What’s going on with Friday Night Footy?
Seven.
That is the miserably low number of Friday night matches this season that features two finalists.
Friday night is primetime. Friday night is the match that sets the tone for the rest of the weekend – it’s the opening bounce of an epic three-day footyfest we all enjoy every week.
But rather than treat us to classic matches featuring premiership contenders, the AFL’s Friday night offerings thus far have been meek.
Last week’s Essendon vs North Melbourne clash was the first Friday night game to feature two of 2014’s top eight sides, and by then we’d already been ‘treated’ to three matches featuring no 2014 finalists, as well as three matches featuring wooden spoon favourites Carlton.
The result of this poor scheduling has been damning. Before last week’s thriller, the average margin for Friday night games was a whopping 53 points, by far the highest of any timeslot.
People who are watching this game for the first time watch Friday night football. It’s on in pubs, RSLs and even some restaurants around the country. For people who play, umpire and volunteer in community football, Friday night is sometimes the only match they’re able to watch each weekend.
But as it stands, the people who tune in to this fabled primetime slot are being served rubbish.
The NRL attacks Friday night with stunning ferocity, often scheduling two games featuring absolute heavyweights. While that code’s fans often complain that the Brisbane Broncos play just about every time, they’re more often than not a good team and are always pitted against quality opposition.
This ferocity compared to the AFL’s lackadaisical approach to Friday night makes for some serious head-scratching.
Who asked to see Carlton in primetime seven times? That’s one more Friday night match than both of 2014’s grand finalists combined. In fact, the number of Friday night matches featuring at least one top six side from 2015 is fewer than the number of matches featuring a side that finished between 9th-13th.
Obviously the AFL has challenges in this area of fixturing. The number of Victorian teams in the competition often means that the MCG or Etihad Stadium needs to be used three time in one round. If a venue needs to be used three times in one round, then one of those matches will need to be on Friday night.
Given that non-Victorian clubs are dominating the competition at present, we are going to see the odd Collingwood vs St Kilda game to open the round.
But in order to avoid some of the horrors that await us later in the season (Carlton vs Hawthorn in Round 17? Yikes), the AFL would do well to adopt the NFL’s flexible schedule model.
The AFL already has the right idea in leaving Round 23’s running times undecided until later, but why not extend that to say, the last six weeks of the competition?
The aforementioned Round 17 has Etihad Stadium in use three times, but that Western Bulldogs vs Collingwood game on the Sunday afternoon looks a lot more tantalising than a 150-point snorefest.
While we’re at it, GWS vs Geelong is stuck in the Saturday afternoon logjam, can’t we move that to Saturday night and bump the Brisbane vs North Melbourne game down?
Adopting this kind of model would allow the AFL to make primetime adjustments depending on how teams are travelling, giving the competition the late season spike in revenue and fan interest it so desperately wants.
But such a model would obviously have its challenges, and the AFL may wait until Etihad Stadium belongs to them before even considering it.
As for tonight’s tantalising game between the injury-riddled Cats and the hapless Blues? I think I’ll go out.
joe b
Guest
I think all teams have a default date as the Friday because it isn't set yet. Either way, the top 4 teams should have played their games by the Saturday night, and hopefully the top team plays on Friday night.
Macca
Guest
Sounds like a plan Damo!
Damo
Guest
Netflix for the Missus Macca, Netflix :)
Macca
Guest
Damo - All those teams have pretty big followings and would be ratings gold (or would have been at the seasons start). For me other than the Carlton Richmond game I will be watching the cricket over all the rest (or at least as much as the wife allows).
Damo
Guest
Well, as follower of both sports (but mainly cricket) it's a win win any way. You can channel flick between both sports in my opinion and then stay on the cricket for the rest of the evening after the footy has finished. A look at the fixtures stacked up: 1st Test = PA vs Coll (Thurs) & Rich vs Car (Fri - Surprise!) 2nd Test = Nth vs Ess (Again) 3rd Test - Haw v Rich (meh) 4th Test - Adel v Rich (meh) 5th Test - Haw v Port Personally at the beginning of the season when I saw the fixturing I would only really be interested in Haw v Port and Nth v Ess to a lesser extent. Maybe from a Melb point of view Haw vs Rich is a blockbuster but there's also a couple of dud games in there. **edit - I will also probably just run 2 tv's side by side anyway ;)
Macca
Guest
No mate - they love to go head to head and channel 7 would want to take the natural advantage of it actually being football season and pile on top a juicy blockbuster that smashes channel 9's ratings for the cricket. They don't want to give anyone else an even break - they have to win the rating each and every week and if you can destroy a show a rival has paid a lot of money for in the process all the better.
Damo
Guest
Would they not do it the other way around? Leave the dud games for the Ashes as you expect your audience to be down anyway and build as much momentum on your blockbusters when it's guaranteed you'll have the Friday night slot to yourself?? Dunno how TV execs think.
13th Man
Guest
Surely on rd 23 the friday night game should be Port V Freo at the Adelaide Oval. But it will probs be Carlton V Hawks to give the Hawkers and advantage
13th Man
Guest
they had night cricket there with the Big Bash Final. Why can't they have footy there?
