Richmond president Peggy O'Neal has become the latest AFL figure to voice concerns about the night Grand Final, suggesting that players weren't in favour of the change.
O'Neal's Tigers may have cemented themselves as a modern-day AFL dynasty with a third premiership in four seasons, but the 68-year-old isn't a fan of the night decider.
Speaking to 3AW after the Grand Final win, O'Neal argued that the night Grand Final limits the opportunity for players to celebrate with the fans in the early evening as they would normally do with a 2:30pm bounce time.
O'Neal's comments come after AFL icon Leigh Matthews also said he was in favour of the traditional mid-afternoon start time moving forward, while Richmond captain Trent Cotchin has also called for a return to the normal time slot.
"I know we can get used to anything over time but I'm still leaning towards the day time only because of the late finish," he told Nine's AFL Sunday Footy Show.
"It's daylight saving up here in Brisbane, so when the Richmond players were finishing their lap of honour it was a quarter-to-ten and I thought to myself, that's quarter-to-eleven in Melbourne. That's really late and that's the thing that eats them up.
"The fact that the entertainment is better, I don't think the spectacle of the game is any better at night.
"Having seen and experienced it, I'm for the mid-afternoon time slot where you finish at 5:30 or 6:00."
The night Grand Final was widely criticised in the lead-up to the contest, with AFL greats Tony Shaw and Dustin Fletcher also speaking out against the change being made permanent.
Veteran AFL columnist Caroline Wilson also denounced the night Grand Final, claiming that the AFL had sold out by changing one of it's longest ever traditions.
Despite complaints from certain corners of the AFL fraternity, the night broadcast performed exceptionally well, with Saturday's broadcast audience up 30 percent on the 2019 Grand Final.
The Melbourne average TV audience of 1.58 million, the highest ever Melbourne TV audience in VFL/AFL Grand Final history.
from WWOS https://wwos.nine.com.au/afl/richmond-president-peggy-o-neal-not-happy-with-night-afl-grand-final/c6694125-b060-41a2-bedd-64a8249c6c6a
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