Opinion Bringing Back The “Night Time Premiership"

[ibd77]

The original concept was a preseason competition featuring a random knock out competition with the final top 2 play off in a night grand final before the season proper.

The new concept runs concurrently with the main season but only includes the double up matches between clubs.

6 rounds, 54 matches with the top 2 teams to play off in a night grand final. Home final awarded to the top team. Date of match to be determined but most likely midweek late in the main season or during the main season pre-finals bye.

 

[AndyLucimitis]

Just what we want - more football

 

[theprospector]

Back in the day when the comp ran for over a month it was far, far too long. I love getting straight into it.

 

[ibd77]

Just what we want - more football

1 extra game in the scheme of things to be honest and a night grand final to boot.

 

[Danw0w]

Nah

 

[marcus1232]

Yes I would like another of us winning an ugly trophy and not smiling

 

[deck]

Date of match to be determined but most likely midweek late in the main season or during the main season pre-finals bye.

I could just imagine a team who is playing finals will be happy to front up on the bye week to play a match while there opponent has a week off.

Same scenario for the mid-week game when you have a important match on the weekend.

 

[bluesforever95]

If you can find a way to lower the amount of games it’ll be great for all fans, more footy is always better. 6 games plus a final is too much for a preseason cup that pretty much means nothing

 

[The Passenger]

It's a potential key for unlocking an even fixture in the main section - 17 games with 8 home, 8 away, 1 neutral.

But it'll only work if teams take the competition seriously otherwise crowds will be sparse and TV money will plummet...

Clubs would only take it seriously if there big incentives on offer - i.e. additional salary cap space and/or soft cap space. It would need to be $1M+ for the winner, sliding down to other clubs that don't win.. Prizemoney alone doesn't suffice cause they'll basically get that back in AFL distributions anyway.

Even with the above I'd still be very sceptical about it working. Very sceptical.

There is also a strong argument by offering salary cap and soft cap incentives you are then bastardising the competition to try and recreate something not many are that interested in.

 

[Clark G]

With the longer than ever 23 game regular season, cannot see a four week knockout comp returning, whether that be pre-season or alongside the regular season. More likely to have a return of the three day ‘Lightning Premiership‘ comp from 1996 or some form of AFLX.

 

[HTPunter]

I like having one cup only and it being the ultimate and only award. Most other sports have other prizes/awards, whether it be the conference winner, division winner, cup winner, or their premiership season isn’t the ultimate of the sport.

In AFL, everything you do is to win the premiership and there are no second prizes or other chances for “success” that season.

 

[Occidental]

The original VFL night series began in the late 1950’s with floodlights installed at South’s Lakeside Oval.
The 8 teams that missed finals (in the days of a final four) played off knockout style during the actual Finals.
It morphed in the 1970’s into a regular season comp. Primarily played on Tuesday nights at Waverley. Teams from WA & SA were added with some earlier rounds played interstate. Televised live it was very popular.
The final would draw big crowds - 30 to 40,000. Over 50,000 attended the 1980 Final.

 

[kozi]

Go all the way and have them count in the main overall tally. Should help speed things up for the Saints

 

[ibd77]

Sorry, I didn't explain my OP very well.

I meant this to be a concurrent premiership table exclusively for the double up games only. It is meant to see how clubs performed when home ground advantage is neutralized with 1 game at home, then 1 game away against the same club.

The night time premiership component comes into as a single stand along grand final between the top two teams after all the double up games are all completed. No finals, no additional games during the year. It is simply to take advantage of imbalance fixture where clubs cannot play each other twice in a single season.

Also noting an error in my OP, there aren't 6 rounds but in fact 12 rounds where clubs play home and away against each other in a season. It's a decent spread of matches to work out the top 2 and eventual night time premiers.

