The Last straw

[Seeds]

Games are going longer now than ever. Shortening them by 10% isn't going to kill the game and it might reduce injuries, ensuring more better players are on the park.

Not that i'm in favour of doing so, but i'm not going to be a whiny little bitch about it.

Dead time is going longer. The game itself is still 20mins a qtr. who would of thought introducing a third umpire for goals decisions wouldn't of increased the amount of dead time.

 

[Lsta062]

The AFL have announced that they are seriously considering shortening the length of the game. No this isn't too senile men who need to go to bed early like Malthouse and Sheedy suggesting it as previously, Gil has now said he is seriously looking into this.

If this occurs. Its the last straw. I will stop going to the football. Its a big effort to go to the game from the outer suburbs and if the length of the product gets any shorter then it will stop being justifiable to spend all that effort to go and I will just watch it on the tv instead.

The AFL is desperately trying to look for reasons as to why attendances down and they have come up with the bright idea that it is the length of the game. They sight the success of twenty twenty cricket. A sport that is still longer than a current AFL game. Yep its longer but apparently its a reason to shorten the game???? Apparently AFL is the longest football game in Australia. Yep. Its also the one with the biggest game attendances. NRL rates just as well if not better on TV, but the crowds are beyond ordinary. Maybe one reason is there game is too short to justify the effort to go. Evert think of that genius Gil.

What's even more infuriating is that Gil doesn't even care what current AFL supporters think. He actually stated he is interested in what will encourage non football supporters to the game. Bascially he thinks we will go no matter what and our opinions are irrelevant, may as well have literally slapped us in the face with a frozen turkey. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. I will stop going if you shorten games. I encourage everyone else who is angered by this to post and let the AFL know this is not on. The AFL needs to stop treating its existing fan base as irrelevant.

Gil I will even give you some tips why fan numbers are down and its nothing to do with length of games or lack of pre game entertainment.

1) Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon and Richmond are ordinary and with the exception of the Pies in 2010-11 they have been ordinary for a long term. Existing supporters of these clubs are disappearing as a result. Nothing you can do about this but accept it rather making up dumb other excuses.

2) You stretched things too far by introducing GWS and Gold Coast whilst Sydney and Brisbane were still trying to capture their own markets. Dumb move and now you have to simply suffer for it or merge them. Perth and Tassie would of been much more viable options to expand the game or you simply could of kept it at 16 teams (wow - I know I just blew your mind Gil).

3) Cost of Seating has risen beyond belief in the past twenty five years since I started following football. Maybe just maybe you are overpricing seating and overestimated your potential audience. Suck it up, realise you over reached and lower seat prices.

4) The never ending weekend of football. No one likes twilight games, particularly on a Sunday when we are all getting ready for the working week. We love Saturday games. Suns outs, cool winter breeze, lights come on in the last quarter during the middle of winter and we go out for a dinner after a game, or go home to watch the replay. Bring more Saturday games back (you could even have two or three playing at the same time) and get rid of Twilights. Now the never ending weekend of football may be to do with maximising tv rights, if so then fine, keep your TV rights but recognize that attendances will be lower and live with it. Stop trying to find other excuses and change a fundamental of the game like its length in a vain attempt to fix what is not broken.

One supporter who loves going to live games .... for now.

To be fair, Gil was not in charge when these two teams were introduced

 

[Mitchell Madness]

I've said it before
25 min quarters, with time added on in the last 5 only (similar to basketball which only stops the clock in the last min of quarters)
This then means archaic and meaningless rules

Would cap quarters at around 27.5 mins, and is closer to the 100 mins of football which was the main rule for a long time

My last straw was the essendon verdict
Only watch hawthorn games now

 

[The_Eagles]

I also think games are too long, after a fast paced first quarter, second quarters can become boring and you can go and do something and not miss much

 

[JackFlash]

The game IS too long, been saying it for years. If true this would be one of the best ideas the fools at AFL headquarters have come up with. 15minute quarters would really liven things up. Too many games are over halfway through the 3rd and become a snoozefest.

