The AFL byes are over, thank goodness!
The bye rounds, the three rounds of six games – 6 6 6 – the devils work.
They are a momentum killer. They are drawn out and the weekends are boring with less matches. There is a real lack of AFL on free-to-air TV in particular on Sunday afternoons.
There are two options.
Option A: Empty weekend
One weekend every club has a bye – no AFL. Simple.
Broadcasters have plenty of football content they could put on TV.
The AFL Under 18 National Championships was on during the bye weeks.
The Community Cup between The MegaHertz and the Rockdogs was played.
There is state league football – SANFL, VFL and WAFL. Channel Seven in Victoria have been showing two VFL matches a weekend for three weekends.
Community Channel 31 even had a game of local footy on TV last Sunday to fill the void left by no AFL on Free-To-Air TV.
There is plenty of football content available to fill one weekend. From next year there could even be a AFL Womens State of Origin matches as it would be well after the February-March AFL Womens season.
Option B: nine weekends of eight matches
There are more creative ways to approach the bye weeks.
Have two teams have a bye every round for nine rounds. This would start in about Round 7 and flow through Round 16. (The Queens Birthday weekend would still have nine games)
The two teams that have a bye in Round 7 would then play Thursday night on Round 8. For example if Adelaide and Brisbane had a bye in Round 7 they would play each other on the Thursday night to start Round 8.
The bye teams meeting each other on Thursday night eliminates the argument of one team having a six day break and the other team a 12 day break. In theory providing a more even contest as both teams would have had similar breaks.
For an eight game round the Saturday twilight match (4.40pm) would be cut. To fit Thursday night football I would remove the Sunday twilight match but the AFL would probably omit one of the Saturday afternoon games.
Thursday night football, which the AFL seem quite keen on at the moment, could have ten matches – Round 8 through to Round 17. This might be an enticing package for broadcaster.
The AFL Players Association want two byes during the home-and-away season but the AFL have ignored that request by scheduling a pre-finals bye weekend this year. Neither I’ve my options cater for two byes per season but it doesn’t seem to concern the AFL.
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