The AFL grand final could be pushed back to the second week of October?
Sold.
Is it time to push the AFL season back, with the grand final held in mid-October?Credit: Eddie Jim
No need to go on, you got me at October. Or more to the point, you got me at starting the season later.
This is the best jump-off point for this idea of moving the season, the one that should give the concept traction before the first chilli dog is eaten, or NFL helmet pulled on.
And it has nothing to do with whiny F1 engines either.
It’s this: it’s hotter in early March than early October. Football is a winter sport; let’s try to keep it from starting in late summer.
And, well, climate change. The way the seasons are shifting, the whole competition might have to move to Tassie soon.
So why is the AFL, according to former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire – who is on the board of Visit Victoria, and also sits on the MCG Trust – talking earnestly at high levels about moving the season to start and finish later?
So, if the AFL can push their fixture back a couple of weeks and slot the NFL game into the dead-air weekend of the loved-by-some and loathed-by-most pre-finals bye, the league safeguards its finals.
Formula 1
Pushing the start of the season back helps avoid a clash with the F1 at Albert Park, which is supposed to be part of the thinking.
This is a furphy. OK, sure, it is probably better not to go head-to-head with another event that draws big crowds but pfft, it’s hardly been hurting the AFL to date, and it’s not worth shifting a whole season over.
While there is doubtless a lot of Oscar Piastri love at the track, Collingwood played Port at the MCG on the Saturday night of the GP weekend this year, and they got 63,000 people. That’s not motorheads staying away in droves.
Melbourne and GWS played at the ’G on the Sunday at the same time as the grand prix was raced. That game only got 23,000 fans, but that’s not a bad crowd for those two teams. Mercifully, the F1 didn’t include Range Rovers or Volvos or no one might have turned up to the footy at all.
Test cricket at the ’G in March 2027
There is something in this but not a lot. Cricket will play a match between Australia and England commemorating 150 years of Test cricket at the MCG in March 2027 and the AFL will need to fit in around it. The logic is that by pushing the season back, it helps the ’G and cricket out.
This is sort of true. Under the existing contract, cricket has the MCG until the end of the second week of March, so a window already exists. They could play cricket in the second week of March, rip out the pitch and have the ground ready for footy anyway.
Pushing the AFL season back to start later would, however, give more wriggle room.
Australia players celebrate the match-sealing wicket at the MCG in last year’s Boxing Day Test.Credit: Justin McManus
Historically, the AFL fixture has hinged on access to the MCG. As a cricket ground first – the hint is in the name – cricket has had first dibs on the venue. So technically cricket has the ground from October 1 until the end of the second week of March.
That’s the contract, but the reality is now different. Gone are the days of 10 or 11 days of international cricket at the MCG. This summer there will be the Boxing Day Test and only one Twenty20 match, on Melbourne Cup weekend.
Domestic cricket basically gets punted to the Junction Oval anyway if they need the ground for a more lucrative alternative, like a concert. Or an AFL match or a big-drawing quasi-AFL match like State of Origin or international rules.
So, about State of Origin?
AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon said earlier this year he is interested, in principle, with the idea of reviving State of Origin.
Eddie suggested that the next two seasons could start with a State of Origin revival, possibly played over two weekends.
No doubt broadcasters would be giddy at the thought. Players routinely say they would love State of Origin. Coaches less so.
International rules
Eddie didn’t raise the international rules series with Ireland as part of this fixture overhaul, but it is certain to come up in any serious talk of the broader AFL calendar.
The AFL’s Josh Mahoney and Ned Guy this week returned from a trip to Ireland where they met with the GAA about reviving the series.
The Irish at the ’G for the international rules series in 2003.Credit: Paul Harris
You don’t just go to Ireland just for a Guinness (though that’s an excellent idea) unless you are keen to bring the series back. The Irish are interested.
Whatever your reasons for change, and there are a few mooted, the first one is best. Move the season back because late March is a far better time to start, and October a good time to finish.
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