Short quarters

[TigerForce]

Nobody can understand this. Defies logic.

It's like start, play, finish, game over, pack up and go. See ya next time. No substance. We'll see tomorrow night on how a crowd - less game feels like. It's gonna be all 'going through the motions' stuff. I'm just about over this season already and couldn't care less who wins the flag.

 

[DavidSSS]

Because humans are no longer capable of being amused and entertained for any more than about five minutes without needing to switch online for other amusing distractions. Two hour match with a couple of rest intervals is just waaaayyyy to long, condense the game to a few minutes of blitzkrieg n do away with all the boring stuff and everybody will be hyper.

That sounds logical but the fact that AFL has bigger crowds and better ratings shows that Australian Football can hold the attention of an audience for a full length game (even millenials!).

The AFL need to be told by the fans that we want them to stop f***ing with the game. They don't own it, they are just taking care of it for the moment.

DS

 

[craig]

Turning it into AFLW eh 15 odd minute quarters - talk of 16 players multiple games per week.

The future of shorter games so they can play more often for more TV revenue might be in the not too distant future.

AFL conveniently Beta testing future ideas and not letting a good crisis go to waste maybe ??

 

[DavidSSS]

Turning it into AFLW eh 15 odd minute quarters - talk of 16 players multiple games per week.

The future of shorter games so they can play more often for more TV revenue might be in the not too distant future.

AFL conveniently Beta testing future ideas and not letting a good crisis go to waste maybe ??

I think you picked it right.

Rather than shorter quarters, lets transition the women's game to the standard length. Sure, we have shorter quarters while the competition gets up to speed, in a few years we make the quarters in Women's AFL the same length as the men.

DS

 

[jb03]

Don't quite get the reduction of quarters. It will be the frequency of games that determines the rotating of players in and out of the team.

Always a concern that the AFL will bring in changes that will stay permanently once Hutcy, Barrett and co. throw their weight behind the changes.

 

[Jetboy]

Pretty sure that the thinking of reducing game time is to lessen the impact and fatigue on players so that they can potentially play more than 1 game a week. The AFL have in mind if need be playing 3 games within the space of 2 weeks I believe was reported.

Yes, this to me makes sense.....I , like most others, thought that the reduction in game time was a nonsense, however, when youthink about it, I remember years ago when they reduced the qtrs to 20min....wow, shock horror at the time, but as it turned out, people got over it, and as we have seen, most qtrs creep up to the 30 to 33min mark (time on included), hence don’t be surprised if the qtrs this year still run to 25+ min.
Having said that, I still would prefer 20min qtrs........the litmus test will come next season when the AFL must decide to return to 20min, or stick with 16......

 

[ToraToraTora]

I reckon this season will be cancelled within 2 months. Cases will pop up in the industry and then it's done and dusted.

 

[Ian4]

The AFL are sneaking their changes in while the corona virus is distracting the public.

16.5 mins per quarter is a joke, there is no justification for shortening the quarters.

Might just cancel my foxtel subscription.

as somone who has long supported shorter games and a shorter season, I am more than happy for city hall to experiemnent with this right now. but even I have to admit that 16 minutes is excessive. we're talking about 20%.

I understand shortening the season, but not the rationale behind shortening the game itself. People around the game keep saying this will happen, it’s inevitable apparently, but no one can explain why.

well here is the explanation... we live in a time where people have much shorter attention spans. thats why 20/20 cricket has taken off. from the first bounce to the final siren, a game of footy goes for about 2:35. not many team sports have games that go on for that long. some of the most popular sports in the world (such as Sokkah and Rugby) last less than 2 hours. I'd like to see our game reduced by at least 20-25 minutes. earlier finishes will help with crowds (especially kids at night games) as well as better timeslots (ie. potentially play 2 games on Friday nights).

on top of that, the game has many more stoppages these days and quarters drag on longer and longer.

That sounds logical but the fact that AFL has bigger crowds and better ratings shows that Australian Football can hold the attention of an audience for a full length game (even millenials!).

short memory dude. if you go back to the recent shortening of half time debate, the AFL said TV ratings drop off significantly at half time, and one of the reasons why they wanted to shorten it was to keep viewers engaged.

 

[Rfc4Ever]

From a footballing perspective, the worst thing is that this is happening whilst we are at our peak.

 

[zippadeee]

*6-6-6
*Shorter qtrs
*Shorter season.

What else can they introduce to TRY to bend us over??

We won 12 in a row last year.
We might go through 3 seasons without a defeat.

 

[tigerlove]

Clearly the shorter quarters are to allow for the possibility of more games being played in a shorter period of time, so instead for example ,of once a week, 3 times very 2 weeks. 20% reduction means a player who normally plays 70% game time equalling approx 84 minutes (Cotchin's average last year), they'll play 58 minutes instead. Quicker recovery time, ability to play more games. I don't agree with it but they appear to be leaving all options open.

 

[tigerlove]

What else can they introduce to TRY to bend us over??

Dunno. Another virus? I really don't think this is about trying to bend us over.

 

[taztiger4]

16 minutes is 4 minutes shorter than normal, 1/4s will run 23-27 min as opposed to 27-31 ish, not a great difference TBH

 

[zippadeee]

Dunno. Another virus? I really don't think this is about trying to bend us over.

Eeveryone and everything is trying to derail us.
This is a conspiracy

 

[Tigers of Old]

20% shorter. I wouldn't call that a small change.

 

[DavidSSS]

short memory dude. if you go back to the recent shortening of half time debate, the AFL said TV ratings drop off significantly at half time, and one of the reasons why they wanted to shorten it was to keep viewers engaged.

No, not short memory, I was talking about crowd numbers and they are bigger than ever.

As for the drop off in TV ratings after half time, I have a few questions about that:

• How big is the drop off at half time?
• Has this always been the case?
• Is this the case in other televised sports?

You can put a stat out there and make some claims, as the AFL has, but it has to be seen in context or it is meaningless.

DS

 

[Ian4]

No, not short memory, I was talking about crowd numbers and they are bigger than ever.

As for the drop off in TV ratings after half time, I have a few questions about that:

• How big is the drop off at half time?
• Has this always been the case?
• Is this the case in other televised sports?

You can put a stat out there and make some claims, as the AFL has, but it has to be seen in context or it is meaningless.

DS

exactly right. I mean you said crowds are bigger than ever, but average crowds are still 2,000 per game lower compared to before expansion.

 

[Stoobes]

There will be no matches for a 2+ month period this year when the virus peaks. Games will be squashed in at the start and afterwards, shorter quarters makes perfect sense if we're to get enough games in either side to make a season.
We might play 6 games in the next month or half of a shortened season in the next 6 weeks before we shut up shop for a while.
If we had a choice I'm sure we'd all take this option over no season at all while we're the best team going around.

 

[Harry]

Just shorten the qtrs to 5 mins each and you can play 4 games in one night, play every night and then finish the season in a month.

 

[tigerlove]

short memory dude. if you go back to the recent shortening of half time debate, the AFL said TV ratings drop off significantly at half time, and one of the reasons why they wanted to shorten it was to keep viewers engaged.

Can't see how shortening half time would keep people more engaged. There's obvious reasons why TV ratings drop off; 1 if your team is getting thumped than many will switch off, 2, casual viewers not supporting either team will often turn off if the game isn't close, 3, non-AFL followers might not want to watch a whole game (that's what I often do when watching rugby for example). I doubt reducing half time to 15 minutes would have any serious effect on TV rating dropping off. It was just a smoke screen for whatever their real agenda was.