Insane statement....today's games were perfect examples of exciting finishes. Leave the game alone!

 

[Scared]

Not starting Friday night games at 7.50pm would probably be a start.

 

[jim boy]

From my recollection, quarters in the the eighties would normally last 27-29 minutes. Twenty-five minute quarters and you'd get stoppage time for scores and injuries and that was about it. Then they reduced it to 20 minute quarters, and added time on for pretty much everything. Need to go back to the original method.

But I just wish the AFL would go back to administering football as a sport, rather than a business

 

[Fletched]

Crowds aren't down

 

[Blue1980]

Won't happen and no reason to happen.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Alfonz]

Do people realize the timekeeping of the the game has changed over the years?

Once upon a time (for the old timers who think nothing should ever change), the game was supposed to be a 100 minute affair. And there have been a few revisions over the years with how a quarter is timed.

It wouldn't be a disaster to do something which limits it to a few minutes less total time per quarter. For example, don't stop the clock for a ball up.

 

[dumb]

it used to be adrian anderson that would smooth the way for changes in length of game, nowadays i guess gil is pretty hands on.
it will be some restless tv execs whispering in his ear to take care of, otherwise it would never be an issue. shaving off a minute here and there is always purely and simply to neatly fit it into a tv timeslot... it has nothing to do with the actual game itself being too long.

 

[Banker]

You should stick to rugby league or soccer.

Soccer is 90 mins, AFL is 80mins.. Stoppages might prelong the game time, but the fact is only a true 80mins is actually played.

 

[Seeds]

To be fair, Gil was not in charge when these two teams were introduced

he was second in charge. Pretty sure he had a large part to do with it.

 

[Lsta062]

he was second in charge. Pretty sure he had a large part to do with it.

Right, that is true

 

[Seeds]

From my recollection, quarters in the the eighties would normally last 27-29 minutes. Twenty-five minute quarters and you'd get stoppage time for scores and injuries and that was about it. Then they reduced it to 20 minute quarters, and added time on for pretty much everything. Need to go back to the original method.

But I just wish the AFL would go back to administering football as a sport, rather than a business

Your memory is poor. Plenty of quarters in the eighties went into the 30-35 min mark. Quarters were actually longer in the 80's. 25 mins instead of 20 plus time on. They just didn't call time off for as many things as they used to.

 

[Seeds]

Soccer is 90 mins, AFL is 80mins.. Stoppages might prelong the game time, but the fact is only a true 80mins is actually played.

Exactly. If they want to work on reducing time of games work on the stoppage time. Not actual in play time.

 

[Seeds]

Crowds aren't down

They were last year. This season is only four weeks old. Everyone is still looking at last years figures.

 

[Fletched]

They were last year. This season is only four weeks old. Everyone is still looking at last years figures.

No they weren't crowds have been rising steadily since 2012

2012 31509
2013 32163
2014 32333
2015 35231

Good chance this round will increase the 2015 average even more

 

[Colonial]

They were last year. This season is only four weeks old. Everyone is still looking at last years figures.

Wrong

 

[LeoMessi]

Soccer is 90 mins, AFL is 80mins.. Stoppages might prelong the game time, but the fact is only a true 80mins is actually played.

You must have rocks in your head if you think that an AFL game is only 80 mins. It's usually another 10 mins for each qtr and it blows out to 120 mins.

They should look at going 25 mins no stoppage

 

[D-N-R]

it used to be adrian anderson that would smooth the way for changes in length of game, nowadays i guess gil is pretty hands on.
it will be some restless tv execs whispering in his ear to take care of, otherwise it would never be an issue. shaving off a minute here and there is always purely and simply to neatly fit it into a tv timeslot... it has nothing to do with the actual game itself being too long.

This. The last time they changed the lengths of the quarters was before the last deal. They now have quicker ball-ups, quicker kick-ins, the throw-ins are done more quickly.

