The gripe that the AFL fixture is essentially a money-making exercise designed to increase revenue rather than a balanced home and away season is a tried and true discussion. Surprisingly though, there is a move away from a 23-round season in favour of tiered systems that mean the bottom six are finished by July.
Instead, I would like to explore going down a 17-1 model and reduce the complexities of fixture.
First of the bat, removing four rounds of football from the season isn’t going to be popular. There is no getting around that. I would be slotting an extra bye in for the players association, so with less games on there is a slot open.
With four weeks missing from the calendar, this would mean either the start time or end of the season would be moved in. The summer series competition can easily start a week or two later to build up the momentum into the season.
Also with the empty slots, the AFL can use one of the slots for another exhibition women’s game, the State of Origin game which can be given some clear air. The players can have extra time to recover from niggling injuries and hopefully increase the spectacle.
Plus with using an 18-game system, every team would be nine home and nine away games. The double up game would be used for the Showdown/Derby/Battle of the Bridge/QClash and rivalry matches from the Victorian clubs. Then the next season, the whole thing flips and if you played at home against Fremantle the first year, the second year you play them away. Simple.
Essentially this model relies on marketing from scarcity, where there is less football on so the fans will more likely to engage when it is on. It’s taking a leaf from the NFL where there are less games in a season, but the stadiums are always packed and the television audience is still strong. As opposed to saturating the market where fans can easily skip games because there is always another one next week.
Would the AFL ever risk losing money from cutting the games back, probably not. But if Gill is looking for suggestions on how to tweak the fixture, might as well throw the idea out there.
Phelpsy
Guest
Reduce the team size to 16 a side ... thus less spread of talent. Would also slow the game down and make a better spectacle and save money for clubs. Then increase clubs .. tassie, another in sydney and adelaide and perth. Then go to plating each other once. Make final 10 and run finals longer.
dontknowmuchaboutfootball
Guest
All this talk about less football is crazy. I want more. MORE! Expand the H&A season to 34 weeks. Ditch the pre-season comp. Increase list sizes by 10-20%, and cap the number of rounds a given player can play across the season (20? I don't know; I'll leave it to the OH&S types), as well as the number of consecutive rounds (12?). Throw in a couple of bye rounds if we must. 4 weeks of finals = 40 weeks of football!. 4 weeks leave for players, while trade and draft are on, and an 8 week pre-season. Can you imagine it? Don't give me any rot about playing finals football in hot weather — they're highly paid professional athletes! They can go out and earn their exorbitant salaries (which will only be higher given the boost in TV rights). And given the GF is never, ever not going to be played at the MCG, there's nothing to worry about. Melbourne only has about 3 hot days a year, so the chances of a sweltering GF in any given year are about 1/100. Non-Vic teams can use their b-graders and draftees as fodder to weather the early season heat, and Vic teams can do likewise for any freak occurrences of sunshine. 40 weeks of football heaven (or hell, if your team happens to have fallen off a cliff, or settled into an early grave). Can. You. Imagine. It?!
Maxirius
Guest
Good man
Troy
Guest
I do like the idea of having 18 rounds, but it won't happen. I am coming more around to the idea of 17-5.
Bruce
Guest
Good point mattyb. 12 months ago playing gws twice would have been penciled in as 2 wins and an easy draw. Not any more.
Max
Guest
Make the competition truly national and introduce teams for Tasmania and Northern Territory. Get rid of bye's and have a 1 week mid season break for ALL teams. If they keep the end of season 1 week break you now have 21 weeks for the competition. They could even hold a charity game as a promotion to start the season, making it 22 weeks. Teams play each other once on a biannual home and away basis. (Home this year, away next year) The current system results in some teams not playing away to interstate teams for up to three years. They could even start the women's competition later and use the mid or end of season break for their grand final. Why are they planning to play the women's grand final in March? The competition should be run in conjunction with the men's.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
It's pretty clear that the AFL are unlikely in the extreme to reduce the length of the season.
