On the cusp

Just over one hundred hours until AFL for 2012 begins with the first of the pre-season round one mini lightning Premierships. At AussieRulesBlog Central, we’re as toey as a Roman sandal. It has been a long and, from a sporting perspective, pretty boring summer. It’s about time we saw some Aussie rules action around Australia.

 

A year is a very long time in football. This time last year, we were aghast at Brisbane’s decision to sack Brendan Fevola after losing Daniel Bradshaw and Michael Rischitelli as an indirect result of his recruitment, the Saints were denying problems with club culture after suspending four young players, Nick Riewoldt had unveiled a new, rather robotic, goal-kicking action, Jeff Gieschen was defending the worst implementation of video decision assistance yet seen on an AFL field, and we mourned the passing of Darrel Baldock.

 

2012 has been comparatively quiet by comparison. It would be nice for the main topic of discussion over the next few days to be footy. Fingers crossed.

 

For those without access to pay-TV, the pre-season is going to be very long and very frustrating, but it’s a sign of the times. It’s likely to be increasingly difficult for free-to-air television to generate a profit out of advertising revenue, especially given the production costs involved in covering AFL. It may be that this new broadcasting agreement that we’re beginning in 2012 is the last great media cash injection into the game as audiences fragment to new modes of access to broadcasts of the game. The recent court decision on rebroadcasting to mobile devices hints at where this media space is heading. Given the speed with which so-called smart phones have come to dominate less-clever alternatives, it’s not hard to imagine the potential impacts on free-to-air broadcasting.

 

Of course, the other ‘big’ change in broadcasting is that all games will be ‘live’ in 2012. Quite what real difference this makes, we can’t fathom, but it’s clearly a highly emotive matter to a large portion of the audience. One thing’s for sure, anyone complaining about scheduling of games should direct their wrath to the live-TV activists and their supporters.

 

So, bring on Friday night and the three-way clash between the Tiges, the Roos and the Hawks! Footy’s back!!!!