A single game on Friday to kick off the round is something the game sorely missed. The Friday night game used to be something you would get excited about regardless of who was playing. It was the start of the week for that round of league and it felt awesome whenever it came around.
This
Up until the introduction of the 2nd Friday game in 2007 the Friday game always felt like a big deal even if it was a dud game.
I would have
Friday 7:45PM (ch9)
Saturday 3PM
Saturday 5:30PM
Saturday 7:45PM (ch9)
Saturday 7:45PM (ch9)
2 x Sunday 2PM
Sunday 4PM (ch9)
I don't care if games are played at the same time. I am not sure what the obsession is with standalone fixtures, every other major sporting competition in the world has fixtures overlap.
Friday is to be made a big deal again and feel like an event every week. I would like to see teams rewarded for on field performance with Friday night games. So in the first 20 rounds the 4 prelim finalists from the previous year would host at least 2 Friday games each against other good performers from the previous year. Other marquee matchups would fill the remainder of the first 20 rounds. In the last 6 rounds the projected match of the week based on ladder position after round 16 would be put on the Friday.
With the Saturday setup, I would have a 'Sydney game' for channel 9 to broadcast in to Sydney and a QLD/VIC/NZ game for everywhere else. Fox would simulcast so it is still live everywhere.
Regarding Sunday, the 4PM slot should be number 2 after Friday and I would like to see channel 9 have the right, with an appropriate period of notice (4 weeks) to switch which game they telecast if they feel one of the 2PM games is the better fixture which is similar to what the NFL and NBC do. They would only be able to do this after say week 10 and the originally scheduled 4PM game would move back to 2PM and vice versa. It may be an issue for travelling fans but they will just have to plan the trip knowing the fixture time could change by 2 hours either way.
