The Australian Football League finals will be decided by a "golden point" if scores remain tied following extra time after the AFL Commission made a "historic change for drawn finals," according to Michael Gleeson of THE AGE. In a "radical departure" from the system that saw Collingwood and St. Kilda return to the Melbourne Cricket Ground a week after playing out a draw in '10, the commission has adopted a National Rugby League-style "system of extra time for drawn finals." In the event of scores still being tied after two additional five-minute halves, "the game would continue until the next score." The change amounts to a sudden-death scenario "just as rugby league considers abandoning the golden point system for this year's NRL finals series." Under the new system, which will apply for finals but not the home-and-away rounds, if scores remain locked after the second of the two extra periods, "the siren will not sound until one team has scored to break the deadlock." Commission Chair Mike Fitzpatrick said, "We took into account the historic value and uniqueness of this issue to our game. Fairness to the competing teams in a national competition requires that we no longer demand a replayed match. We don't make change lightly in our game, we respect its uniqueness and traditions however we are very confident this decision reflects the views of the majority of AFL clubs, the majority of players and the majority of fans who are keen to come to grand final day and see the best team win on the day." He added that TV broadcasters "were comfortable with the decision" (THE AGE, 4/19).
ABOUT TIME: In Melbourne, Greg Baum opined this decision "is about time, and about the times." Football matches "are shorter, but more continuous than they once were, by design." Moving on "is the motif of the age, and probably all ages." Every generation "looks to be in an unseemly rush in the eyes of the one before." Football teams now are "prepared like racehorses, to the minute." They are "not trained to hold something back in case of a dead heat." Win or lose, "they finish the grand final exhausted." It "might explain the let-down of replays." In the second grand final week of '10, "the atmosphere at St Kilda was almost grim compared with week one." It was "as if they knew they had already given all they had" (THE AGE, 4/19).
