Beginning of Friday Night Football

[JohnZ]

That's pretty close to the mark. The 2:10 game was shown a bit like that 1985 match was broadcast; roughly 75% of the match was shown with usually some early excerpts just having highlights.

Yea gotcha.

So the early game was shown 1p to 4p, then the 2p game from 4p to 6p, but with some editing.

That concept feels so foreign now in a season where the majority of games were played consecutively to avoid clashing and show all games live.

 

[Rich]

Yea gotcha.

So the early game was shown 1p to 4p, then the 2p game from 4p to 6p, but with some editing.

That concept feels so foreign now in a season where the majority of games were played consecutively to avoid clashing and show all games live.

Even crazier is the fact it was only just over a decade ago that Ch 7 had to be dragged kicking and screaming to actually show Friday night footy live instead of an hour of Better Homes and Gardens.

An organisation that treats its viewers with complete contempt, it’s coverage of said football is unwatchable.

 

[Macpotata]

Friday night football in the 90's was the best. Carey and Co running the show. West Coast at the WACA going toe to toe. Modra, the famous Adelaide Crow. Unreal. Then we had the big game match ups too.

*, good times.

 

[dean33]

Just seen this pop up on youtube.
It is how Friday night football started out in the league.
First time a game for premiership points in real season began was round 1 of 1985.

Back then the only in season games covered live on tv were Swans games from SCG every second Sunday and the grand final itself.
Saturday night replay show was the regular football tv diet which usually meant 2 hours from 6-30 pm to 8-30 pm every Saturday night with the best 35 to 40 minutes of about three games from that Saturday shown at night.
This was something very new. A game for premiership points played under lights, with a yellow ball played at the end of the working week.
I cannot remember what time the game stated but my guess is it was 7-30pm so like a game on Saturday if you wanted to follow your tv live, if you could not get to the game itself, you had to listen to the radio coverage that night.
Then later at night, probably 9-30 pm, a replay show of the game was shown.
Somebody that recorded it on video recorder must have uploaded to youtube.
Looks like a bit of Saturday night replay is after it.

Friday night football for first time ever...

That brought back a lot of memories, gotta love the 80’s.

 

[JohnZ]

Even crazier is the fact it was only just over a decade ago that Ch 7 had to be dragged kicking and screaming to actually show Friday night footy live instead of an hour of Better Homes and Gardens.

Yup I remember this. Can't remember if we got Friday nights live from the 2012 deal or the 2017 deal, but I remember vividly the 8.30 start time for Friday night games in that 07 to 11 stretch that the cats had. Wasn't great.

I know when Ch7 had the Saturday arvo game 2012-2016, they delayed the 1.45pm/2.10pm start time to the 3.20pm just so they could lead into the news.

Ch7 aren't great for footy at all, wish 9 or 10 would give them a serious run for it in 2024.

 

[TP86]

Friday night footy being delayed as recently as 2011, even for finals, really dates the league and shows how retrograde the Demetriou administration was. His press conference announcing the new rights deal starting 2012 with “live or near live” as a victory for fans was spin of the highest order. It’s ludicrous to recall that they wouldn’t even offer pay per view for those willing to fork out. Say what you will about gambling and social media, but without both the games are probably still being shown on delay.

 

[Wallaby]

Does anyone remember when Adelaide first came in to the comp they played a lot of games at 7.30 on Sunday Night? And then moved them back a bit to 6pm on Sundays? What were those games like to go to?

 

[Rusty Brookes]

The ad for Trapper John - now there's a throwback.

Here's footage of the crowd breaking down the doors to get into the game (42:26 if the link doesn't work)

 

[shammersting]

I think they started 5 30 melbourne time and the news was at half time. The Fitzroy umpiregate was one of these games.

Does anyone remember when Adelaide first came in to the comp they played a lot of games at 7.30 on Sunday Night? And then moved them back a bit to 6pm on Sundays? What were those games like to go to?

 

[Rich]

Friday night footy being delayed as recently as 2011, even for finals, really dates the league and shows how retrograde the Demetriou administration was. His press conference announcing the new rights deal starting 2012 with “live or near live” as a victory for fans was spin of the highest order. It’s ludicrous to recall that they wouldn’t even offer pay per view for those willing to fork out. Say what you will about gambling and social media, but without both the games are probably still being shown on delay.

Correct.

