The Australian Football League (AFL) today announced it would retain the week's break introduced this year between the end of the Home and Away Season and the start to the Finals Series for the 2017 Toyota AFL Premiership Season.
AFL Chief Executive Gillon McLachlan said the 2017 fixture was expected to be completed by the end of this month by Travis Auld and his team, but the AFL had determined the Celebration of Football, with a break for all eight teams contesting the finals, had been a strong success overall for the game.
Further, Mr McLachlan said the AFL would continue to look at the structure of the AFL season for beyond the 2017 season, to determine if alternate fixture models could work in the future.
The 2017 bye week will be held between the final round of the Toyota AFL Premiership Season (August 25-27) and the opening to the Toyota AFL Finals Series (September 7-10), with the AFL again retaining the option to have a Thursday-night final (September 7) to open the major round.
"It is the AFL's view that the greater build-up for fans of all sides competing in the finals strongly contributed to a brilliant month for the game across September, with the best players being able to be as fit and well-prepared as possible for the most important games of the season.
"The 2016 finals series had compelling football across every weekend and the nine matches were the most-watched finals in our history with a total audience of 18.37 million viewers across the month.
"Separate to the integrity reasons that were also behind the decision to have a break after the final round, the opening four matches of the 2016 Finals saw the largest television audience for week one of a finals series since the AFL went to a top-eight system in 1994, along with the fact that match-day attendances were the fourth-best in AFL history since the finals series went to a top eight.
"The AFL was able to give a greater focus to both the women's All-Star game and our retired Legends through the EJ Whitten match while our key awards - such as All Australian selection and the Ron Evans Medal for the Rising Star - also received greater prominence than in previous years with time to value the achievements of those who had starred during the season.
"We are continuing our review of how best to place our key events in the week before our finals matches begin, but the decision to retain this week off for the elite players to prepare for the finals can also be used by all other levels of the game below the AFL to raise the profile of all state league competitions across that weekend, along with metropolitan, regional and community football," Mr McLachlan said.
Mr McLachlan said he also wished to acknowledge the role of each of the eight clubs during September that had embraced the AFL's decision to introduce the week off, with the clubs having scheduled open training sessions for fans and providing greater access to media.
He said the AFL would again consider a Thursday night match in the opening week of the finals series, both to increase the potential numbers who could watch the match on television, as well as for the fact that a Thursday game, as against a Sunday game, made fixturing easier for later weeks in the finals when considering travel loads and team breaks.
The AFL's season structure for 2017 will remain the same as recent years with a standard round to continue to feature one Friday night match, two Saturday afternoon matches, one Saturday twilight match, two Saturday night matches, one early Sunday match, one Sunday afternoon match and one Sunday twilight match.
The five double match-ups for all clubs as part of the 22 home and away games, will again be determined on the ‘Weighted Rule” as per 2014, 2015 and 2016, grouping teams in the ladder blocks of one to six, seven to 12 and 13 to 18.
Mr McLachlan said he would task Mr Auld with the job of further examining in detail if other fixture options, such as a 17/5 season model, use of wildcards or other options, could work in the future. Discussions in recent years on various models with the AFL clubs had made some progress but there was now the flexibility for the competition to look at other fixture models and see if they could benefit the game.
The AFL had notified key partners and stakeholders of its decision to retain the bye week and Mr McLachlan said that while there was still some opposition, it was his view the majority of the football community was now supportive of the change after seeing its operation in action.
Key Points from the 2016 Finals:
· The Western Bulldogs' victory in the 2016 Toyota AFL Grand Final over the Sydney Swans was the fourth most-watched game in VFL/AFL history, with a combined consolidated metro and regional average of 4.12 million viewers on the Seven Network, behind only the 1996 (4.4 million, NMelb v Sydney); 2005 (4.4 million, Sydney v West Coast) and 2006 (4.15 million, West Coast v Sydney) Grand Finals.
· The nine matches in the 2016 Toyota AFL Finals Series drew a total consolidated audience of 18.37 million viewers, the largest in AFL history.
· Attendance for the 2016 Toyota AFL AFL Finals Series of 558,342 was a nine per cent increase on 2015.
· The opening to the 2016 Toyota AFL Finals saw the largest television audience over four matches for week one of a finals series since the AFL went to a top-eight system in 1994, as the total consolidated television audience reached 6.4 million, eclipsing the 6.07 million who watched the opening four matches of the 2006 Toyota AFL Finals Series.
· The four week one games drew an average audience as follows:
- West Coast v Western Bulldogs – 1.69 million.
- Geelong Cats v Hawthorn – 1.81 million.
- Sydney Swans v GWS Giants – 1.50 million.
- Adelaide Crows v North Melbourne – 1.41 million.
· Attendances at the four games in week one were the fourth-best in AFL history since the finals series went to a top eight, behind only the finals series of 2011, 2009 and 2014 respectively.
· Leading Attendances at Week One Finals:
- 2011 – 270,678.
- 2009 – 241,315.
- 2014 – 239,202.
- 2016 – 238,840.
- 2013 – 238,485.
