Eddie McGuire has called on the AFL to ditch its “small-time” mentality by moving the grand final to a later start time, saying the league continues to give the NRL a free kick by sticking to tradition.
McGuire used the results from the Logies as the basis for his argument, after the Nine Network took out the Logie for Most Outstanding Sports Coverage for its State of Origin presentation, beating out the 2022 AFL grand final, the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the Melbourne Cup carnival, the Australian Open and the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
McGuire has been vocal about moving the AFL grand final start time from it’s traditional 2.30pm afternoon time slot into one which suits prime time television, and said the AFL must evolve with the times.
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“Peter V’landys, and I know because I’ve had conversations with him, he can’t believe how lucky he is that they (the AFL) keep giving him one on the chest,” he told the Eddie and Jimmy podcast.
“The grand final didn’t win the Logie, the State of Origin did, and the simple reason was it’s a better spectacle because it’s at night. That’s it.
“The AFL grand final probably should’ve won because the Robbie Williams spectacular was fantastic. It was the best pre-match (entertainment) of any sport we’ve had in Australia outside of an opening ceremony for the Olympic Games.”
McGuire suggested that the AFL should consider mirroring the NRL by hosting its grand final at prime time on a Sunday night.
”You’ve got to measure the two matrixes and that is: there is the business of football … and there’s the show,” he said.
“Then there is the other business of football which is maximising the income coming from television, and it needs to be the cracker show of the year.
“The grand final shouldn’t be less of a spectacle than the preliminary final the week before.
“If you want to do that, Sunday night is the night, and then you have the holiday the next day.”
McGuire argued that moving the grand final into a prime time slot would allow the AFL to better reach audiences in both New South Wales and Queensland.
”There would be more money on the table for it, no doubt,” he said.
“It’s quite simple, you’d get New South Wales and Queensland watching for a start.
“That’s why the State of Origin does well because everyone in Melbourne watches it because it’s on on prime time.
“It’s like last night, people watched Australia in the cricket and Australia in the (Women’s World Cup). If that had been Saturday afternoon, the figures would’ve been halved.
“It (Origin) worked in the first place because it was on a Wednesday night at prime time and it’s got the heritage.
“The grand final for rugby league, I follow the rugby league, I’m not a devotee, but I watch the grand final every year because it’s on. It’s on a Sunday night, I’m home.
“If I can put 500,000-750,000 viewers from Melbourne who wouldn’t be watching it, that’s where you make your money on sales.
“If we, the AFL, are serious about getting into Queensland and New South Wales, we have to present our product to them.”
While traditionalists have argued against moving the grand final from its Saturday afternoon time slot, McGuire suggested people would get on board if the change was made, recalling similar arguments when Friday night football first became a regular fixture in the 90s.
”I’m old enough now to have been there when Friday night football came about, and everyone squealed,” he said.
“In 1999-2000, I was at meetings where Essendon said they would sue the AFL if they put them onto Friday night football, and North Melbourne said, ‘Yeah, we’re out of it as well’, because they had the run, Essendon.
“I went in with my TV background and said, ‘We’ll take all of it’, and we were just starting to get rolling again.
“They missed the leap and we had it all to ourselves for a period there, that’s how we rebuilt Collingwood, embracing what was there, the entertainment.”
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