 

[Freddy Swift]

The original VFL night series began in the late 1950’s with floodlights installed at South’s Lakeside Oval.
The 8 teams that missed finals (in the days of a final four) played off knockout style during the actual Finals.
It morphed in the 1970’s into a regular season comp. Primarily played on Tuesday nights at Waverley. Teams from WA & SA were added with some earlier rounds played interstate. Televised live it was very popular.
The final would draw big crowds - 30 to 40,000. Over 50,000 attended the 1980 Final.

Yep you beat me to it Occidental. What you have described is the original ‘Night Premiership’ series I remember at the old Lakeside oval. Sort of a consolation prize for the teams who didn’t make the finals. My dad said there was often nasty fights in the crowd though.

 

[Dazzler9]

 

[ibd77]

In my scenario, Melbourne & Brisbane would face off in the 2023 night grand final at the MCG. Could Brisbane win against the Dees at the G?

Pos	Club	Played	Win	Loss	Draw	Points	Points For	Points Against	Percentage
1	Melbourne	12	10	2	0	40	962	706	136.26
2	Brisbane	12	9	3	0	36	1124	975	115.28
3	Collingwood	12	9	3	0	36	1130	987	114.49
4	Carlton	12	8	4	0	32	1037	844	122.87
5	Greater Western Sydney	12	8	4	0	32	1086	926	117.28
6	Western Bulldogs	12	7	5	0	28	1072	931	115.15
7	Fremantle	12	7	5	0	28	1091	948	115.08
8	Port Adelaide	12	7	5	0	28	1011	1050	96.29
9	Adelaide	12	6	6	0	24	1175	949	123.81
10	St Kilda	12	6	6	0	24	912	849	107.42
11	Geelong	12	5	6	1	22	1128	1025	110.05
12	Sydney	12	5	6	1	22	1045	1083	96.49
13	Essendon	12	5	7	0	20	902	1146	78.71
14	Richmond	12	4	8	0	16	976	1090	89.54
15	Gold Coast	12	4	8	0	16	963	1123	85.75
16	Hawthorn	12	4	8	0	16	841	1021	82.37
17	North Melbourne	12	2	10	0	8	832	1082	76.89
18	West Coast	12	1	11	0	4	733	1356	54.06

​

 

[Rusty Brookes]

I miss the pre-season comp simply because it gave me footy to watch. No-one put too much stock into it but it was great being able to go to the footy in February. Plus you got to see young players and blokes on the fringe get a game.

In the 80s, it was sweet to watch a game on Wednesday night between the Pies and North Adelaide in front of no-one.

 

[Whisper in the Wind]

Sorry, I didn't explain my OP very well.

I meant this to be a concurrent premiership table exclusively for the double up games only. It is meant to see how clubs performed when home ground advantage is neutralized with 1 game at home, then 1 game away against the same club.

The night time premiership component comes into as a single stand along grand final between the top two teams after all the double up games are all completed. No finals, no additional games during the year. It is simply to take advantage of imbalance fixture where clubs cannot play each other twice in a single season.

Also noting an error in my OP, there aren't 6 rounds but in fact 12 rounds where clubs play home and away against each other in a season. It's a decent spread of matches to work out the top 2 and eventual night time premiers.

Sorry, but that idea is even worse than a Preseason Cup.
The Night Finalists would alway be Finals teams, why would they sacrifice their Finals campaign for a meaningless sideshow?

If you want to neutralise the double up games, they should be worth half the Premiership Points as non-double ups.
Eg. If Collingwood beat West Coast twice, they would get 2pts for each win = 4 points total. The same amount as Brisbane if they only played West Coast once.

If you want a Night Time/Pre Season comp, remove the Grand Finalists and let the other 16 play a Wizard Cup type knockout comp, then the Grand Finalists could open Round 1.

 

[jim boy]

No-one put too much stock into it but it was great being able to go to the footy in February.

Dont know what match you were going to but the season that year didnt even start until March and the match you referenced was in May, well into the regular season. And that was a major issue, teams couldn't play that much so they started putting in "under 19s" teams.

They were trying to emulate the soccer, with a 'cup competition as well as the regular season. It didn't really work and increased professionalism killed it completely