To me, this was never a serious discussion, more of a red herring to divert attention from the fact that GFs will be played at the MCG at least until 2057. While the idea of ‘sharing’ as in a best of 3 was floated as an option, it was clearly unworkable in the eyes of the AFL. Sort of like when John Howard, in the face of a majority of citizens preferring a republic instead of a constitutional monarchy engineered the constitutional convention to come up with a plan (MP-elected President) that nobody liked so he was able to say ‘see, I gave you the option of a republic, but you rejected it in favour of the constitutional monarchy.’
In this case, the better option regarding GFs would be something like the following: if two interstate teams from the same state qualify for the GF, then you play it in that state (Freo vs. Weagles at Optus, Port vs. Adelaide at Adelaide Oval, GWS vs. Sydney somewhere in NSW, etc.). Or, how about this plan: whoever qualifies highest gets the GF in their home state. Or, this one: rotate the GF to different venues, similar to the NFL/Superbowl. Obviously, all three options (I favour #1) probably have merit in the eyes of interstate fans, but it actually is a workable plan that breaks the MCG/GF monopoly and that’s something that the Vics would never agree to.* But, no, the AFL put up such as shockingly stupid and unworkable plan so that they could say ‘see, we gave you the option of playing a game away from the MCG as an option, but you rejected it as unworkable. Back to the status quo of having GFs at the MCG until the end of time.’ It’s actually become an ‘issue’ for the Vics because the stadia around the country actually rival the MCG in terms of facilities, sightlines, etc.
*The argument against having the GF at anywhere else than the MCG is purely financial according to the Vics. You can hold 100K at the MCG and hence, earn more dollars they say. But think about it like this. Say, both Freo and Weagles made it to the GF. How much money would you pay to get into Optus (non-scalpers ticket, of course) to get to the game. When Freo made the GF in 2013, my cost - doing it as cheaply as possible - came to around $2K. Hence, I’d pay at least that much for a ticket without having the hassle of travelling. I know that’s a lot of money, but the argument that the most profitable GF outcome is for a game to be played at the MCG is BS. Plus, you’d actually get Freo and Weagles fans packing out Optus rather than have MCC members or fans who bought packages from other clubs in their legalised scalping packages. (Where I was sitting at the GF, I was surrounded by footy fans, but the majority weren’t Freo or Hawks diehards).
