I know the club will try to spin this as a win because there are more Saturday games, but I don’t think it’s a great fixture for fans. There is no better fixture than an early-season Saturday twilight game, and we’ve almost always had these in previous seasons. Instead, it’s a run of hot Sunday afternoon games, and then a few Saturday night games in the cold of winter.
Are the Saturday afternoon games new? I thought there was a long-standing agreement that AFL games in Perth wouldn’t conflict with the WAFL? That notwithstanding, Saturday afternoon is a pretty good time to watch football in the middle of winter.
It will be interesting to see how attendance goes this year. The novelty of the new stadium might have worn off, and if we start slowly, and with a run of games on (mostly) Sunday afternoon against non-powerhouses like North, St Kilda, Bulldogs and Brisbane, the attendances could look a little skinny.
Of course, the best way to ensure a favourable fixture is win games of football and rate well when we play. We haven’t won many games lately, generate very little interest outside of Western Australia (and even inside WA at times), and we haven’t been involved in too many shoot-outs for the better part of a decade (hence fewer ad-breaks). If I was an AFL sponsor, I wouldn’t want us anywhere near prime time. Plus, our time zone makes is a prime candidate for the blurgy Sunday afternoon game timeslot.
