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COLLINGWOOD president Eddie McGuire will demand compensation from the AFL for the low attendance at Sunday night's clash with Carlton and wants supporters to receive an apology for the unpopular scheduling.
Just 40,936 turned up to watch the Magpies' 15-point win on a bitingly cold Sunday night that followed a day of rain.
It was the lowest crowd between the traditional rivals at the MCG since the semi-final in 1921, when 37,813 attended, and the lowest home-and-away attendance between the two sides at the MCG.
While the AFL has admitted the attendance was around 10,000 short of what it hoped for, a furious McGuire has slammed the decision to use what is usually a blockbuster event to trial a timeslot.
"This is one of the greatest [examples of] vandalising of a key event that I've seen in years," McGuire said afterwards.
"I'm sure I won't get a letter of an apology or anything else and I don't care – all I want is the cheque.
"I'm worried it's probably cost a couple of hundred of thousand – there's equalisation money gone out of the door.
"It's exactly the way we told them 12 months ago it would be.
"What we'll do is take the money out of the AFL executives' bonuses, those who did it, and send it to the Westpac Centre because at 9 o'clock and one second tomorrow, I'm going to be on the phone, saying, 'Compensation'.
"You want to be entrepreneurs, you carry the downside."
AFL spokesman Patrick Keane emphasised the trial nature of the timeslot and addressed the fact numbers were below what was expected.
"Our figures from tonight show that between the two clubs, there's about 13,000 reserved seat holders who didn't turn up," Keane said.
"Obviously the clubs get the money for those people but from our point of view, we want the people to attend.
"We've said quite consistently this year we're trialling a number of slots. Thursdays worked really well, Monday only had the one game and the crowds have trended down in the last couple of years.
"Sunday night obviously hasn't had the response in the same way Thursday has."
McGuire thanked the fans who did brave the elements for their support. But he was disappointed for the "35-40,000" fans put off by the wintry conditions, which were expected on a night in late June.
"I'm the president of the joint and I was lucky to come tonight," he said.
"Don't punish people. This is not a test to see what their endurance is. Make it easy for people. Life's hard out there at the moment, factories are shutting down, people are cold.
"Make it easy, make the football the one thing in your life that's great, not an ordeal.
"Don't say it's school holidays because most people who are working class people aren't flying to Noosa tomorrow, they get up and go to work tomorrow.
"It's a working family game and we've got to get back to it."
McGuire said fans buying seats and not attending was "not good for football".
"Even if it was one versus two, it would have been hard going," he said.
"We've been screaming about it since the fixture came out and it won't happen ever again - we will never play a Sunday night in the middle of winter ever again."
Carlton coach Mick Malthouse had no issues with being scheduled to play against Collingwood on a Sunday night.
"It's a national football game. You've got nine games that have got to be played over Thursday to Sunday," Malthouse said.
"If you have to play it Saturday or Sunday or Monday or Tuesday, as long as you get a minimum six days' rest, I'm quite comfortable with it."
LOWEST CARLTON-COLLINGWOOD CROWDS AT THE MCG
| CROWD | RESULT | WHEN |
| 51140 | Carl 20.10 (130) d Coll 5.12 (42) | SF, 1931 |
| 48287 | Carl 19.15 (129) d Coll 15.22 (112) | R20, 2005 |
| 47813 | Carl 20.16 (136) d Coll 14.10 (94) | R15, 1987 |
| 47335 | Coll 9.10 (64) d Carl 6.10 (46) | SF, 1919 |
| 46447 | Carl 23.19 (157) d Coll 11.16 (82) | PF, 1932 |
| 42790 | Coll 9.7 (61) d Carl 6.11 (47) | GF, 1910 |
| 40936 | Coll 13.13 (91) d Carl 11.10 (76) | R15, 2014 |
| 39343 | Carl 11.12 (78) d Coll 6.9 (45) GF | GF, 1915 |
| 37813 | Carl 9.11 (65) d Coll 7.10 (52) SF | SF, 1921 |
| 14000 | Carl 11.10 (76) d Coll 4.6 (30) | SF, 1905 |
