AFL stands by tradition with daytime grand final

DESPITE the push for a twilight grand final, the AFL is keeping its biggest event to the day timeslot of 2.30pm but league boss Gillon McLachlan said a move remains inevitable.

FANS WIN. The AFL Commission’s decision to keep the grand final in the day timeslot is in line with fans’ surveys showing a preference for the traditional 2.30pm start time to the premiership play-off at the MCG. Picture: Phil Hillyard

• Big day for Sam

FOR the 120th year the AFL grand final will stay in the 2.30pm timeslot.

But league boss Gillon McLachlan says the move to a twilight grand final - with a 4.40pm start and a huge half-time entertainment show to match rugby league’s grand final - remains inevitable.

“When? I’m not sure,” McLachlan said in Perth.

“Someone will change it one day - whether it’s next year or in 10 years.

“I’ve been open enough to say we see the upside in changing, but we have to be comfortable that everything is right.

“The spectacle at night for some parts of it could be amazing, and better.”

Football’s old guard, such as Port Adelaide’s 2004 premiership ruckman Brendon Lade, and the AFL Fans’ Association greeted the league standing by the Saturday afternoon timeslot for this year’s grand final.

Lade said: “I’m a traditionalist, I don’t want the grand final time to change.”

But Crows midfielder Richard Douglas, who played in last year’s grand final, is advocating an immediate move to a night grand final rather than the twilight timeslot.

“I’m keen to try something different,” Douglas said.

The AFL Commission, at its meeting in Perth, has kept the timing of the grand final on annual review.

“We see merit in change,” said McLachlan. “If we’re going to move something that’s been a day grand final for so long, we have to be comfortable that everything is right for change. Every aspect of the move would need to be where we want it to be.”

The AFL’s free-to-air broadcast partner, Channel Seven, wants a twilight grand final to add two million viewers to the television ratings that hit 5.7 million for last year’s Richmond-Adelaide premiership play-off at the MCG.

But polls among football fans repeatedly range from 60-70 per cent preferring the 2.30pm start time.

“The commission considered views about where the footy community is,” McLachlan said.

A move to a twilight grand final has to be coupled with finding a major entertainment act for the half-time show - and extending the major break to 29 minutes.

“The entertainment has to be right,’ McLachlan said. “And there is the high-performance aspect (with a longer break). We’re comfortable to keep it where it is.

“But our role (as the game’s guardians) is to respect the heritage of our game - and make progressive decisions so we can grow. Finding the balance is the challenge.”

While the timeslot for the grand final is to be reconsidered in March-April next year, the match is locked to the MCG until 2057 by a new deal with the Victorian State government and the Melbourne Cricket Club.