AFL 2021: Eddie McGuire says Saturday afternoon football is ‘kaput’

It has long been the AFL’s traditional timeslot — now there’s calls for Saturday afternoon football to become a thing of the past.

There were plenty of empty seats for Collingwood’s loss to Gold Coast at the MCG.

Saturday afternoons have become a graveyard for the AFL which is struggling to attract fans back to stadiums in the traditional timeslot.

Only two of the 10 Saturday afternoon games played to Round 9 drew a crowd of more than 25,000 spectators, with Richmond’s game against Sydney in Round 3 (43,637) recording the highest attendance.

Former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire said Saturday afternoons were “kaput” and he hoped to see more blockbusters prioritised in coming years.

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“It’s not so much that clubs don’t want to play it, it’s that the people don’t want to go because people are either watching it at home, they’ve had school football in the morning and people love to watch their football,” McGuire said on Fox Footy.

“Thursday night is going to be the big one. Friday night we have established that.

“And I tell you back in the day, not that long ago when I first became president … the presidents who said to the AFL from North Melbourne and Essendon, that they would sue them if they put them on a Friday night. Things change and people’s lifestyle has changed.”

To Round 9, the average crowd for Saturday afternoon fixtures was 19,848 and four of the 10 games were played in front of less than 10,000 fans.

COVID-19 has resulted in crowd restrictions in some states and the lowest Saturday afternoon crowd was in regional city Ballarat.

The other crowds under 10,000 have been in western Sydney or the Gold Coast.

Collingwood could only attract 24,397 to the MCG for its Round 7 match against the Suns despite its huge membership base.

Only 24,397 fans turned out to Collingwood’s Saturday game against Gold Coast. Picture: Michael Klein

“Everyone has got a TV the size of the wall at home and they are sitting there watching it,” McGuire said.

“People want to see it when it is comfortable for them. They want to play a bit of golf, they want to have family time, they want to go to school sports, they want to do things on a Saturday and that’s why Saturday afternoon football, except for the biggest game of them all, the Grand Final, is kaput.”

Asked when he expected change could take place, including to the Grand Final timeslot, McGuire said: “When Gill goes, maybe there’s a chance.”

SATURDAY AFTERNOON ATTENDANCES

*To Round 9

Round 1

Melbourne v Fremantle 21,365

Round 2

Sydney v Adelaide 23,946

Round 3

Richmond v Sydney 43,637

Round 4

Western Bulldogs v Brisbane (Ballarat) 7387

Round 6

Geelong v West Coast 21.282

Gold Coast v Sydney 9819

Round 7

Collingwood v Gold Coast 24397

Adelaide v GWS Giants 28,853

Round 8

Gold Coast v St Kilda 9271

GWS v Essendon 8526