I posted earlier in the thread that it was over a decade since this, but mind boggling that it’s less than a decade.

And as someone else posted, it was also Fox Footy getting the rights to show all games live that forced 7’s hand.

 

[wagstaff]

Yup I remember this. Can't remember if we got Friday nights live from the 2012 deal or the 2017 deal, but I remember vividly the 8.30 start time for Friday night games in that 07 to 11 stretch that the cats had. Wasn't great.

I know when Ch7 had the Saturday arvo game 2012-2016, they delayed the 1.45pm/2.10pm start time to the 3.20pm just so they could lead into the news.

Ch7 aren't great for footy at all, wish 9 or 10 would give them a serious run for it in 2024.

Forgot about the Sat arvo delayed match; such an anachronism that felt like a throwback to the 1990s.

As others have said, the 2007-11 TV rights deal was very poorly done and to have delayed TV coverage as recently as less than a decade ago so regularly for FTA was just hopeless.

 

[wagstaff]

I managed to get in about 5 minutes before the first bounce, a girl i worked with missed the entire first quarter.
Also, i read that there was a Friday night game in Sydney a couple of years earlier, that most people have forgotten about.

It was a game between the Swans and Geelong late in 1983 which was moved because of a rugby Test match clashing with the Sunday timeslot.

You can see some brief highlights of the game below:

 

[raymond35]

It was a game between the Swans and Geelong late in 1983 which was moved because of a rugby Test match clashing with the Sunday timeslot.

You can see some brief highlights of the game below:

Well done Wagstaff

 

[pablo668]

The first night game I ever watched was on a tuesday night, Claremont vs Hawthorn (Claremont won) back in 1980.
The first friday night game I recall seeing was a SANFL game on ABC, Sturt vs possibly Woodville.
The most memorable friday night VFL/AFL game I remember watching was a slogfest Richmond vs Carlton, and Michael Mitchell (fantastic player) kicked the winning goal.

 

[Macpotata]

Does anyone remember when Adelaide first came in to the comp they played a lot of games at 7.30 on Sunday Night? And then moved them back a bit to 6pm on Sundays? What were those games like to go to?

I remember those for sure. I forgot to mention it in my earlier post. Ask BigVic about those. A WCE fan living in Adelaide who went to them.

Mod's 13 goals in round 1 against Silvagni and co 1994 to complete the round.

92 they knocked off the Saints who had Lockett and my side the Catters in 93. Beat the reigning premiers WCE in round 2, 1993 also. Mod's starred with 6 goals. You could see through the tv the electicity the Crow Eaters possesed.

 

[Macpotata]

Tregenza, Liptak, Hall, Hodges, Weidemen, Anderson, Hart, McDermott, McGuiness, a young Riccuito and David Rhen. Smart, Bickley, * the names go on and on.


What a *en team the Crows of the 90;s would become. * Im jizzing just thinking about it

 

[FootyJunkie]

I know this is off topic, but seeing as we're reminiscing about days gone past....

Does anyone remember what Ch9s Sunday football used to be (2002 to 2006)

From memory the early 1.10pm game (generally interstate) was shown in full (was it live, can't remember that), with the 2.10pm game at the MCG (or Docklands) shown in a replay/highlights manner from the studio (like they used to do in the 80s/90s) afterwards up to the 6pm news.

Once in a blue moon, the second game would be live too, but joined in progress with a few minutes to go in the 1st quarter to fit the game in before the 6pm news... bit of a wank

Ch 7 in the early 90s had full live double headers every other week... either back to back 1pm-7pm with the news at 7pm... or 2pm and 530pm twilight game from Adelaide with news in between at 5pm

 

[FootyJunkie]

I remember those for sure. I forgot to mention it in my earlier post. Ask BigVic about those. A WCE fan living in Adelaide who went to them.

Mod's 13 goals in round 1 against Silvagni and co 1994 to complete the round.

92 they knocked off the Saints who had Lockett and my side the Catters in 93. Beat the reigning premiers WCE in round 2, 1993 also. Mod's starred with 6 goals. You could see through the tv the electicity the Crow Eaters possesed.

That Round 2 game had a lot of hype surrounding it, Modra Mania already started with some pegging an Crows v Eagles GF that year

 

[Sparkle]

Yup I remember this. Can't remember if we got Friday nights live from the 2012 deal or the 2017 deal, but I remember vividly the 8.30 start time for Friday night games in that 07 to 11 stretch that the cats had. Wasn't great.