Paul D
Roar Guru
Yeah, let's have the eastern seaboard clubs do even more travel by flying to Adelaide and Perth every second weekend while the Victorian clubs sit on their ass at home. Presumably Geelong make up the 9th side - by dint of being 40km out of Melbourne. Dreadful idea.
Brian
Guest
Easy just have a Melbourne conference for the 9 Melbourne teams and an Australia conference for the other 9. The main problem is the unfairness of travel for the non-Melbourne teams. This could be overcome by having the Grand Final between the winners of the 2 conferences every year. That way every team has a 1 in 9 chance of making it irrespective of travel.
mds1970
Roar Guru
Many games are already contracted and clubs would be impacted by a reduction in the season. For example, GWS Giants have three games per season contracted to Canberra. They're important for the Giants - Canberra is worth $1m plus 3,500 members to GWS. But this model would leave just six games in Greater Western Sydney. Not enough. Hawthorn would be left with only five home games in Melbourne unless Tasmania was sacrificed.
Batman
Guest
I don't understand why AFL season doesn't extend into Oct. The weather is perfect all over the country. Why is 22 games the limit of the season? Why cant' the top 10 teams play extra games. so they meet each other twice. It isn't a amateur game any more and players can be rested rather than having byes. We don't want meaningless games like Pre-season or Origin.
PartTimeZombie
Guest
I've seen a similar proposal before, probably on this site. The reason it will never happen is because with the loss of games comes a loss of TV money, and the AFL is not in the habit of giving money away. While it is a nice simple setup in terms of the draw, it will never happen.
clipper
Guest
Don't think they get much for 'internationals' a couple of NRL Aust vs NRL Kiwi games a year does not amount to a lot, but SoO is a significant money earner.
David Rudland
Roar Rookie
You cannot expect to be taken seriously, surely. If you had first asked yourself the question as to just how much revenue your idea would cost, you would have summed up from the outset, the futility of your proposal. If it needed to be answered, it could potentially cost $Ms, as well as jobs. And as it this needs further reinforcement, the public want more football, not less. let's put this pointless hypothetical to bed now
mattyb
Guest
And I did,it wasn't overly complicated,are you happy now?
Maxirius
Guest
No, you've clearly not reflected on my reply In the 17 phase all teams except the Sydney and qld teams, who would rotate their derbies, will play balanced seasons year to year If you rewarded the top three in each group with an extra home game than that has been earnt from a balanced 17 phase If you have one of the 5 phase rounds as neutral rounds then each team has two home games. It's no where near the issue it appears at a superficial glance
mds1970
Roar Guru
In the 17 phase, 9 teams will have 9 home games and 9 will have 8. If each of the 3 groups have 3 teams that have played 9 home games; then you can end up with everyone playing 11. But if any group doesn't, then someone will get 12 home games and someone else will only get 10.
Cat
Roar Guru
you said, 'of course its possible', I asked you to prove it is.
mattyb
Guest
Cat?Are you genuinely serious dude? My original comment that you tagged onto says I don't know the solution but you seem to think a solution is impossible. All I have really said is the current system is based around the old VFL and clearly doesn't work. I said the current system is no good and it's up to the AFL to find a better system so why are you asking me questions beyond what I asked? Strange . I did actually mention 3 systems that would probably be better but never said they were perfect. What do I need to bare in mind in your world that seems to have no snickers? Your question is so juvenile that you could just basically answer have a 34 round season and it answers your question. Why did you actually tag on to this comment and not just write your own? Completely bizarre.
Maxirius
Guest
Actually you can, but for the Sydney and Queensland derbies which would alternate In the 17 phase: "Derbies" are shared gate games. Non Vic teams host 8 games against travelling teams and travel 8 times. In Victoria, teams would share a home game and play 4 home games against other Vic teams and four against non Vic each year In the 5 phase You could either reward the top 3 in each group with home games or you otherwise play a round at neutral venues.