On the AFL’s preseason captain’s day, the ABC Sport content material creation workforce threw a curly one on the league’s skippers: Is Vic bias actual?.
It is a very on-line query, however one which introduced out a variety of responses from the gamers.
Some gave a fast chuckle and a “no duh” reply within the affirmative, whereas just a few shot nervous glances behind them as if satisfied an AFL heavy was about to stuff them in a sack in the event that they gave the flawed reply. Zach Merrett seemed earnestly into the interviewer’s eyes and gave a politician’s retort.
However nearly unanimously, there was an acceptance that the league skews in the direction of its conventional Victorian base in methods each quantifiable and mysterious. You typically cannot see Vic bias, however you possibly can really feel it prick the again of your neck.
It’s upon this nebulous idea which the AFL hangs a lot of its pitch concerning Opening Spherical, the second version of which is now accomplished and ripe for judgement.
We’re taking the sport to the northern states! It is a nationwide competitors, you guys, and it is about time Queensland and New South Wales received their share of the highlight!
The view from Victoria appears to be that this act of generosity — permitting Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney and GWS to every play a house recreation towards a historically highly effective Victorian membership every week earlier than the remainder of the league joins in — is a huge step in the direction of placing Australian soccer on the map in these states.
How, you would possibly ask? Properly, that bit is unclear.
Ticket gross sales in Sydney and Brisbane have been sturdy, however they have been at all times going to be. The Lions simply received the premiership and have been going to unfurl the flag towards the Cats, and the Swans are at all times properly supported on the SCG.
The Giants-Magpies recreation on Sunday was hardly a promote out and we’ll by no means know what number of would have turned out to see the Suns play the Bombers on Saturday.
However would anyone who went to any of those video games have completed so particularly as a result of North Melbourne wasn’t taking part in St Kilda at Docklands on the identical day?
The Hawks rained on Sydney’s parade on Thursday night time. (Getty Pictures: Michael Willson)
It is troublesome to piece collectively the logic meaning no soccer in Melbourne means extra folks going to the soccer in Sydney. As has been identified by many, the northern states can nonetheless get their marquee video games with out everybody in Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne and past sitting on their arms ready for his or her flip every week later.
The reality there is just one benefit to Opening Spherical’s existence and it’s felt at league headquarters solely.
This abbreviated prologue to the season ensures there may be one further Thursday night time and one further Friday night time in entrance of nationwide eyeballs on prime-time tv, with none workforce having to play an additional recreation. It extends the season from a broadcast and revenue standpoint with out having to persuade the gamers to place the boots on for an additional house and away recreation.
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The postponement of two video games this week attributable to Tropical Cyclone Alfred is unlucky and clearly properly past the AFL’s management, however by rescheduling the Suns-Bombers recreation for the empty pre-finals bye week they’re able to obtain the identical impact — one other Thursday or Friday night time blockbuster added to the TV information.
It’s troublesome to promote that as a win to the typical footy fan, starved for video games and determined to see their workforce start their inevitable run to the 2025 premiership. Particularly on the value connected to it.
Folks will level to the general lack of buzz that Opening Spherical brings, however that’s far much less important than the impression it’s having on gamers and the aggressive imbalance it creates.
An AFL preseason is getting ever shorter, with gamers now entitled to extra summer season holidays and the season’s begin date edging nearer to the summer season months.
Nick Daicos, close to sufficient to the poster boy for meticulous preparation and footy conditioning since he entered the league, barely received to the third quarter on Sunday earlier than he began cramping up like your uncle on a trampoline.
Nick Daicos struggled with cramp via the second half towards the Giants. (Getty Pictures: Dylan Burns)
Gamers are struggling to be bodily ready for the beginning of the season, an issue exacerbated by the truth that subsequent week some groups will probably be fronting up for his or her first recreation towards sides who’ve already put that difficult opening hit out behind them, battle-hardened and within the groove.
Then they get one other bye lower than a month into the season to clean up whereas the remainder of the league begins to slog in the direction of the break within the season’s midway level.
These are all very actual components that may play an element in a membership’s success or failure inside a season. All for the said good thing about throwing a bone to the northern states golf equipment (who, you might need seen, are literally going OK in the intervening time) and a boon to the broadcasters.
If, as nearly all of AFL captains would concede, there may be an inherent bias within the league in the direction of Victoria that is definitely not what they’d in thoughts.
A better evaluation of journey necessities, scheduling points, soft-cap concessions and media consideration would possibly go additional to bridging that hole.
And if it does, no person will thoughts in any respect if the season begins with a full spherical of 9 video games, launched on a Thursday night time on the MCG.
