'I don't think anything should be taken for granted': AFL keeping options open for future grand final start times

We can agree on home grown Aussie entertainment. I used to be all for the MCG as the GF venue, but the last 2 years has shown me that the game & the people across Australia are missing out......& they are the ones that have made & will continue to make the history. All the arguments about more people (need to take out MCC members), dollars, able to put on the event etc. have been blown away. If we don’t start moving the GF around the AFL will be all the poorer in 15-20 years time.

Pretty sure Lillee and Marsh loved the Boxing day Test at the G, as do a lot of players.

I’m not anti-capitalism but I am against money being put before everything else in cultural activities.

Be careful what you wish for to others, may come back and bite you on your a.

No argument about Aussie Rules history being built right across the country

That's partly my point. Who gives one re what a European or a Yank thinks of our comp. Plus they have different cultures, histories and logistics to Aus. And the WAFL or SANFL do they really want or need the excess razamataz bee ess anyway? They are capable of putting on a great game and full house without it as they have often done in the past. (As is the MCG). The challenge is getting people off their a and away from comforts of technology, maybe tell them they can win a free ticket to dream world at the gate.

I know it's a bit Melbourne centric and sorry for offending non Vic states. I lived in Melbourne for 5 years as a young adult. Have been to every city numerous times and have lived in Brisbane and Darwin. Every city has their unique qualities and gifts but to me the G is the home of the GF. Not from an entitled point of view but as an intrinsic part of the historical and cultural landscape of Melbourne. The VFL is the old VFA which has been the second tier comp in Melbourne for 100 years. The best of the best from all other states mostly gravitated to Melbourne at some stage of their career long before the AFL ever came into being - some of them excelled, some struggled to go the distance. Melbourne has long been the Mecca of Aussie Rules and all footy roads led to Melbourne. Notwithstanding WAFL and SANFL have been brilliant comps full of champion players. That's probably red rag to a bull and "typical Victorian arrogance" will be the accusation but it's true. Traffic heading the other way was usually Vic seconds players heading west to be guaranteed a senior's game and a better wage. Ask any player where they'd mostly like to win the premiership and I'd be confident, outside of home ground advantage, most would say the MCG. The G is also the closest thing to any form of neutrality. It's most likely inevitable the GF will be played at other capital cities in the future and most likely at night. Currently the AFL will do whatever it takes to keep the revenue streams flowing no matter what the costs. I don't begrudge Bne, Perth or any city in the future who may get the gig. I can see pros and cons, and as I said a deep debt of gratitude is owed to Queensland and W.A. But my own feelings are that it doesn't feel like GF day to me and I've watched the vast majority of GFs living outside of Victoria. But I can live with the potential change and at the end of the day the quality of the GF games themselves in 2020 and 2021 were not compromised and were great games of footy. Good point re the greed and mismanagement of the old VFL clubs and there probably is some karma there. The purist in me will always want the GF at the G but if that can not be the case at least keep it a day time game and minimise the rolling over like a wimpy dog and following American trends of the "entertainment" being more significant than the Soul of the game.

......it's less accessible and as such, elitist since the premise for p.m. fixtures is exclusively driven by and for television - i.e. if you still support live attendances at fixtures? Thats a dangerous precedent that is unfortunately well entrenched throughout elite sporting products but I accept that the market drives this devolution. When the 'custodian' of our indigenous code is exclusively beholden to networks then any governance is a mere lip service to its 'market' (once were supporters) - which has been the case for far too long in the AFL's case.

...... sounding like a dinosaur Rowdy. Our shared ethos is destined for extinction truth be told.

The only thing the AFL are committed to building is a commercial behemoth.

......concur that the AFL is Vic centric Rowdy as an old Victorian myself. of course the exception is when in expanding their commercial empire to far flung planets i.e. GWS. Equity is slow coming on so many levels. I hope in hope that Canberra will one day be rewarded for its long suffering support of the indigenous code, given its not too shabby pedigree of more than 100 years, with a stand alone entity, rather than their ongoing placation of expedience.

.....there should also be a 'team' in the Nations Capital rather than patronising token offering i.e. GWS. More than 100 years of footy pedigree in this region and we keep getting placated by the AFL with FIFO's.

The expected $40m AFL return from the Perth GF shows the AFL that the G is not the cash cow they thought it was. The MCG is so compromised with MCC members rights.

Sport is about sport and compromising it's value with a spreadsheet is the domain of the soulless.

Would you consider 8/2 fair?

I wrote a very long reply to this comment that hasn’t been posted yet. Could the editors please let me know why not? Is it because I included links to other newspaper articles?

Kevo you have proper triggered me with that last paragraph. I realise that wasn’t your intent, with the overall theme of your comment about the soul of the game. But that paragraph has highlighted just how little people actually know about the history of the VFL and how the other states saved it. I’ve written a reply to another comment further up this page. Please read the articles attached. Western Australia and South Australia sacrificed the WAFL and SANFL in order to help the VFL survive. Specifically the clubs of Geelong, Footscray, Collingwood, Melbourne, North Melbourne and Richmond wouldn’t even exist today if not for the sacrifice of the rest of the country. And for our thanks we have been spat in the face more times then can be count, and now we get to sit by and watch the Collingwood club president be part of a deal that ensures the grand final will be played on Collingwoods home ground until we are dead

I feel you pain. Unfortunately the AFL are at the mercy of the networks while the market, so that is us but not all of us, support this dumbing down of our game through our patronage of the networks self perpetuating industry of change for change sake. A construct of gimmickry to be sure and looking more like world championship wrestling every day.

Quality over quantity any day I say Pope. You are suffering from the contemporary consumer disease i.e. FOMO I believe. What an insatiable society we have created.

Completely support your sentiment Kevo but alas our society is ignorant to the difference between cost & value.