Adelaide is set to become the Thursday night football capital of Australia.
ADELAIDE is set to become the Thursday night football capital of Australia, with Adelaide Oval likely to host as many as six Thursday night games in 2019, double the 2018 total of three.
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ADELAIDE is set to become the Thursday night football capital of Australia, with Adelaide Oval likely to host as many as six Thursday night games in 2019, double the 2018 total of three.
The first Thursday night Showdown, and a Thursday night Adelaide Oval Anzac Day clash to follow the afternoon MCG blockbuster between Collingwood and Essendon are both on the agenda, as the AFL searches for ways to add more stand-alone feature games to the fixture, and boost national television ratings.
Thursday night games in Melbourne have drawn poor crowds when trialled in recent seasons.
But Thursday night attendance numbers in Adelaide have been strong, and the television audiences throughout Victoria and across the country have been huge for the Thursday night AFL blockbusters played outside of Melbourne.
Channel 7 has traditionally requested its prime time night slots on Thursday and Friday nights involve a big-drawing Victorian club to entice the maximum number of Victorian viewers possible. But the Crows/Port Showdown is now a classic showpiece game that all football fans look forward to as a high quality contest.
Seven Thursday night games are in the fixture this year. But the AFL is looking at locking in as many as a dozen Thursday night games for 2019.
AFL General Manager of Football Operations, Steve Hocking, said this week, that both the AFL and the AFL clubs like the idea of more Thursday night action.
“It’s certainly something that we really like,,’’ he said.
“It’s actually quite exciting to think that there’s football on a Thursday night, and it’s a good lead in (to the weekend) and it’s certainly been well supported,” Hocking said.
“The clubs really like it clearly, and there’s great exposure for their brand and for their supporters.”
Port Adelaide is almost certain to put it’s hand up for a Thursday night Anzac Day clash next year.
And if it gets its wish, the opponent is likely to be a big non-Victorian club, likely Sydney or the Eagles, due to the fact that four Victorian teams — Essendon, Collingwood, Melbourne and Richmond — are already locked in for next season’s Anzac Day and Anzac Day eve blockbusters. It’s only fair that the AFL hands two non-Victorian teams, the next big prime time Anzac Day slot.
The 2019 fixture will also have a bizarre accidental mid May “footy festival”, with ten days of football within an eleven day period, thanks to the Easter and Anzac Day weekends running into each other.
Another different fixture possibility for 2019, to help deliver clubs their desired minimum six-day break between games while increasing the number of Thursday night games, is to spread the bye rounds over nine weeks, with two teams per week having a bye.
All AFL clubs will submit their 2019 fixture wish lists to the AFL later this season. But the AFL is unlikely to make the same mistake of handing the blockbuster Thursday and Friday night slots to boring, low scoring, non-contending teams.
Carlton has five Thursday and Friday night games this year, including it’s still to come round seventeen dead rubber with against fellow non-finals contender St Kilda. Expect the Blues to be dumped from the slot next year. The Gold Coast Suns are also highly unlikely to feature on any Thursday or Friday nights.
Conversely North Melbourne, the pioneer of Friday night football, is likely to be rewarded for it’s performances this year and have it’s perennial request granted, with a few Friday night games to come it’s way next season. North was given none this year.
The AFL will be watching the attendance figures and television ratings numbers closely in the coming weeks, with five mid-year Thursday night games in a row scheduled for Adelaide, Perth and Sydney beginning with Port Adelaide and the Bulldogs in Adelaide on Thursday night.
Originally published as Adelaide is set to become the Thursday night football capital of Australia.