Who could also forget this infamous match between St Kilda and Fremantle in 2006 (aka the Sirengate game)?
Imagine had Network Ten (with the famous “five minute warning”) covered that match.
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I remembered the infamous St Kilda v Freo game that was played at Launceston and the umpires didn’t hear the siren. Chris Connolly, then-coach of Fremantle was very upset about the siren controversy. St Kilda and Fremantle played out to a draw, but a few days later, the AFL reversed the result and Fremantle got the 4 points.
Had the game still been a draw, it would have been Fremantle’s first drawn match in its history. The finals would have been like this by the end of the 2006 HOme and away season:
1st Qualifying Final: West Coast v Fremantle (Subiaco Oval)
2nd Qualifying Final: Adelaide Crows v St Kilda (AAMI Stadium)
1st Elimination Final: Sydney v Western Bulldogs (SCG or Telstra Stadium)
2nd Elimination Final: Collingwood v Melbourne (MCG)
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That’s not entirely true.
Jo Hall (and Peter Hitchener before her) On weekend news were frequently among the week’s most popular programs well before Nine had AFL. Even after Nine lost the rights, Jo would cream the competition thanks to Nine’s dominance and her personal pulling power.
So you can’t attribute the Nine weekend news wins just to AFL. Seven’s news at weekends was dire and Jennifer Adams, bless, was just no match for Jo.
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Nine also showed a Friday night Western Derby during that era across Australia
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Yep, but 1) there’s no footage of that match on YouTube and 2) it was still delayed in Sydney and Brisbane because of an NRL match between the Eels and Bulldogs that evening.
would’ve been the first ever Western Derby qualifying final.
In the end it was Sydney that benefited from the amended result, otherwise they would not have reached the Grand Final that year.
The only way there was going to be a Sydney vs West Coast Grand Final was if the Swans won all three of their sudden death matches and the Eagles won both their qualifying and preliminary finals.
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A Derby Grand Final would’ve been likely had the result stayed
Worth noting Freo beat West Coast twice in the regular season yet it was the Eagles that won the flag.
Did 7 try to counter that by having Peter Mitchell read Sun-Thurs as some newsreaders in other states I believe did at the time?
If a West Coast v Fremantle GF, the ratings will be exceptionally high in the Perth market on 10 and could potentially outrate Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney and even Melbourne (by a tiny margin). The crowd number at the MCG would be about 95k (as there are a small amount of Fremantle supporters in Victoria). Can you imagine if it’s a close Derby GF (with the 5-minute warning), the ratings would have peaked 1 million in Perth market
No, that’s a relatively recent change. Jennifer Keyte took over weekends in 2003 - still didn’t help as much as Seven would have liked.
In Perth the 2nd AFL match was shown in full at 3pm leading into the news as the 1pm game was shown at 11am WA time.
From 2002 to 2006 only one Sunday WA home game from Subiaco Oval was produced by Nine.
Fremantle V Essendon in Round 6 2003, which started at 1.10 WA time. Since then Seven has shown a few games from WA which have started at 1.20 (3.20 in Melbourne)
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I’d also like to think that the Eagles and Dockers were sometimes featured in the Sunday 1:10pm games (mostly vs Brisbane Lions or Sydney Swans at the Gabba/SCG respectively) so they could be televised live into WA.
There were also six Swans vs Lions 1:10pm match-ups shown on Nine during this time (both times in 02 and 03, rd 20 05 and rd 6 06).
The following refers to games where 9 were hosting the telecast for the game at 1:10, rather than games being shown into Perth in lieu of the 1:10 game or 2:10 games being replayed at 4:00 in Melbourne).
2002: Eagles 1 (North at Manuka R22), Dockers 4 (Hawthorn at York Park R3, Geelong at Geelong R5, Brisbane at Gabba R9, Sydney at SCG R13
2003: Eagles 4 (Hawthorn at York Park R2, Adelaide at Football Park R4, Brisbane at Gabba R12, Sydney at SCG R14), Dockers 3 (Adelaide at Football Park R1 [disregard AFL Tables suggested times, this game was DEFINITELY at 1:10 EST or 12:40 CST, same with the time 9 took the game live vs Essendon in R6 as they claim the 1:10 game that afternoon between Geelong and Brisbane was a 2:10 start when that was definitely a 1:10 game], Hawthorn at York Park R13, Sydney at SCG R17)
2004: Eagles 3 (North at Manuka R13, Port at Football Park R17, Brisbane at Gabba R19), Dockers 2 (Sydney at SCG R2, Hawthorn at York Park R8)
2005: Eagles 3 (Brisbane at Gabba R5, Hawthorn at York Park R7, Sydney at SCG R17), Dockers 3 (St.Kilda at York Park R2, Sydney at SCG R12, Adelaide at Football Park R14)
2006: Eagles 2 (North at Manuka R4, Brisbane at Gabba R20), Dockers 4 (Hawthorn at York Park R1, St.Kilda at York Park R5 [SIRENGATE], Brisbane at Gabba R9, Adelaide at Football Park R19)
Notably this was Paul Roos’ first game as Sydney Swans interim coach (he would later win the gig permanently ahead of Terry Wallace).
Don’t know why they don’t do that anymore.
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Because Seven do not do double headers for its AFL coverage. But I loved the concept of providing the scores of ongoing games.
These days, on Sundays Seven would provide the score of the 1:10pm match at quarter time (or half time if that match wasn’t over yet) of the 3:20pm game.
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Managed to get this screenshot of when Nine covered Friday Night Football (AFL) in 2005 - can anyone remember whether this was actually from Telstra Dome or from Nine’s (old) GTV studios?
The hosts did the Sunday 1:10pm game on location, while the 4:00pm game was hosted by Tony Jones in-studio.
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Most likely GTV studios
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