Macca
Guest
TomC - "You need to re-read my post, Macca." But your post is wrong TomC - Tonights game (Geelong) AND the Richmond game are opposition home games so 40% of Melbourne Friday night games are opposition games and 57% of total Friday night games are opposition games so it is a bit hard to argue "opposition clubs" don't "get as much out of it as the Blues do." On relevancy of people turning up having already paid for a ticket - firstly with membership numbers nowdays it is impossible to tell how many members had actually "already paid" for a ticket because so many are just 3 or 5 game memberships (Carlton offer memberships just to go to the Essendon, Collingwood & Richmond Games this year)but secondly it is irrelevant because for scheduling of Friday night games channel 7 want a large crowd for atmosphere - they don't care if they are members or not and the fact Carlton have more members is an indication they have more supporters (surely you aren't arguing the Bulldogs have more supporters than Carlton) which equates to bigger ratings. As indicated by the crowd numbers to 2 vastly different games in style, substance and relevance to the competition - the AFL & Channel 7 know that a game featuring Carlton (or Collingwood or any other big club) will draw a crowd even if those teams are dead last (like carlton is) while even if the Bulldogs are flying they still won't be big draws.
TomC
Roar Guru
Ah yes, I'd forgotten the second Richmond-Carlton game. It's clearly relevant that many more people had already paid for a ticket to the Carlton game.
Macca
Guest
Damo - O another thread just gave me an idea as to the scheduling - the Ashes - with a possible real rival for the friday night slot for 5 weeks later in the year perhaps chanel 7 wanted to keep the blockbuster games for around that time and get some of the dud one out of the way early. Just a thought.
Tom
Guest
I agree with you macca. Going into the season no1 expected the blues to be this bad did they? I mean not many had them in the 8, but they still at least competed last year and produced entertaining contests. Alot of blame should be put on channel 7. They wanted the blues on friday nights to encourage the Steveo V Mick showdowns in the press conferance afterwards
Macca
Guest
TomC - Geelong tonight is the home team, Richmond on July 10 is the home team, West Coast were the home team & Sydney next week are the home team, so Carlton get 3 of 7 home Friday night games Collingwood, Essendon & Hawthorn (3 of 5 Melbourne games) - I think the opposition teams request argument is valid. And yes the blues probably do have more members (although double is a stretch given the Blues have just 46k members) but it is irrelevant as the fact remains about the same number of people turned up to watch the blues play predictably putrid football as turned up to Watch the bulldogs and Freo play a fantastic game - the expectation of attendance (whether it be members or non members) and TV viewers impacts scheduling decisions - if the AFL and channel 7 can schedule a Carlton game and know at worst it will pull the same as an at best figure for the Bulldogs or Melbourne (or close to) the downside risk is negligible but the upside is massive.
TomC
Roar Guru
That's a fair point about clubs wanting to play Carlton on a Friday night early in the season. I expect the Eagles were pretty happy about getting a Friday night game against a big team like the Blues in round 2. In practice, they didn't get an especially good crowd, however. However, it should be pointed out that Carlton are the home team in all of their Melbourne-based Friday night games except for tonight, against Geelong, so I doubt opposition clubs get as much out of it as the Blues do. At a guess I'd say the Blues have close to twice as many season ticket holders as the Dogs, so that statistic really doesn't tell the story you'd like it to, Macca. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see whether next year's fixture gives the Blues as many commercial advantages as this year's has done. You'd imagine not.
Avatar
Roar Guru
The crowd capacity of Manuka Oval is 13,550. That's six people less than the figure that attended the recent GWS vs Hawthorn game at Spotless Stadium (crowd capacity there is 25K). For Manuka to regularly host night games (or more twilight matches for that matter) the ground needs to undergo some more redevelopment work, which can be made possible if the Giants continue to improve results on the field, thus raking in the money for that to happen.
Macca
Guest
I admit PaulD the blues got too many Friday night games but it can't be changed and it has been discussed relentlessly - and a lot of opposition clubs want to play the blues on a friday night because they get a good gate. For example the much maligned turn out to the Carlton GWS game last week was just 1500 people less than the attendance at Freo V the Bulldogs the same weekend at the same ground - so surely it is time to move on from this topic and talk about football.
Macca
Guest
TOmC - It is worth A discussion but we are 8 weeks in and we up up to our 24th discussion on it - how about we talk about football!
TomC
Roar Guru
Settle down, Macca. Plenty has been said about it, yes. But it is bloody annoying, and it is worth discussion.
Paul D
Roar Guru
"Have you ever tried to out together a draw that covers every state and territory in the country with 13 different stadiums and 18 different teams over 22 rounds trying to accommodate the demands of the clubs, the stadiums (plus the deals the clubs have with the stadiums) and the broadcaster while trying to predict which games are going to be good ones?" No, but if I was to have a crack at it, I wouldn't be penciling in Carlton for 6 Friday night games.