Easter Weekend

[Punk Rooster]

North, Port & Sturt have the bye, is this a good thing or a bad thing the SANFL has done?

For- most families go away at Easter, the SANFL have noticed crowds drop anyway, so they're using this situation to their advantage.

Against- Why have 3 clubs with a good to excellent suporter base not playing? There are 3 to 4 days of football to be played- Thurs night game, Sat, Sun & Mon. Are the SANFL failing to capitalise on this fact, & boost crowd numbers, due to SANFL fans possibly attending all games? If your going to have 3 clubs with the bye, why not have Panthers, Eagles & West (arguably clubs that don't pull strong crowds)? Have some block buster games- Central v North/Port etc. It is not ideal missing that 1 game during the year (3 clubs have the bye), & there's probably not an ideal time to have it.
Equally as dumb, is having the 3 games on 1 day- with 1 being at Victor Harbour. The double header will pull a crowd, but arguably the same numbers anyway, but I feel they've made a blue with this one.

[Wedgie]

I think the SANFL is spot on with this one.
Although a bye 3 weeks into a season is a pain as it only seems like you've started when you stop again but having as many byes as possible on Easter weekend is smart in today's environment. Its also the start of school holidays, personally suits me to a tea as I had to somehow find the time to drop my kids off at my Mum's in the country this coming weekend anyway.

Only thing smarter by the SANFL would be to program a blockbuster on Good Friday and show the AFL how to do it. Would be a win/win.

I think the NRL have made a big mistake programming the only NRL game in Adelaide for years on Easter Saturday, unless they want to justify not bringing League here again. I hope I'm wrong though. I would have gone any other weekend!