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.
Jest
Roar Rookie
Completely agree, the players association should be taking up the issue of time off in the season with their clubs not the afl. It would also give players another thing to negotiate, want more weeks off give up more pay, want more pay give up a week off.
Pete
Guest
Get rid of byes altogether and leave it to clubs to manage their lists and get the best out of their players over the duration of the season. Or if clubs can't be relied upon to look after their player welfare put a rule in the AFL players agreement that each player must be given 2 weeks off during the season.
Judy Atu
Guest
Complete break for every team mid season is the best and fairest in my opinion. My first thought on option B is you wouldn't want to be the teams that get the early break, teams don't really need a rest after 7 rounds and then have to play another 16 games. Then you have the lucky teams that get their bye at either rounds 14,15 or 16 No it's not fair to all teams
Ryan Buckland
Expert
Exactly! And there's plenty of stuff they (the AFL) could do: - a legends game - something with the juniors - focus on women's footy - an "All Star" weekend like in the NBA (albeit balanced with giving the players some R 'n' R) I suspect you're right though in that the people that don't want a football-free weekend are people that are devoted to their team. Fair enough, but there's plenty more to life (and that comes from someone who watches 4-5 games most weekends!)
Paul D
Roar Guru
My main thought towards people who are aghast at having a whole weekend without footy is that they seriously need to find other things to do with their lives. Is it really that bad? Hell we have 20 weeks without football consecutively, what's one week in the middle of the season?
mds1970
Roar Guru
I definitely prefer option B - I did a similar article a couple of weeks ago; although mine went further to have 18 rounds of 8 games to accommodate two byes. Having the two teams that had the bye the previous weekend playing each other on the Thursday night overcomes one of the current issues where a team coming off a bye plays a team that isn't.
Ryan Buckland
Expert
To be honest, I'm coming around to the idea of just taking a break mid season - no games in what would be Round 12, 13 or 14. This year, there's been far too many instances of a team coming off of their bye playing at home against a side travelling off of a six day break - the bye side has won every time I believe. That, plus football fatigue has certainly set in; there's less discussion, less articles being written, less tweets being tweeted. Perhaps its time to try a single week off.
Paul D
Roar Guru
I don’t like option B because inevitably it would favour teams who get the bye around the middle of the season – having a bye at round 7 and then playing without a stint for the rest of the year would be very punishing. I’m a big fan of the first option. Full break, week off, have it in the middle of school holidays so that players/coaches/staff who have kids can spend some time with them. I don’t agree with anyone who says a week off from footy is Armageddon, I’m sure the NRL would be scheduling blockbusters to take advantage of the windfall of eyeballs they might get for a week. Plus the week off for everyone at the same time has the added advantage of being totally fair and equal, which is something that’s been in short supply in this competition in recent years.
me too
Guest
option b would be unfair on those teams vying for finals that get a break early rather than mid or late season. better one week off for all, or simply no break and let teams manage individual player breaks over the season.
spruce moose
Guest
Option B is the best, you could actually give all teams the two byes they desperately crave that way and still have 8 games a weekend. Do that over 18 weeks and no one would really notice. The challenge would be to give teams both a short and long stint between bye rounds.
Wilson
Roar Guru
I like the Option B more. teams still get the rest but the compertionon continues as normal. the other choice is use both with each other. so that teams and players get the 2 rest week they have been asking for.
QConners
Roar Pro
Option B would be my choice. That does well to keep the weekly games, but also allows a time for rest, which is similar to how it is in the NFL.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Optionj A might work in the future if the National Womens League expanded to such an extent that it was having its grand final mid-season. Option B is not a bad thought as it was easily allow the fixturing of a minimum of 9 Thurs night games per season. The downside is that the ladder would be a bit out of kilter for those 9 weeks, but that's probably not a huge issue.