Speaking on Fox Footy on Monday night, AFL 360 co-host Gerard Whateley believes that evolution is simply a matter of time, despite the league\u2019s current stance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fans over television, but still, the misnomer in that is television actually brings the game to the fans. You do get more fans in television, in prime time, than you do in the middle of the afternoon,\u201d Whateley said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just a convention of the way it works.\u201d<\/p>\n
The backdrop to the AFL\u2019s decision is a changing broadcast landscape though, is a rare defeat on the biggest stage.<\/p>\n
Only last year, the AFL Grand Final was eclipsed in the ratings by the NRL decider, marking the first time in a decade rugby league had claimed the title over their rival code.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere it ratchets up the stakes, is here where the NFL out-rated the AFL grand final last year, which is a rarity,\u201d Whateley added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe AFL I think would take the view that there was a Brisbane team and a Melbourne team … we\u2019ll see. There have been all sorts of combinations that have played both grand finals, and haven\u2019t delivered that result previously.<\/p>\n
\u201cStaying in the afternoon makes it a contest, and if it loses for the next two years to the NRL grand final, it would have been a mistake.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a battle we haven\u2019t really seen before, I think people have been asleep to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
GRAND FINAL TELEVISION BATTLE<\/p>\n
2025 NRL GF: 4.46 million viewers (6.4m reach)<\/p>\n
2025 AFL GF: 4.18 million viewers (6.4m reach)<\/p>\n
Melbourne great Garry Lyon added: \u201cIt\u2019s postponing the inevitable. I think it should go to twilight. I\u2019d love the grand final if it was on at 8:30am in the morning; it doesn\u2019t upset me \u2014 I just think the right call would\u2019ve been to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to happen. It\u2019ll happen in two years time by the sounds of it … but 2:30pm is fine by me, it\u2019ll be a ripping day.<\/p>\n
The 2025 NRL Grand Final was the highest-rated TV program of the year, with the most recent instalment also the first time in a decade where its rating usurped that of the AFL Grand Final.<\/p>\n
Intriguingly, the 2025 AFL Grand Final was the highest rating of its kind for two decades, with numbers not seen since the 2005 thriller between Sydney and West Coast.<\/p>\n