AFL chairman Richard Goyder continues to back a twilight Grand Final
The majority of footy fans favour an afternoon Grand Final but AFL commission chairman Richard Goyder hasn’t given up on having a twilight decider while he’s at the helm.
AFL News
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
AFL commission chairman Richard Goyder has doubled down on his push for a twilight Grand Final.
Despite an overwhelming 76 per cent of fans insisting on a traditional 2.30pm bounce, Goyder on Tuesday declared he wanted to see the shift made during his time in charge.
“Every time I talk about this I get into strife,” Goyder said.
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE SUPERFOOTY PODCAST
“To be clear I’d love a twilight Grand Final, I think it would be sensational to attend and, importantly, the television coverage I think would be incredible.
“And I think our media partners are pretty strongly supportive as well. When is a good question.
MORE NEWS
“We’d have to have the best entertainment lined up and we’d also need the support of the clubs because halftime would probably be a bit longer, so there’d be a few adjustments that would need to be made.
“We certainly weren’t ready this year but before my time is up hopefully we’ll give it a go — so there you go.”
Stream every match of the 2019 Toyota AFL Finals Series before the Grand Final Live & On-Demand on KAYO SPORTS. Get your 14-day free trial and start streaming now >
Almost 80 per cent of the game’s current players said they wanted a day Grand Final in a recent Herald Sun AFL Players’ Association survey.
But Goyder claimed a majority of the 18 club captains supported a twilight premiership decider.
“If we’re going to do it, we’d want to do it with a big bang,” Goyder told TAB radio in Perth.
“And the captains thing was pretty interesting because I think 15 of the 18 club captains we asked last year said they’d play a Grand Final at any time, some of them said, you know, ‘I’d play at midnight just to play in a Grand Final’.
“Two said ‘prefer the afternoon’ and I think Jarryd Roughead was pretty strongly (sic) because he figured you could start partying after that, but, you know, he’s won four premierships, so he has a different view on it.”
Just 18.83 per cent of AFL supporters said they supported a twilight Grand Final in this year’s Herald Sun Footy Fans Survey. It was just 19 per cent in the players’ survey.
Every Grand Final in VFL/AFL history has started between 2:15pm and 3pm.
DOWNLOAD: GET YOUR TEAM’S FINALS POSTER HERE
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan has described the move to a twilight decider as “inevitable”, but Hawthorn president and Seven West Media board member Jeff Kennett has said he fears a Grand Final played under lights will come at the expense of the game’s most precious commodity — kids.
“I still want to make sure we think of younger, future generations,” the Hawks boss said last year.
“And I ask myself: ‘What is in their interests to continue to stimulate interest in the game?’ And I think that is probably as it is now.”