permanent Saturday afternoon timeslot.
Monday night Football may rate well, but crowd numbers are usually embarrassing. No one wants to see an NRL game played in front of a crowd of 10,000 – especially in the bigger stadiums.
Make no mistake about it, Monday night football is a made-for-television timeslot. For all the talk from NRL headquarters of the fixture’s advantages, fans have voted with their feet.
They hate it.
Players and clubs feel much the same. Gate receipts are down, leagues club takings are down, and the atmosphere for players is sometimes akin to park footy.
Don’t get me wrong, I love coming home from work on a Monday afternoon knowing there is a game of footy on to watch… except when my team is involved.
Getting to the game after work is tough enough as it is, let alone finding your way home and trying to wind down to enable yourself a proper night sleep.
The AFL has seen the declining crowd numbers and has stated there will be no games played in the fan-unfriendly timeslots next season.
The NRL, on the back of a mountainous television rights deal, may not have the ability to dictate when its games are played – as mentioned, Monday night games rate well for Fox.
But how much did the NRL have to bend, considering the AFL also signed a monster TV deal?
The AFL also did not have to change its grand final kick off time to suit broadcasters.
Certain teams also draw the fixture far more often than others. I honestly can’t remember the last time I saw the Broncos host a Monday night game. I’m yet to see a single Warriors Monday night home fixture, albeit for obvious reasons.
Here’s hoping the universally panned Monday night timeslot is at least shared equally in 2015. Due to the television agreement there’s zero chance of it being removed.
Good on the AFL for stepping in and delivering a decision that purely has its fans and clubs in mind. Let’s hope the NRL can one day follow suit.
Knightblues
Guest
Problem is the NRL are too dumb to see they have got just as much right as the AFL does to tell its backers when they want games played, either that or they don't care, sucks we have administrators like this, I wish we had the caliber of people in charge the AFL and ALeague have, all we got is a bunch of you know whats
tigerdave
Guest
did my job for me Col. These Gay FL guys seem to want to dream the num,bers up for thier code.
fiver
Guest
to put it crudely, the biggest indicator of a games health is $$$. $$$ and only $$$
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
Never say never.If the NRL gets an FTA split say 9 & 10,with the F7L rights cluse gone and 18 teams thrown in,the code can do a lot of scheduling to suit.
Storm Boy
Guest
So boo hoo the NRL grand final is at night. Do all the wonder brains who tihnk it should 3pm also realise that in October and daylight saving that means possible over 30 degrees in the sun? Sydney in October is not Melbourne overcast cold drizzle. If the NRL go to 3pm kickoff they would have to play at the MCG or put the grand final on in September.
col
Guest
No with out checking to far you are wrong. .."Correction…..NRL did not have 4 of the top 5 games viewed on TV".. This statement is wrong, how so? As the statement says top tv in Australia. NRL Grand final was the most watched tv program (when you include all those Australians living country NSW AND QLD (around 2 million), it beats the AFL in total Australians watching on TV,
roosters14
Guest
You do realise that 3pm saturday games where a regular feature of last seasons draw? Indeed this slot posted pretty good attendances mostly featuring sydney sides at suburban grounds. Fingers crossed the nrl presist with it as its my favourite time to attend sport through growing up in that culture in the UK. A further way to grow this slot would be to have a big drawing game at anz or allianz this could encourage a culture of attendance like the afl do with the big game in Melbourne on saturday arvo Night games are a scourage on the competition and it makes it impossible for me to attend with a one year old i suspect many others are in the same boat
roosters14
Guest
You do realise that 3pm saturday games where a regular feature of last seasons draw? Indeed this slot posted pretty good attendances mostly featuring sydney sides at suburban grounds. Fingers crossed the nrl presist with it as its my favourite time to attend sport through growing up in that culture in the UK. A further way to grow this slot would be to have a big drawing game at anz or allianz this could encourage a culture of attendance like the afl do with the big game in Melbourne on saturday arvo Night games are a scourage on the competition and it makes it impossible for me to attend with a one year old i suspect many others are in the same boat
roosters14
Guest
You do realise that 3pm saturday games where a regular feature of last seasons draw? Indeed this slot posted pretty good attendances mostly featuring sydney sides at suburban grounds. Fingers crossed the nrl presist with it as its my favourite time to attend sport through growing up in that culture in the UK. A further way to grow this slot would be to have a big drawing game at anz or allianz this could encourage a culture of attendance like the afl do with the big game in Melbourne on saturday arvo Night games are a scourage on the competition and it makes it impossible for me to attend with a one year old i suspect many others are in the same boat
roosters14
Guest
You do realise that 3pm saturday games where a regular feature of last seasons draw? Indeed this slot posted pretty good attendances mostly featuring sydney sides at suburban grounds. Fingers crossed the nrl presist with it as its my favourite time to attend sport through growing up in that culture in the UK. A further way to grow this slot would be to have a big drawing game at anz or allianz this could encourage a culture of attendance like the afl do with the big game in Melbourne on saturday arvo Night games are a scourage on the competition and it makes it impossible for me to attend with a one year old i suspect many others are in the same boat
roosters14
Guest
You do realise that 3pm saturday games where a regular feature of last seasons draw? Indeed this slot posted pretty good attendances mostly featuring sydney sides at suburban grounds. Fingers crossed the nrl presist with it as its my favourite time to attend sport through growing up in that culture in the UK. A further way to grow this slot would be to have a big drawing game at anz or allianz this could encourage a culture of attendance like the afl do with the big game in Melbourne on saturday arvo Night games are a scourage on the competition and it makes it impossible for me to attend with a one year old i suspect many others are in the same boat
Shouts Chen
Guest
Get rid of Monday Night NRL. This is such a waste of time. Not many people around Australia have Foxtel to watch the Monday Night Rugby League. ON a few occasions, they have NRL Matches on Monday, particularly due to the Easter Monday and the Queen's Birthday Long Weekend. I think that NRL should decide on this planning for 2015. NRL should consider the State of Origin Series as well as the Trans Tasman Series between Australia and New Zealand.
Wascally Wabbit
Guest
This really frustrates me when I hear that " games are inconvenient to attend " -- for whatever reason. There are 365 days in a year. 8 560 hours. Each club has 12 home games. Even if it takes 4 hours of travel / play time per game, that's 48 hours a year. Is each and every fan not capable of organising 48 hours out of 8 560 every year ?
Organiser
Guest
Here here!!!! Monday Nights are ONLY to suit Pay TV. get rid of them!!! The sooner the better!!!!!
dayer
Guest
agree
dayer
Guest
and phil Goold
daniel p
Guest
Congratulations you have identified one of the few nrl growth areas and have come up with a perfect way to stop that growth dead
Anthony
Guest
Correction.....NRL did not have 4 of the top 5 games viewed on TV. There was the NRL Grand Final (which was below the AFL GF) & 3 SOO games. After that NRL is way down the list. This is a problem considering Sydney has 1/4 of Australia's population. Even more sobering is that regular NRL games on Pay TV & FTA draw far less viewers than the AFL. This has been the result of Foxtel now showing all AFL games live (except SA & WA home games).
Danny
Guest
Epiquin, the question is "are the games less convenient for people to attend" on Saturday afternoon??? The answer, of course, it is for some but if, as we are led to believe, the majority of people want more day games, then surely those it IS convenient for those people to attend???
AR
Guest
Oh yes, I agree with that. Soccer is still a long way behind AFL/NRL. But it will be interesting to see how the ALeague fares in the back half of its season.