Port Adelaide to play Gold Coast in first AFL match for premiership points in China
PORT Adelaide’s China dream is a reality. The Power will play the first AFL game for premiership points in Shanghai in mid-May.
PORT Adelaide’s China dream is a reality. The Power will play the first AFL game for premiership points in Shanghai in mid-May.
The match against Gold Coast will be the significant new feature of the AFL fixture to be released on Thursday.
“It is going to be huge (and) has the potential to set the club up for decades,” Port Adelaide president David Koch told The Advertiser.
MOVING ON: PORT ADELAIDE FINDS NEW POWER IN CHINA
CHINA GAME: TELEVISION RATINGS HIGHLIGHT POTENTIAL FOR PORT
And Koch expects the battle with the Suns behind the “Bamboo Curtain” to be the start of more AFL international adventures as the sport looks for more cash, particularly with television rights.
“Rather than go the traditional route - pubs and pokies - for alternative sources of revenue, we are going to China,” Koch said.
Port Adelaide already has scored a $3 million sponsorship deal from real estate empire Shanghai Cred and negotiated three major television deals in China. So promising are the long-term financial prospects in China that the AFL Players’ Association already has factored this new revenue stream into its protracted negotiations for the collective bargaining agreement.
Port Adelaide’s Chinese adventure will be one of two major new features in next season’s AFL fixture. The AFL Commission also will confirm the first Good Friday game in the national league - North Melbourne against the AFL premiers, Western Bulldogs - bringing the AFL in line with the SANFL, soccer’s A-League and NRL rugby league.
The Shanghai match will be the first AFL premiership game outside of Australia and New Zealand. The game will be launched by the AFL with major government representatives from China, SA and Canberra on Thursday.
The AFL fixture will work to the same format of Season 2016 having 22 games, one in-season bye and the “anti-tanking” bye between the home-and-away series and top-eight finals.
The grand final will return to September, the last Saturday in September. The timing of the premiership play-off - traditional afternoon start or twilight - will again create debate across the summer.
Round One will have its now “traditional” Carlton-Richmond clash at the MCG on Thursday night (March 23), a week after the first national women’s league grand final. There is a determination to keep the AFL men’s and women’s premiership competitions apart. But there will be women’s league games paired up with men’s NAB Challenge pre-season matches.
BIG CALL: MCLACHLAN YET TO HEAR A GOOD ARGUMENT AGAINST BYE
EXTRA BYE: PLAYERS NOT HAPPY OVER BYE
Adelaide and the Power will continue their rotation on opening the season at home. It is the Crows’ turn to be at Adelaide Oval, measuring the “organic growth” of its list against the early premiership favourite, Greater Western Sydney, on Sunday, March 24.
Port Adelaide has been handed the toughest-possible start by facing Sydney at the SCG on Saturday, March 25. The Power has not beaten the Swans since 2013 at Football Park in coach Ken Hinkley’s first season and not won at the SCG since 2006.
Crows under attack as Victorian powerhouse circles list boss
One of the Victorian powerhouse clubs is circling Crows list boss Justin Reid to join as their football boss, as Reid looks to land James Peatling before the trade deadline ends next week.
‘Never’: Why ANB backflipped on SA homecoming pledge
Six months after declaring he would “never” return to South Australia, Alex Neal-Bullen was unveiled as a Crows player. He reveals what changed to prompt his SA homecoming.