''Friday Night Football'' is an Australian sports broadcast series is currently airing on the

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...

History

Non-weekend night matches of Australian rules football first emerged in the late 1970s/early 1980s with the night series, a

knock-out tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

featuring teams from across the country and run in parallel with the league seasons. The first

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

matches on Friday nights were introduced in 1985. At this time, these games were irregularly scheduled, and all matches featured North Melbourne, but by 1987, Friday Night Football was played on a more regular basis, and other clubs began to host the games. Friday night AFL is generally played in Melbourne, at either the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadiu ...

Docklands Stadium Docklands Stadium, also currently known by naming rights sponsorship as Marvel Stadium, is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment stadium in the Docklands area of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Construction started in October 1997 and was ...

, but

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

and

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

will generally host a few matches each year. It is less common for the games to be played in Sydney, Brisbane or the Gold Coast in order to avoid clashes with the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

, which is more popular in those cities. As it is the most lucrative broadcast timeslot of the weekend, matches between the better-performing clubs are scheduled on Friday night to ensure the games are of high quality. As recently as 2014, however, the

Gold Coast Suns The Gold Coast Suns is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast in the suburb of Carrara. The club has been playing in the AFL since th ...

have pushed to be featured on Friday nights in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

, citing their improved form in 2014. Seven's commentary team includes

James Brayshaw James Antony Brayshaw (born 11 May 1967) is an Australian media personality and retired cricketer working in television for the Seven Network and radio for Triple M. For Seven Sport, he hosts and calls Test cricket during summer and Australian F ...

, Brian Taylor and

Hamish McLachlan Hamish Angus McLachlan (born 28 August 1975) is an Australian sports broadcaster and host with Seven Sport. Since he joined the Seven Network in January 2008, he has been a host/presenter/reporter at multiple events, including being a part of ...

, with smaller roles involving

Wayne Carey Wayne Francis Carey (born 27 May 1971) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the North Melbourne Football Club and Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A dual-premiership captain at North Melbou ...

Cameron Ling Cameron Ling (born 27 February 1981) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A tagger at and , Ling is a premiership-winning captain at the club. He is now a c ...

Tim Watson Timothy Michael Watson (born 13 July 1961) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). After retiring from the game, he has continued working in the Australian footb ...

, Matthew Richardson,

Leigh Matthews Leigh Raymond Matthews (born 1 March 1952) is a former Australian rules footballer and coach. He played for Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and coached and the . Squat, short-legged and barrel-chested, Matthews earned the ic ...

and

Luke Darcy Luke Darcy (born 12 July 1975) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League (AFL) and now works for the Seven Network and Triple M covering the AFL and the Olympics. Early life L ...

Broadcast history

The Seven Network, which broadcast football for around 40 years before losing the rights after the 2001 season, was the first Australian network to broadcast Friday Night Football. Between 2002–2006, the

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

had the rights to the Friday night broadcast; as the network also had the rights to the

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

, during those years in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, where by the AFL match would be broadcast first live at 8:30pm, followed by ''

Nightline ''Nightline'' (or ''ABC News Nightline'') is ABC News' late-night television news program broadcast on ABC in the United States with a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. Created by Roone Arledge, the progra ...

'' (or a news update in 2006) and then the NRL match. This was reversed in Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane, where by the NRL match was broadcast first live at 8.30pm, followed by ''Nightline'' (or a news update in 2006) and then the AFL match. The

regained the rights in 2007, and from 2007–11 generally showed the match at 8:30pm into Melbourne; this was a one-hour delayed telecast for most matches, but was a live telecast for matches in Perth and sometimes Adelaide. Other than Perth and Adelaide games, only sold-out matches were broadcast live into Melbourne. This was primarily to allow the popular '' Better Homes and Gardens'' to be broadcast in the primetime 7:30pm slot. As part of this rights agreement, Seven was expected to show AFL at an earlier timeslot in New South Wales and Queensland in an attempt to boost popularity in those states. Foxtel took this responsibility off Seven, showing the Friday night match live into NSW and QLD on its

Main Event In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

channel at no extra charge for Fox Sports subscribers. The television rights deal which began in 2012 saw Seven broadcast Friday night matches live from 7:30pm into Melbourne, with the last 60 minutes of ''Better Homes and Gardens'' being televised on 7Two in Melbourne and Adelaide (the first 30 minutes of that show is shown on the main channel in those two cities), though the whole 90 minutes of the show is televised on the primary channel in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, as those cities receive Friday Night Football on

7mate 7mate is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, which was launched by the Seven Network on 25 September 2010. The channel contains sport and regular programs aimed primarily to a male audience, with programming drawn from a c ...

. In the early days of multichannelling, an early morning replay of the Friday night game was shown at 6am Saturday on 7Two. This was moved to

for the 2011 season, but did not return from 2012 onwards. From 2014, the Friday night telecast began at 7:00pm nationally, with the pre-game show being shown on 7mate.Improvements coming to Australian Open, AFL on Seven
''TV Tonight'', 24 October 2013

References

{{Seven Network programming Australian Football League Seven Network original programming Nine Network original programming 1985 Australian television series debuts 1990s Australian television series 2000s Australian television series 2010s Australian television series Australian sports television series Sports telecast series Simulcasts Television articles with incorrect naming style

History

Broadcast history

See also

References