A coronavirus-disrupted AFL season unveiled some innovations that should stay but others that should go

[bulldogsthru&thru]

Re: A coronavirus-disrupted AFL season unveiled some innovations that should stay but others that should go

Night GF: Hate it. Makes all the cultural traditions around the event harder to execute and fits perfectly with the theme of the AFL where they keep making changes that aren't for the fans. Not ideal for families, and I really enjoy having such a major event during the day when basically every other event in our lives occurs in the evening.

Shorter Quarters: Not a fan. I would like the full 20 minute quarters back but expect 18.

Floating Fixture: With plenty of notice sure why not. It hopefully means teams in the second half of the year will get timeslots more on merit than reputation. Like BAD I'd ideally like the AFL to share the games around more and help give smaller clubs exposure but i guess with a floating fixture at least we are only forced to watch the good "big" clubs in prime time. I watch most games anyway so doesn't make too big a difference personally.

Pre-Finals Bye: I like that it gives every team the best opportunity to field a full strength side which is definitely something we should be trying to do, although I can concede it may be a bit disruptive to the flow into finals. An alternative could be to have a split round a couple of weeks out from finals, so in a 23 round season maybe round 20 or 21. It gives teams that week to take stock before they enter than final run of games, means games flow into finals well, and the weekends could be filled out with other events (ie. A women's rep game, U18 clash). The downside would be it could prolong the death of the shit teams seasons but otherwise i feel it could capture the best of both worlds, a rest that doesn't negatively impact finals.

Dreamtime in NT: Like others are saying why not both?

Additional VAR/Goal Review: If you want to make quarters not feel like they are dragging so much why don't we put a 20 second time limit on goal reviews? If it's not clear within that timespan then bad luck umpires call. Makes them less disruptive and stops these awkward stops in the game.

Having clear HD/4K cameras would speed things up. Honestly it's pathetic viewing in 2020 staring at blurry vision to see if something was touched. I agree with you though. The Goal Review was put in place to pickup on the obvious. If it's not obvious in say 20 seconds then yeah umpires call. But more often than not we're reviewing a touched call and having high quality vision would mean we'd likely come to a conclusion within 10 seconds.

[SquirrelGrip]

Re: A coronavirus-disrupted AFL season unveiled some innovations that should stay but others that should go

Night GF

No no no no no.

The whole day lost its excitement and anticipation, regardless of the game. Also, I'd rather be hooning down Barkly Street around 7pm than midnight after we win the flag.

It's also hopeless for families.

Shorter Quarters

I'm unsure about this. It made sense for this year, but defensive structures work better in shorter quarters as players don't tire as much. Longer quarters make the game better offensively.

Also what is the impact of this on the game in general outside the AFL? Will all leagues go shorter?

Flexible fixtures -

Yes. We'll know who is playing each other in each round at the start of the year - it will just be fixturing of that round that is flexible - maybe 6 weeks out? So you can still book your weekend to Sydney but you won't know what day & time they are playing until 6 weeks out.

Pre finals bye

It seems to work fine and means the finals teams are closer to full strength. Also, it gives a free weekend to support local footy at finals time, which we obviously missed out on this year.

Dreamtime in NT

It's Doug Nicholls round, so I'd say Essendon-Richmond at the G on Friday night, then Bulldogs-whoever in Darwin on the Saturday night. If we had the permanent Dreamtime game in Darwin, that could be a stepping stone to attract more indigenous talent.