AFL rescue plan: Eddie McGuire’s daring vision to resuscitate life back into the modern game

Eddie McGuire says the AFL needs a radical shake-up to keep fans tuning in with crowds banned from games and the world’s best entertainment now at their fingertips. This is his plan.

Eddie McGuire has called on the AFL to break the game and “fix it and make it better”.

The Collingwood president is advocating permanent shorter quarters and more Thursday night fixtures to better suit the lifestyles of modern-day fans.

McGuire, part of the AFL’s ‘war cabinet’ which is helping navigate an unprecedented season, said it was the perfect time to tear away “Band-Aid” fixes and determine what the league wanted the game to look like in 10 years’ time.

“One of the mantras in Australia is, ‘If it’s not broken, don’t fix it’,” McGuire said.

“Whereas, in other places you say, ‘If it’s not broken, break it and fix it and make it better’.

Eddie McGuire hugs Josh Thomas after the 2018 Grand Final loss to West Coast. McGuire says its time to tear down the AFL as we know it and rebuild in a post-coronavirus world. Picture: Getty

“There’s things that we’ve not done because it’s just too hard to do.

“Now we can look at it and I think that goes right back into the juniors and getting everything right.

“I think what we’ve been doing is putting a Band-Aid on a Band-Aid on a Band-Aid.

“Now we can rip them all off and say, ‘Right, what is it we want this game to look like in the next 10 years?’.”

McGuire gave his vision for the future of AFL on a Sport Virtual Round Table hosted by News Corp.

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Speaking on a sport virtual round table hosted by News Corpporation last night that included sports administrators and media personalities, McGuire said fans still needed to be able to recognise football as the game they had “grown up with.

But changes needed to be made to present the game as a better entertainment product and one which better suited fans’ increasingly busy lifestyles.

McGuire says the AFL must accommodate the increasingly busy lifestyles of fans.

The AFL has reduced quarter lengths from 20 minutes to 16 minutes plus time-on this year, while McGuire said more Thursday night games in future could also be considered.

“I don’t think you can actually ask people to spend four hours at the football these days, going there in the middle of a Saturday afternoon on a weekend,” McGuire said.

“So whether or not that means we go more to Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night and make it entertainment that is part of an entertainment offering, as well as a sport.

McGuire, with AFL chief Gill McLachlan, says the modern-day game has ‘got to be part of people’s lives’.

“We’re competing against movies.

“We’re competing against Netflix.

“We’re competing against concerts.

“We’re competing against people going to restaurants.

“So we have to make it fit into people’s lifestyles these days, as opposed to what we used to have in the past and that was we devote ourselves to the game.

“The game’s got to be part of people’s lives.”

McGuire said the eerie absence of fans from Round 1 matches had proved to players and the league that the game was little without them.

“I think there’s been a strong realisation, particularly from the players but the clubs themselves, into how important the fans are,” McGuire said.

“That this is a game that is played for the supporters.”

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Originally published as AFL rescue plan: Eddie McGuire’s daring vision to resuscitate life back into the modern game