An unprecedented push into the AFL’s toughest market as part of a wildcard round trade-off demonstrated what the game can achieve when it throws legitimate weight behind promoting itself in Sydney.
Thursday night’s Fremantle-Sydney game was heavily marketed across the country as a top-of-the-table clash. In fact, it was something of a test pilot for the game, broadcast nationally on Seven’s main channel in every state and capital city – a first for the Thursday/Friday night timeslot.
The viewership test occurred against the backdrop of the NRL’s record new seven-year, $5.3 billion broadcast deal and after months of sensitive negotiations between the AFL – seeking a better financial deal in exchange for the new wildcard games – and its broadcasters. Head office wanted a pay-off given the two extra finals it had scheduled but the broadcasters – nearing the end of year two of their seven-year $4.5 billion media rights agreement – refused.
Instead, league chief Andrew Dillon won a commitment from Seven to intensify its marketing and promotional push into the Sydney market. The clash of first and second on the ladder, scheduled for prime time and involving two non-Victorian clubs, became the test case.
The Fremantle-Sydney game could prove to be an outlier. Unusually, Thursday night’s game was the first time since 2023 (when Collingwood met the Brisbane Lions in round 23) that the first- and second-placed clubs met in a home-and-away round. But Seven championed the match in Sydney across its programming as it would for games on Anzac Day or the King’s Birthday.
As a result, Thursday night’s clash was the No.1 rating program across Australia, reaching 2.18 million nationally and achieving the strongest audience in Sydney for more than five years. Outside finals, it was the highest rating prime-time game since 2022 – even more significant given it did not feature a big Victorian club.
For years head office has failed to truly understand or adequately promote the game in Sydney. As recently as this year’s opening round, the Swans lamented the AFL’s lack of promotion of its season-opener against Carlton.
“We gave them [the AFL] some feedback at the start of the year that we were underwhelmed with the marketing and promotion of opening round,” Swans CEO Matthew Pavlich said.
“We presented again before the Marn Grook round with what we believed the game needed to do. Thursday night’s result shows the proof was in the pudding. Everyone got together with an unprecedented push across social, digital and traditional media and the game was the top-rating program across the country.”
The Giants, too – with significantly greater challenges – recently presented a wish list to the AFL Commission outlining the commercial, strategic and advertising spend required to improve the club’s foothold in the western Sydney market and boost its disappointing attendances.
Both clubs pointed to the most recent broadcast deal, which has prevented Sydney audiences from watching the two local teams on free-to-air on Saturdays for a significant chunk of the season. Finally acknowledging the woeful participation numbers in Sydney’s west, the AFL has committed to investing extra millions of dollars into game development while still facing animosity from clubs in traditional football states over their academies.
Pavlich on Friday warned that the AFL risked “a law of diminishing returns if we can’t build the game in Australia’s biggest markets”.
“I think the AFL is now truly cognisant of the fact that growing the game against the challenges posed by the NRL and its new rights deal must involve significant growth in Sydney and obviously Brisbane,” he added.
“While we can’t take our eye off Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, the biggest advances lie north of the Murray. It’s a huge unlock for the game if we can achieve that”.
Only this year has AFL Media stationed a full-time reporter, Emily Patterson, in Sydney. The Swans flew Patterson to the Fremantle game while the social media push – involving both broadcasters and the AFL’s new wonder boy Dan Gorringe – was unprecedented.
The Fremantle-Sydney game did not disappoint as a spectacle, played at a finals-like intensity and delivering an astonishing Dockers comeback. And the numbers were hard to ignore.
Not only did the match prove the highest-rating Thursday night game in more than five years, it rated better than Anzac Day and was second only to the King’s Birthday clash in overall viewing numbers.
It was also the highest-rating Swans game in five years and, outside of finals, recorded the biggest streaming numbers in history. In Western Australia it was the highest rating home-and-away game for five years, including derbies.
But most significant was the total TV audience in Sydney alone (103,000) – again a five-year high – compared with the Swans’ regular viewing numbers of between 55,000 and 65,000. The competition will watch closely next Friday night when Sydney host Adelaide, again on the main channel in the club’s hometown.
Clearly, Seven would attract significantly bigger ratings on its main channel in Sydney without committing to the Australian football code, but wildcard round has provided crucial give-and-take as the AFL pushes to add value to its next broadcast deal.
Former Swans CEO turned AFL executive Tom Harley has helped lead the push to create a bigger audience in the face of local and increasing NRL dominance.
“I’m just a big believer,” said Harley, “that when it comes to the non-Victorian clubs and their audiences, we basically work to make them as accessible as possible. The growth of the game is really important, and we need to look at how we measure success in terms of that growth.
“Thursday night was a great showcase for the game and a great example of what we can do when we work together.”
Although the AFL players will ultimately receive 31.7 per cent of the extra revenue from wildcard round, the players’ association has not negotiated a new deal involving the extra game even if the players involved will benefit depending on their individual agreements.
As the ladder stands at the time of writing, both those games would be contested at the MCG over the Friday and Saturday nights of August 28 and 29, with Geelong taking on Carlton and the Western Bulldogs facing Collingwood.
Given that 14 teams remain in contention at round 18 – four more than at this time last year – the long-term benefits across the competition remain unquantified but significant, even if the AFL couldn’t squeeze more broadcast dollars out of those games. As Pavlich pointed out, it’s not always about short-term profits.
“What we saw on Thursday night was a perfect storm,” he said. “For the two clubs involved, the AFL and the broadcasters, it was not all about the money that went into it but the effort and the focus. What we want going forward is more of the same.”
Caroline Wilson is employed by both The Age and Channel Seven.
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Caroline Wilson is a Walkley award-winning columnist and former chief football writer for The Age.Connect via email.
