- Swans president says AFL needs more events
- Reported three-match grand final
- McGuire savagely responded
Eddie McGuire has wildly suggested the AFL should move to a best-of-three grand finals series after Sydney Swans boss Andrew Pridham flagged the idea, calling it “obvious”.
The Swans chairman claimed the AFL was lagging behind the NRL in terms of event creation and said extending the grand final beyond a single game was an opportunity to generate more revenue in the sport.
“The focus should be on creating events. The NRL actually had four events with State of Origin and its grand final as well as the Vegas experience,” he said, referring to the code’s season-opening doubleheader in Sin City.
“I honestly think we should have a three-game grand final. I know the AFL doesn’t like it, but it’s a no-brainer.
Sydney Swans boss Andrew Pridham wants AFL to move to three-game grand finals series
The AFL has held a single-game grand final since its inception and is unlikely to change any time soon.
Eddie McGuire says a three-match grand final only makes sense ‘if you don’t have a brain’
“There are conflicting reports, but the contract is there for the decider. Either the grand final is there or the decider is there. You could potentially have the first game in Brisbane and the last at the MCG,” continued Pridham.
“That’s potentially three grand finals worth $15 million to $20 million. This brings a lot of revenue to the game and it’s definitely fairer.
McGuire, the former Collingwood Magpies boss and Footy Show host, was having none of it.
“My old mate Andrew Pridham (wants) three grand finals. He says, “It’s a no-brainer,” McGuire said on the Eddie and Jimmy podcast.
“That’s true if you don’t have a brain.
“I went to basketball on the weekend, which is a (big) final series of (five) games, and five minutes into the last quarter, everyone was talking about when the players should start to rest and was asking when the match would be over rather than it being a grand final with a drive to the finish,” McGuire said.
“They can get away with it at basketball because that’s what they do, but could you imagine three AFL grand finals?”
The Sydney Swans and their former identity, the South Melbourne Football Club, have won five premierships, but they have also lost 12 grand finals.
Nothing could divide St Kilda and Collingwood in the 2010 grand final, meaning it was replayed. The rules have since been changed to add extra time to grand finals.
McGuire highlighted the backlash from the replayed grand final in 2010 after Collingwood and St Kilda drew the deciding opener.
He said if fans wanted to rally against replayed grand finals, with only three finals staged in the history of the sport, they were not going to witness three grand finals every year.
“Suddenly we can’t have a grand final with a replay – for the three times it’s happened in 125 years – but we can have three every year?” He asked.
Three-time premiership winner Jimmy Bartel backed McGuire, saying the quality of football would collapse in a three-match grand final series.
“If you have no concerns about the quality of the product, yes, play three (Grand Finals),” he said.
“(The quality) would be absolutely zero.
“This is the most physically but also mentally exhausting week of your life, because it is the most important moment that you have prepared for and you have replayed the game in your head a million times.
“When they win, the players feel this adrenaline rush, but if you ask them a few days later, they are completely on their feet. They are exhausted, especially the losing team.
