Will impact of 16-minute quarters be a silver lining in AFL’s disrupted 2020 season?
An AFL great has urged the league to make 16-minute quarters the norm from next year after encouraging signs in Round 1. Did you like the change? Have your say.
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Jonathan Brown has urged the AFL to stick with 16-minute quarters beyond 2020.
The Brisbane Lions great said the change, which was introduced for Round 1, had been “good for the game”.
“Who would have thought that shorter games would have increased the scoring and fixed the game almost from an aesthetic point of view,” Brown said on Fox Footy’s On the Couch.
“We know coaches, if they were playing this week, they’d make some sort of an adjustment, no doubt about that.
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“But it’s here to stay. It has to be here to stay. It’s been fantastic, these shorter quarters.”
The AFL has adopted 16-minute quarters for 2020 as it plots a 17-game season which could include midweek fixtures.
St Kilda football boss Simon Lethlean said 16-minute quarters, plus time-on, could be the way forward.
Lethlean said “maybe we’ll never go back to longer games” and added he was aware of commentary from “those in the know that the game goes too long”.
“Sixteen plus time-on will basically map itself out to be 25-minute quarters which is 100-minute games,” Lethlean told SEN.
“It sees the game time reduced by about half an hour. The reason for that is we’re going to be asking lists of 45 to survive across the course of 17 matches per club.
“If players do fall ill or can’t cope with the strain of what this potentially elongated season looks like, then I think the smart thing to do is to reduce the output required from our playing group such that it gives them a chop out to be able to deliver this season.”
Teams scored an average of 69.2 points in Round 1, while goalkicking accuracy was 56.6 per cent during a round where fans were locked out due to coronavirus distancing measures.
“I absolutely loved it. It was more ballistic, it was free-flowing. It was almost like the players knew they had a shorter amount of time, they had to come out and punch the opposition in the mouth. Not literally, but actually get out and get into it,” Brown said.
“I really loved it. I think it’s good for the game and I think we should move on it straight away next year.”
He added: “It’s a lot easier to watch. I find myself clock watching. These long quarters that go 32, 33 minutes. It is too long. Rugby league, that goes for 80 minutes. I just thought it was a lot easier, as a fan, to get through a whole game of footy.”
Co-host Gerard Healy said he was unsure whether coaches adopting a more attacking mindset, rather than shorter quarters, had made a difference.
“I’m not sure whether it was shorter quarters or longer quarters. I know what the result was. But I’m not sure it was the cause-and-effect relationship,” he said.
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Originally published as Will impact of 16-minute quarters be a silver lining in AFL’s disrupted 2020 season?
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