Australia and the World Past and Present

I got home on ANZAC day and turned on the TV in order to find out the final score of the Essendon / Collingwood game.

It turns out that the game ended in a draw.

It all felt a bit anticlimactic.

It took me back to the 2010 Grand Final between Collingwood and St Kilda. After the usual Grand Final build-up, the two sides faced off and did battle. The result was a stalemate. Immediately, I thought ‘well, what now?’ I assumed there would be a period of extra time and perhaps the team that made the next score would be crowned the winner. It wasn’t to be. Little did I know, but the process at the time was to come back the following week and do it all again.

For die-hard AFL fans, it was probably manna from heaven. The AFL itself was probably quite stoked as it kept attention on AFL for another week and prolonged the season and the finals.

Draws in the VFL / AFL Grand Finals are not that common. There was one in 1948 and 1977 and then a long break until the 2010 Grand Final.

The AFL made a move to alter the process when it changed the rules in 2016. Now drawn Grand Finals would be decided by two extra time periods (five minutes each). This was tweaked in 2019 into three-minute periods.

However, this does not apply to regular games during the season.

A tied game isn’t the end of the world. It is a sign that two teams are very evenly matched. Both teams and their supporters can go away without feeling crushed.

However, people do like a clear-cut result. And if you go into extra time, it can be thrilling. The anticipation, the high stakes.

Coaches are reportedly not keen on the idea and it is said that some are concerned about having to face these overtime periods with injured teams and depleted substitution benches.

It is likely that extra time will lead to some spectacular game results.

Thank goodness that the AFL has already made changes to Grand Finals and abolished replay.

Its time to consider applying extra time to regular games too.