Talking Footy

Eddie McGuire has called for the AFL to adopt a night grand final
Jon Ralph
Herald Sun
February 15, 201212:00AM

EDDIE McGuire has called on the AFL to part with the tradition of daytime grand finals in favour of a night decider.

"If you are serious about what you are trying to achieve, the ultimate marketing tool the AFL has is the AFL grand final," McGuire told The Daily Telegraph. "And if you want to put on the biggest and best show you do it at night. What difference is there between a Friday night preliminary final? Collingwood-Hawthorn wasn't a bad game.

"Every big game is on at night bar two. The Saturday day preliminary (between Geelong and West Coast) had the atmosphere of a wet sponge and the game itself was like a practice match. The grand final (as a contest) was great, but pre-match it was deflating. The rumour had gone around the stadium that Meat Loaf wasn't even singing."

McGuire said the AFL's "embarrassing" pre-match grand final entertainment should be a significant factor in prompting the league to switch its marquee contest to a prime-time night game.

Last year's Meat Loaf debacle, he said, proved the league is not capable of producing quality pre-match entertainment during the day.

He believes the league has a serious decision to make: either ditch all pre-match entertainment for an afternoon grand final or "get real" with a massive night spectacle.

According to McGuire, AFL boss Andrew Demetriou's argument about retaining tradition is obsolete given almost every big AFL game is now played at night.

"Sooner or later we need some serious discussion on whether we want to have a night grand final. We have been trying pre-match entertainment since 1977. It doesn't work," McGuire said. "People come down with trapezes where you can see the wires and footy legends with premiership cups come wandering on to the ground like brown's cows.

"It's embarrassing. We just got over Angry Anderson 20 years ago and (last year) we had Meat Loaf.

"We don't want that happening next year."

"If we want to keep it as a daytime game we might as well forget the entertainment," McGuire said.

"Get massed bands to play Advance Australia Fair and Waltzing Matilda, get everyone off the ground and bounce the ball. But if you want to have a real go, have an entertainment spectacular with a million-dollar budget.

"If you are serious about what you are trying to achieve, the ultimate marketing tool is the AFL grand final. And if you want to put on the biggest and best show you do it at night."

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6271184066

TLPG wrote:

NO! If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Pure and simple.

TLPG wrote:

It's been that way for decades, Cos. I think you'll find you're in the minority.