TOPIC:

START times for all West Australian Football League games will be brought forward by five minutes following a review of match times by the West Australian Football Commission and major broadcast partner ABC Television.

The new start times, effective from Round 14 on Saturday 22 June, 2013, will see Colts games commence at 9.05am, Reserves at 11.35am and League at 2.05pm.

I find this interesting as I was listening to ABC Radio who were very concerned with the Taking of Medhurst in the WP V CLA game. They had to finish their broadcast by 5pm but due to the long delay and Time on it would mean they would have to cut the broadcast short so they could cross to a AFL GAME

Shit it gets worse doesnt it.. Dont know about the ABC TV broadcast as stated on the news release but they THEIR ALMIGHTY SCHEDULING IS IMPORTANT.
Makes me wonder if a major time delay happened during a AFL game whether they would just cut off the broadcast/ NAH dont think so.

Not a major drama but 5 minutes doesnt really solve the problem maybe they should of looked a 2pm start time.. Of course here is a ripple effect with Colts,Ressies

Full article? at www.wafootball.com.au/wafl/3662-wafl-start-times-to-change

ps thanks Grassy

What a farce, the Saturday night AFL games usually start at 5:10pm WA time.

Surely at least 99% of WAFL League matches take under 3 hours to be played.

espg wrote: What a farce, the Saturday night AFL games usually start at 5:10pm WA time.

Surely at least 99% of WAFL League matches take under 3 hours to be played.

AFL games that are played in Melbourne usually start at 5:40pm WA time. They do the same for Fremantle and Eagles games on the Saturday night.

What is your point espg?

Sorry, I was used to them being at 5:10 WA time, it appears that was the case until last year.

A 5:40 WA time start strengthens my point, as it means there is still plenty of time for radio pre-match discussion in the rare case of a WAFL match finishing just after 5.

I'm still rather perplexed by it all? Why are we having the Wafl start times being changed and pushed upon us?
Surely if the abc is broadcasting an important Wafl match, it should simply broadcast it to the conclusion? Or is that not allowed anymore? If not, why not?
If another sporting event overlaps the local match, why not simply cross over when the Wafl broadcast has finished? I have listened to abc previously when they've been broadcasting a sporting event from the eastern states whereby the Wafl is completely ignored like it doesn't exist.

All being equal, they should immediately stop all the broadcasts from the eastern states so we can listen to the Wafl in it's entirety. Perhaps the Save the Wafl Committee could make representation to abc pointing this out to them? Just thinking aloud here.

I may be wrong but I think this might stem from the West Perth V Claremont ABC telecast game at Joondalup a few weeks back which didn't finish till just after 5pm (due to Medhurst being carted off in the last quarter and a few other injuries) This meant that the telecast had to be extended to 5.30 and it mucked up their programming schedule which is dictated nationally. So they have shifted it back to 2.05 to minimise the risk of this happening again.

I don't think it is a massive issue and I think we could cut the ABC a bit of slack for the great job these telecasts do to promote the WAFL competition

I do agree mikeh, to my way of thinking what's 5 minutes here or there? It's not a life changing decision by any means. And abc radio do a good job on the times their braodcasting the Wafl. (Although sometimes they do not.) I still think they should simply broadcast the whole game irrespective of the finish times and then take broadcasts from the eastern states if they wish. It seems dim to do it the other way of beaming live events out of the east whilst ignoring local footy? Just my 20c worth.

I cant understand why they didnt just goto round figures e.g 2pm League and so on down the line.. 15 minutes would at least give them some breathing space in the media.. Sure 990 has the same problem with late finishes because have heard Russ saying they would have to rush to finish by 5pm due to RPH programmeing.

I really think the 0215 start goes back to the old days when Sat Morning was a trading day and they gave people time to knock off and then go to the Footy?
I have noticed a few who have to leave games early because they have Saturday night comittments with family etc.. Dont really give a F about the ones rushing off to goto the AFL game but then again some most probably dont come to the WAFL game for that reason being the AFL game at Pattersons when scheduled.

2pm starts are good for everyone - keep it simple

get reserves to run out when siren ends for colts game
get league to run out when siren ends the reserves game.
that saves 10 or 15 minutes of dead time right there across the whole day.

If it was a 2pm bouncedown that would end any pre-game interviews with coaches, footage of player warming up, line-ups on the screen and toss of coin, 2.05 worked fine Sat just gone