You have to be careful with the footy schedule.
Thursday night games are a great example of that, they work well earlier in the season and towards the end of the year, but not really in the middle.
Some people are calling for Thursday night games year-round, and with fair reason.
Since Round One last year, Thursday night games average around 12 per cent higher audiences than the Friday night games.
People obviously love it, but if you schedule Thursday night for every week, you become a victim of external conditions.
Simply put, I think it would be a mistake to have every round with a Thursday night game, it would lose the novelty factor and the attraction… Not to mention it makes the round last much longer.
Then there’s the idea of Monday night games, like they have in the NFL in the United States.
We trialled Monday nights, and for whatever reason, it didn’t really work.
When you’re already overdosed with Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, you don’t want another game on the Monday, you want the footy shows that offer analysis.
We’re a Monday night footy show audience, not a monday night footy audience like they have in the NFL.
It’s also a nightmare for clubs, shorter breaks and far longer breaks make for an uneven schedule.
Another thing to consider is the time slots we have on the standard Saturday and Sunday, like the twilight matches.
Late Sunday afternoon, it’s rare that I’m sitting down intently to watch a football match… Sunday in general has become a family day for me.
Friday night is here to stay, Saturday night is a fantastic time for football, but the rest all have their issues.
Take Saturday lunch for example, the traditional time slot… Everyone has their own sport and commitments on, it’s an awkward time to sit down and watch a match on tv.
I think the AFL is mostly on the money for it’s scheduling, keep the Thursday night games intermittent and steer clear of Mondays.
As for the Sunday twilight match, I’m sure there is an audience out there, but truth be told it’s probably not me.
Switching gears quickly, before anyone gets carried away with the ladder, remember this AFL season is like the Melbourne Cup, anyone can win it.
Teams like Melbourne, Richmond and Collingwood may be struggling to take off, but it would be ridiculous to write them off after three rounds.
Same goes for the Crows, there is a lot of season left to play.
On the flip side, clubs like Brisbane and Fremantle have looked good early, but it’s far too early to classify them as the real deal.
My prediction: this will be one of the tightest AFL seasons on record. But please, no Monday night games.
Dale Lewis is the co-host of Triple M’s The Rush Hour with Jars & Louie, weekdays from 3-4pm and 6-7pm.
Lewis played 182 games for the Sydney Swans between 1990 and 2001.
