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AFL eyes extra night games in 2010

If you thought Desperate Housewives being a week behind in some states was bad enough, just wait until next year.

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aflThere’ could be good news for viewers in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia who like their AFL -and bad news for the rest.

Next year there might be more AFL matches on Monday nights, Thursday nights and Saturday twilight games creating  “super” Saturdays.

The league already played a Monday and Thursday match this year. The Monday match has knocked Seven schedules in the “AFL states” out of whack ever since. Sydney and Brisbane viewers have been ahead of the rest for Desperate Houswives and Brothers and Sisters -both of which end next week in those cities.

In a weekend interview with ABC radio, AFL boss Andrew Demetriou said: “We’ll probably see at least two Monday night fixtures next year, you’ll see some Thursday nights, we will definitely trial the Saturday, probably at 5 o’clock, to try a super Saturday concept in anticipation of what might happen in the future.

“When a ninth game comes in, you’ve got to find a spot for it,” Gill McLachlan, the AFL‘s chief operating officer, said last night.

He said trial matches on weeknights this year had all been successful and the league is looking continue to build on the experiment in 2010.

“Whether it’s more Thursdays or more Mondays or more Saturday twilights we’ll work that out in the coming weeks and months.”

McLachlan addded that it was unclear how TEN and Foxtel would divide the proposed Saturday games.

Source: The Age

18 Responses

  3. I love my AFL but to have Football on Thursday’s or Monday night’s is to much.Perhaps a Saturday night twilight game is a great idea though,and maybe a Saturday 1 oclock game.It will become more of a problem if it happens as the fixture would have to allow teams so many days off before they play each other.I can certainly see why they would want night games though as ratings play a big part in things

  4. I’m a viewer in Victoria who likes my AFL, but I’m totally anti. So frustrating. Some of us actually want to go to the games and enjoy ourselves without worrying about work in the morning. Anyway that’s not the TV issue I know, but still…well actually that is a TV issue too; with the stupid delayed telecasts you’re up til all hours watching the game.

    Glad I’m not a kid. Poor things, they’ll never get to stay up and see their games at this rate, with half of them on school nights.

  5. the afl looking after the northers states again i see. dont they want 2 new teams from the northern states in the next 3 years. they wont be getting any new supporters to the game by doing this

  7. Just don’t run the extra night games at Docklands, AFL. The Melbourne CBD being thrown into gridlock on Friday nights is bad enough without us having to put up with it more than one night a week.

    (What idiot thought it was a good idea to put a football stadium there anyway? Oh, yes. Kennett 🙂

  9. If they want more games then fine, but the extra games should not be on the anti siphoning list, and if TEN aquire it air it on ONE, or if Foxtel aquire it air it on Fox Sports. This should entice more people onto digital and keep the main channels more shows to watch.

  10. I would love to see Thursday night football but not Monday night, leave that to NRL and the American wannabe’s

    A live AFL prime time game on Thursday night weekly around the country on an outlet like ONE HD would be awesome. Unfortunatley the governments stupid TV laws wont allow that to happen.

  11. Yeah good point Johnson, that is true. But Friday night is the best night for footy, so why not just schedule 2 Friday night games. Seven get one, Foxtel the other. I want to see Friday night games Live though. Maybe having a double header woudl force them to show the game earlier and Live. Sunday twilight = epic fail.

  12. @ Jed: I don’t think Friday night doubleheader is a good idea. The AFL trialled doubleheader on Saturday nights in 1995 with one match shown live at 7.30pm and one delayed or live, and the telecast did not finish until 1am Sunday! The NRL doubleheader works only because each match telecast is 2 hours long.

  14. sorry I’m not a fan of AFL, this mean more sport, less interesting programming, well there is not alot of good programming anyway. ABC 1 & 2 , SBS 1 & 2 or watching classic Films & TV shows on DVD. Looking forward to the days when
    7, 9, have digital channel for sports only.

  16. I love the AFL but hope they don’t have Monday Night football. It’s far too late. I’m not sure about Thursday Night Football. They’ve only really trialled it the day before a public holiday which has a completely different feel.

  17. I’d rather Thursday night or a Saturday twilight personally. And get rid of Sunday twilight games. Worst timeslot to go to the footy and to watch it on tv. But really what the AFL should be doing is what the NRL and Nine do. Have 2 games scheduled on the Friday night, show one live, one delayed after.

  18. I think Seven will not cover the Monday night games next year, leaving them to Foxtel or Ten, depending on whether a SA or WA team will be playing on the night.

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