I know when Ch7 had the Saturday arvo game 2012-2016, they delayed the 1.45pm/2.10pm start time to the 3.20pm just so they could lead into the news.

Ch7 aren't great for footy at all, wish 9 or 10 would give them a serious run for it in 2024.

The 2012 deal finally got rid of the delayed Friday night matches which we had from 2007-11 on Seven, fortunately for the first couple of years of the deal I was too young to realise/care, and by 2010-2011 I remember they were starting to show big matches live more often

I do remember watching a Geelong game in Canberra in 2015 on my phone so I could watch it live, rather than wait until 3:00pm to watch it on Seven. Crazy to think that it was only this current rights deal that shelved the delayed Saturday match (since then though Foxtel has become more mainstream and Kayo has arrived too which makes live sports much more accessible)

 

[JohnZ]

Once in a blue moon, the second game would be live too, but joined in progress with a few minutes to go in the 1st quarter to fit the game in before the 6pm news... bit of a wank

Ch 7 in the early 90s had full live double headers every other week... either back to back 1pm-7pm with the news at 7pm... or 2pm and 530pm twilight game from Adelaide with news in between at 5pm

Thanks. That's great info.

Looking on AFL tables, I can sometimes see two 2.10pm games, and sometimes one 2.10pm game and one 3.40pm game (played in perth at 1.40pm local), so I assume they took those perth games from about 4pm through to the 6pm news (as you said live, but with the 1st Q slightly cut off due to overlap).

I've tried finding old TV listings, but can't seem to find any from that 2002-2006 era during footy season in Melbourne.

 

[Vincent Hanna]

Friday night footy being delayed as recently as 2011, even for finals, really dates the league and shows how retrograde the Demetriou administration was. His press conference announcing the new rights deal starting 2012 with “live or near live” as a victory for fans was spin of the highest order. It’s ludicrous to recall that they wouldn’t even offer pay per view for those willing to fork out. Say what you will about gambling and social media, but without both the games are probably still being shown on delay.

Not to mention how long it took to get HD broadcasts also, was an absolute joke when you could watch almost every other sport in the world in HD and not AFL.

 

[TP86]

Not to mention how long it took to get HD broadcasts also, was an absolute joke when you could watch almost every other sport in the world in HD and not AFL.

I do wonder if anyone responsible feels embarrassed when Fox shows old game marathons like last weekend and the 2005 grand final is in genuine potato quality. These are mistakes for whom the negligence of those responsible can be judged annually for the rest of time

 

[magpiemaniac44]

Yup I remember this. Can't remember if we got Friday nights live from the 2012 deal or the 2017 deal, but I remember vividly the 8.30 start time for Friday night games in that 07 to 11 stretch that the cats had. Wasn't great.

I know when Ch7 had the Saturday arvo game 2012-2016, they delayed the 1.45pm/2.10pm start time to the 3.20pm just so they could lead into the news.

Ch7 aren't great for footy at all, wish 9 or 10 would give them a serious run for it in 2024.

Yes remember how bad the delay was not having Foxtel at the time. Do you know if they showed Friday Night Finals live between 2007-2011?

 

[magpiemaniac44]

I do wonder if anyone responsible feels embarrassed when Fox shows old game marathons like last weekend and the 2005 grand final is in genuine potato quality. These are mistakes for whom the negligence of those responsible can be judged annually for the rest of time

Seven’s quality was so bad even up to 2011. If I remember correctly Channel 10 games were broadcast onto Channel 1 (the sister Channel) in HD back when that was a sport channel. Seven would’ve been a few years later.

 

[JohnZ]

Yes remember how bad the delay was not having Foxtel at the time. Do you know if they showed Friday Night Finals live between 2007-2011?

I don't believe so. Think their only live games were the exclusive ones.

• Foxtel and Austar’s four home and away season games will include a Saturday afternoon and evening match in each round as well as a Sunday afternoon match and the new Sunday twilight match.
• Foxtel and Austar will broadcast Friday night AFL games into NSW, QLD and the ACT each week, for the first time delivering live coverage to many viewers in those regions.

[AFL] 2007-2011 - Sports Industry AU

The 2005 AFL Annual Report Indicated that Channel 9 had submitted a bid entirely on its own for all 8

www.footyindustry.com