‘Back to the heyday’: Danger’s shorter quarters plan to make footy better… and fairer

A revival of footy’s “heyday” and a push for a more even fixture are behind Patrick Dangerfield’s view on shortening AFL quarters.

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Dangerfield, the AFL Players’ Association president, sparked debate on shortening quarters in the wake of the NBA’s push to improve TV ratings by reducing its periods.

He believes trimming quarters from 20 minutes plus time-on could allow for more games – leading to a fairer fixture – and a style reminiscent of the high-scoring 1980s.

“I think what shortened quarters can do is potentially open up the fixture, that’s one of the biggest challenges in the competition because you don’t play everyone twice,” Dangerfield said.

“We play everyone once or one and a half – four or five teams twice. It’s a very, very difficult game to be truly fair and it will never be that unless it’s one game per team.

“We understand the economics around that, that part isn’t viable, but what I think reducing quarters could potentially mean is have more games in shorter breaks because it’s not as physically demanding.

“Everyone talks about the ’80s as the heyday and reducing quarters would just fall in line with what the game length was back then, which was 120 minutes.

“We’re well in excess of 130-plus now, everyone talks about the heyday, well, this is one way to get back to that, I think.”

Geelong played in the 2020 grand final when the AFL reduced quarters to 16 minutes with time-on and condensed the fixture after the Covid break.

Dangerfield says 16 minutes is “too far” of a cut and believes a middle ground is worth discussing.

“I don’t feel like you ever got into the full groove of what a game is,” he said of 16-minute quarters.

“That was probably one extreme and I don’t think you’re going that far (if you change), it’s far more subtle compared to that.

“I think there’s a middle ground we can find which some day could potentially improve the game.

“You’ve got to be wary of the unintended consequences, that’s sometimes hard to forecast but I think there’s merit in discussing it.”

Dangerfield wrote “cue outrage” when he announced his view on shortened quarters and says “people are very fickle” when the topic is raised.

The eight-time All Australian understands the issues altering time-on with set quarter lengths raises and jokes the solution could be to shorten them silently.

“There’s a balance there … maybe you pull it back to 18 or 19, set it (the TV clock) at 20, not tell anyone and just fast forward the clocks,” he joked.

Dangerfield, 34, will captain Geelong again this season in a pursuit of his second premiership.

He is also headlining DrinkWise’s “You won’t miss a moment if you DrinkWise” campaign and says he aims for more premiership Pepsi in 2025.

“I put Pepsi Max in the premiership cup in 2022 and I still remember it to this day, it was at St Mary’s footy club at about 1.30am … magical,” Dangerfield laughed.

“I can remember it all perfectly to be honest, the day, the night, the following days.

“It’s really interesting listening to a few ex-players, Geelong Cats players that is, who played in ’07, ’09 and that is the one thing they recount, you have to be able to remember it.

“Shannon Byrnes, I think, was talking about Bomber Thompson’s experience in ’93 and he couldn’t remember it.

“That little simple message ‘enjoy the hell out of it, absolutely, but make sure you remember it – you don’t know when the next opportunity is going to be’.”

The Cats take on reigning premier Brisbane on Thursday at the GABBA in the opening match of the season.