Opinion Has this season made you reconsider the standard 23 Round Model?

[Lsta062]

Yeah.

That, or everyone plays each other once, but reverse fixtures the following season, with even spread of interstate travel. For example, if Collingwood plays Port over in Adelaide in 2021, they don't play Adelaide in Adelaide until 2022. If the Eagles play Sydney at the SCG in 2021, they don't play GWS in Sydney until 2022.

Yeah I like that. At the moment (excluding finals and that one game in Darwin), Richmond has played Port Adelaide 10 times in Melbourne, but has played them in Adelaide 21 times. That is a huge discrepancy. Hence, that would hopefully help even up the fixture. We can even do that with Victorian sides against Victorian sides.

 

[PP34]

You have no idea how short 18 minutes with no time on will be.

Quarters last year with time on went for around 30 minutes, so teams played roughly 2640 minutes of footy.

Your plan would see teams play 1224 minutes of footy in the regular season

You have more than halved the product, plus with no time on you can’t keep the long breaks between goals for advertising, so there’s some more revenue gone.

Tv rights money through the floor, advertising the same. What about crowds? Would you come from over an hour away to watch 72 minutes of footy, INCLUDING the time the ball is out of bounds?

Not a chance

Yeah why are people living in a fantasy world where Australians give a s**t about watching sports on a nightly basis? It's never been the case and they've already experimented before with things like Monday night footy. It simply isn't a part of our culture like in America or Europe.

The AFL would be shooting themselves in the foot with the amount of revenue they'd lose. Not sure why on earth people are advocating for shortened more condensed seasons either. How is less football a good thing? How is forcing clubs to play more and more s**t players due to increased likelihood of crippling injury lists a good thing?

A lot of people including me would be turned off going to some games I otherwise I would have if it's a shortened midweek game.

 

[PP34]

As much as it would take a toll on the players, 34 rounds might be possible. More Wednesday night games. Load management will be a thing however, but it will give young and fringe players a chance to play AFL games. Similar to how baseball players don't play the next day. Coaches can make a decision whether or not it would be a scheduled loss etc.

How is this a good thing? Plenty of people already complain about the lack of talent spread in the league.


Baseball and other American sports have far more talent to choose from than the AFL does. There are genuinely bad footballers at the bottom of a lot of AFL lists. Why on earth would it be a good thing if we got to see Richmond wheel out some third string midfielder for games instead of getting Dustin Martin every week?

Footy is a brutal game and the more games condensed or played together, the more you're going to have clubs playing with bad 22s.

 

[harty1221]

Yeah why are people living in a fantasy world where Australians give a sh*t about watching sports on a nightly basis? It's never been the case and they've already experimented before with things like Monday night footy. It simply isn't a part of our culture like in America or Europe.

The AFL would be shooting themselves in the foot with the amount of revenue they'd lose. Not sure why on earth people are advocating for shortened more condensed seasons either. How is less football a good thing? How is forcing clubs to play more and more sh*t players due to increased likelihood of crippling injury lists a good thing?

A lot of people including me would be turned off going to some games I otherwise I would have if it's a shortened midweek game.

That’s why I believe they should go to a 34 round season they could play everyday and would still play enough weekend games you wouldn’t be missing out on how many you would normally go to, furthermore tv rights deal would be larger with more games so they would recoup money lost on weeknight games attendance clubs would adapt and rest players when needed. Everyone I’ve spoken to has loved this festival of footy just because other nations do it doesn’t mean we can’t


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[PP34]

That’s why I believe they should go to a 34 round season they could play everyday and would still play enough weekend games you wouldn’t be missing out on how many you would normally go to, furthermore tv rights deal would be larger with more games so they would recoup money lost on weeknight games attendance clubs would adapt and rest players when needed. Everyone I’ve spoken to has loved this festival of footy just because other nations do it doesn’t mean we can’t


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But how is this a good thing?

