From The Age (realfooty.com.au)
Reported by Brent Diamond
Full article click here
Poor crowds at the VFL and TAC Cup grand finals in recent seasons have prompted AFL Victoria to change the scheduling back to the Sunday before the AFL grand final.
The VFL has averaged about 13,000 to its grand finals over the past three seasons with its move from Princes Park to Etihad Stadium in 2008 not attracting the numbers it had hoped for.
Last season, it trialled both grand finals on AFL grand final eve.
AFL Victoria chief executive Peter Schwab was hopeful that changing the VFL and TAC Cup grand finals to the Sunday of AFL preliminary final week would help the football world focus more on the other two tiers of football.
In recent seasons, the AFL has scheduled its preliminary finals on a Friday and Saturday night, which left the Sunday as an AFL-free day.
''We thought we would try a different approach - same stadium, but different day,'' Schwab said. ''I just felt that that Friday night before the AFL grand final, it probably gets a bit lost in the lead-up to the grand final and grand final parade and everything else as well.''
Meanwhile, Port Melbourne has snared former Western Bulldogs midfielder Malcolm Lynch, whom coach Gary Ayres believes will ''add a different dimension to the forward line''.
''You would think a guy of his speed and his ability to get front and square and also to disappear up the midfield as well … He'll be a very good acquisition for us and we certainly won't be going as tall as we did last year,'' Ayres said.
The Borough has also snared Daniel Keely (Frankston) and Mark Johnson (Sandringham).
