umm... such a way overreaction. Footy emulates other sports, whether you like it or not. In this instance, I am just comparing the running time to other sports. We live in a society where people are constantly busy, don't have enough time on their hands. We also live in a country where there is an insane amount of competition for the hearts and minds of sports lovers. the running time for an NRL game is so short that they are able to play 2 games after work on a Friday night. We could do this as well if our game was shortened to 2:10 as per my suggestion.So why does Aussie rules suddenly need to emulate other games n play for two 40 minute halves?
Games been four twenty five minute qtrs plus time on since way back when I was a kid. Then the experts shortened the qtrs by a few minutes so that the advertisers would have more time to run commercials and the maggots could prance n waggle before every bounce, which lengthened the game time instead of shortening. Which simply made for less playing time n more bullshit time. Now they want to save all the little kiddies n all the working class by shaving a whole ten minutes off the half time break, so we can all get to bed early when they have Thurs night games n Mon night games n mid week games. Plus they're thinking of shaving a few more minutes off the qtrs again to save even more time.
Strange how people chuck tantrums when companies change the size n quantity of their products without reducing the price yet some are more than happy to get reduced game time and be forced to miss parts of the game while lining up for a pee, beer or feed, with more bullshit thrown in as if the Flogs are doing us all a favour.
In addition, it also has a lot to do with boredom and improving the game. our club at on top of the tree, so we don't notice it so much... but the game is still trash to watch. I've been a long advocate of shortening the game and shortening the season because I wanna see the quality improve. and I have no doubt it will if this occurs. 18 games per season of 4 x 18 minute quarters plus time-on has a nice ring to it.
btw, we went from 25 minutes plus time-on to 20 minutes plus time-on because the way they calculated time-on changed at the time. from memory, the clock was not stopped for boundary throw-ins and ball-ups. Clubs milked this in close matches. this changed when we went to 20 minutes plus time-on and it barely affected the length of quarters as stoppages in games increased.
I'm also against an over-saturation of Thursday night games. Keep it for round 1 and thats it. But it opens up other opportunities. double headers on Friday nights. a return to the traditional 2:10pm first bounce (instead of 1:10pm and 1:45pm on Saturday and Sunday). an earlier finish to night games for families. opportunity for less games on Sunday. For mine, the pros outweigh the cons.
you could theoretically have home and away rounds looking like this:
Friday Night: 1 x 7:15pm games on the east coast. 1 x 9:30pm game from Perth (7:30pm Perth time).
Saturday: 2 x 2:10pm games, 1 x 4:35pm game, 2 x 7:15pm games.
Sunday: 1 x 2:10pm game, 1 x 4:35pm game.