The talent in this league is stretched thin as it is. Who cares about rotating players and seeing more duds play? I certainly don’t. People already complain about the standard of footy as is. I watch the footy to see the best players every week.

People have loved this footy festival. Yeah well that was always a given. There is absolutely nothing happening in the world right now and people had been at home for months watching nothing but TV shows and movies. Of course people were going to love watching heaps of footy. They’ve been starved of it like never been.

 

[harty1221]

But how is this a good thing?

The talent in this league is stretched thin as it is. Who cares about rotating players and seeing more duds play? I certainly don’t. People already complain about the standard of footy as is. I watch the footy to see the best players every week.

People have loved this footy festival. Yeah well that was always a given. There is absolutely nothing happening in the world right now and people had been at home for months watching nothing but TV shows and movies. Of course people were going to love watching heaps of footy. They’ve been starved of it like never been.

Your probably right mate maybe have a small sample size next year during school holidays and see how it goes in normal circumstances with crowds and normal life


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[CarnTheScray]

Just because Melbourne has no real rivals...

Most teams have no real rivals, Most historic rivalries bar one or two are dead.

 

[JohnZ]

Either you go to 17, keep 22, or increase to 34

17 gives you one game per team, then you'd need to flip/flop the home/away every year. But with reductions in cash due to covid, this would compound even further and probably kill the comp

22 is the status quo. We have it because in 1970 the league wanted a full H+A season (12 teams, so 11 games home and away). It also coincided with VFL park opening, so all the extra games went there (initially, that strategy changed as grounds got consolidated which had already started with Richmond to the MCG in the 60s).

34 gives you a full H+A season (17 games home, 17 away) which would bring us back to parity, and what the comp should've have done (introduced 2 extra rounds for every new team that entered the comp). It means that clubs can play home games wherever they want to, and you know that your club will always play in your state if you're an away fan. Another bonus is that the extra games can make up for the shortfall in cash due to covid, so at worst it's cash neutral, and at best it brings more money in. The only way I see it working is with some condensed fixturing, but if you target the holidays, it's impact on crowds should be minimal. Plus, it's an extra 6 home games, so even if 3 of them are on a Tuesday night, that's still 3 more than you'd have got in 2019 and before.

 

[CarnTheScray]

22 round season, it doesn't need to change. As the saying goes if it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

[Dr Awkward]

17 rounds is not enough to give the season a proper sense of attrition. Not enough cut and thrust. It also doesn't make the fixture more fair, as some think. It's not enough rounds to iron out bits of bad luck, injuries etc. I like 22 rounds but for the double ups it should be done more equitably.

Besides, the AFL season is already only about half the year, I don't want to watch cricket for an extra month.

 

[Dr Awkward]

Nope. Season has felt gimmicky to me.

16 minute quarters are too short to see many amazing individual performances and before you know it a quarter is over.

Heaps of footy works this year because the entire country has been starved of live sport and are bored out of their minds at home. But you are absolutely delusional if you think long term people are going to sit there and watch footy every night in normal times. We’ve seen before the failure that was Monday night footy with some poor attendance and TV numbers.

Weekend footy is what makes the game great.

Agreed, the 16 minute quarters are no good.

AFL is not a game that should be decided based on 7 goals to 4 goals or something like that. It's better when the winning team has to kick 12 - 15 goals.

 

[The Falcon Strike]

I have to say I do find the shortened matches ... just a fraction short.

I don't think the AFL will be considering 17 round seasons - more likely 28+ round seasons of shorter game duration. Especially if they get the HUB scenario to work. I could imagine WC playing 6 games in a month in Melbourne.

It'd take bigger squads and an increase in TV rights - but it's doable

I'm not necessarily an advocate of the above - but it is what i think they'll consider.

 

[LordLucifer]

This is such a stupid idea

This is not an uncommon thing for him either.

 

[LordLucifer]

A team plays everyone in its pool twice (10 games) and plays the other 12 teams once (12 games).

don't take this as poo-pooing your idea but this concept has been suggested many times before, even I've offered it up once.