Unless they cut quarters to 15min playing time, there isn't much they can do to shorten the game. The only way they could do it would be to remove time-offs altogether and this will just result in teams looking for ways to wind the clock down when it suits them.

Quarters are currently 20 minutes plus time on, but they actually go for about 30 minutes. Which means that they have to add on 10 minutes of football lost in 20 minutes of actual playing time. If they start reducing the time-offs, we could be looking at only seeing only 40 minutes of football per game.

 

[Damon_3388]

1) Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon and Richmond are ordinary and with the exception of the Pies in 2010-11 they have been ordinary for a long term. Existing supporters of these clubs are disappearing as a result. Nothing you can do about this but accept it rather making up dumb other excuses.

Diverting the topic, but if having the longest finals streak in the league up until last year (making the top eight every single year from 2006-2013, which not even perennials like Geelong and Sydney did) is "ordinary", I'll take that every time. Carlton, Essendon and Richmond would kill to have Collingwood's record over the same period, even aside from the premiership.

 

[Big Bryza]

The AFL have announced that they are seriously considering shortening the length of the game. No this isn't too senile men who need to go to bed early like Malthouse and Sheedy suggesting it as previously, Gil has now said he is seriously looking into this.

If this occurs. Its the last straw. I will stop going to the football. Its a big effort to go to the game from the outer suburbs and if the length of the product gets any shorter then it will stop being justifiable to spend all that effort to go and I will just watch it on the tv instead.

The AFL is desperately trying to look for reasons as to why attendances down and they have come up with the bright idea that it is the length of the game. They sight the success of twenty twenty cricket. A sport that is still longer than a current AFL game. Yep its longer but apparently its a reason to shorten the game???? Apparently AFL is the longest football game in Australia. Yep. Its also the one with the biggest game attendances. NRL rates just as well if not better on TV, but the crowds are beyond ordinary. Maybe one reason is there game is too short to justify the effort to go. Evert think of that genius Gil.

What's even more infuriating is that Gil doesn't even care what current AFL supporters think. He actually stated he is interested in what will encourage non football supporters to the game. Bascially he thinks we will go no matter what and our opinions are irrelevant, may as well have literally slapped us in the face with a frozen turkey. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. I will stop going if you shorten games. I encourage everyone else who is angered by this to post and let the AFL know this is not on. The AFL needs to stop treating its existing fan base as irrelevant.

Gil I will even give you some tips why fan numbers are down and its nothing to do with length of games or lack of pre game entertainment.

1) Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon and Richmond are ordinary and with the exception of the Pies in 2010-11 they have been ordinary for a long term. Existing supporters of these clubs are disappearing as a result. Nothing you can do about this but accept it rather making up dumb other excuses.

2) You stretched things too far by introducing GWS and Gold Coast whilst Sydney and Brisbane were still trying to capture their own markets. Dumb move and now you have to simply suffer for it or merge them. Perth and Tassie would of been much more viable options to expand the game or you simply could of kept it at 16 teams (wow - I know I just blew your mind Gil).

3) Cost of Seating has risen beyond belief in the past twenty five years since I started following football. Maybe just maybe you are overpricing seating and overestimated your potential audience. Suck it up, realise you over reached and lower seat prices.

4) The never ending weekend of football. No one likes twilight games, particularly on a Sunday when we are all getting ready for the working week. We love Saturday games. Suns outs, cool winter breeze, lights come on in the last quarter during the middle of winter and we go out for a dinner after a game, or go home to watch the replay. Bring more Saturday games back (you could even have two or three playing at the same time) and get rid of Twilights. Now the never ending weekend of football may be to do with maximising tv rights, if so then fine, keep your TV rights but recognize that attendances will be lower and live with it. Stop trying to find other excuses and change a fundamental of the game like its length in a vain attempt to fix what is not broken.

One supporter who loves going to live games .... for now.

70,000 at the G last night champ.

 

[Jamurp]

The main broadcaster still delays coverage of matches, in a social media filled world, it's ridiculous.

 

[GOAUS!]

Why would they want to shorten the game? Less time = less advertising revenue surely?