There is no need for pools though, just use ladder positions (1-6, 7-12 & 13-18) from the season prior to work out which teams play each other twice.

Rounds 1-5 & 18-22 are the 'double-up' rounds.

 

[LordLucifer]

I was already in favour of a 17-round H&A season, but now I'm even more in favour of it.

2021 season

18 teams, 17 games each, over 17 weekly rounds (Thursday to Monday), no bye weeks or 'split rounds'
18 minute quarters (straight up, no time-on)
Top 6 make finals

Round 1 - Thursday, 13/05/2021 - Monday, 17/05/2021
....
Round 17 - Thursday, 26/08/2021 - Monday, 30/08/2021

1 week break for 'Awards Week' (Brownlow, AA, etc.)

Elimination Finals - 3 vs. 6 (Friday 10/09/2021), and 4 vs. 5 (Saturday, 11/09/2021)
Semi Finals - 1 vs. (3 or 6) (Friday 17/09/2021), and 2 vs. (4 or 5) (Saturday, 18/09/2021)
Grand Final - Saturday, 25/09/2021

If you want 22 H&A games, start the H&A season on Thursday, 08/04/2021.
If you want 22 H&A games and the regular top 8 finals system, start the H&A season on Thursday, 01/04/2021.

Simple. Easy.

I stopped reading right there.

 

[Damon_3388]

I stopped reading right there.

I've got a feeling people are misunderstanding what "no time on" means, given that people keep questioning it.

Basically just remove the pointless soccer-like "counting up" clock at the ground. Just have the countdown clock (that stops when play stops, like on TV) everywhere.

 

[LordLucifer]

I've got a feeling people are misunderstanding what "no time on" means, given that people keep questioning it.

Basically just remove the pointless soccer-like "counting up" clock at the ground. Just have the countdown clock (that stops when play stops, like on TV) everywhere.

We all know what "no time on" means and it is certainly not as you have outlined there.

 

[Magma]

i'd love a 0 game season

 

[FootyJunkie]

i'd love a 0 game season

Adelaide are the first club in a alphabetical order, so I get it.

 

[El_Scorcho]

The shorter games haven't bothered me at all.

I'd prefer shorter quarters and a 34 game season. Midweek games every week. Irons out a lot of the inequity in the fixture immediately.

The AFLPA would sook until the players got a big salary bump from all the extra revenue.

 

[Scotland]

No, because with 18 teams there is no need for a 22/23 round season in the first place. People who watched the 12 team VFL in the 80s might like it but I don't see anyone arguing for a return to the 'traditional' final 5.

Anything that isn't home AND away is going to be unfair one way or another. If have 22 games per team I'd be OK with a random draw or each team playing everyone once plus everyone from their segment (1-6, 7-12, 13-18) from the year before again.

 

[The Blue Baggers]

Like the model of every team playing each other once but doubt it will happen going forward ....

Revenue requires 22 Round season but it’s not hard to split into 3 x6 pools / divisions ... whatever you want to call them

West - Eagles Fremantle Geelong Bulldogs North Hawks
Central - Adelaide Port Carlton Collingwood Essendon Richmond
East - Swans Giants Lions Gold Coast Melbourne Saints

 

[swanssince2002]

Thinking about the 34 game season again and I can see why mid week games can become an issue. Don't have as big population as the Yanks or the Brits where at least 13000 show up midweek no matter what like in the NBA/NHL. Ditto for soccer where they play non-league matches. If the government still says no crowds more than x percent next year then I'm onboard with the 34 game model for one season.

 

[Damon_3388]

We all know what "no time on" means and it is certainly not as you have outlined there.

Alright then, what I have elaborated upon is what I actually want.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

17 game season, alternating home and away each season.

Each club travels to WA/SA/NSW/QLD once per year

No fixed games (Opening Game, ANZAC Day, Easter Monday, Queens Birthday etc)