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This year's SANFL finals campaign has experienced a resurgence in public interest, as organisers eye another blockbuster grand final they hope will bring nearly 40,000 people through the gates of Adelaide Oval on Sunday.
Local television news bulletins have been running extensive packages nightly, the state's sole daily newspaper has been running front and back-page stories, and match-day crowd numbers have been higher than last year.
"Our [match-day] crowds are up, slightly up on 2014, which was a strong year because it was the first year SANFL finals were played here at the [redeveloped] Adelaide Oval," chief executive Jake Parkinson said.
"As an example, for the first and second semi-final weekend in the last two years we've had just over 9,000 people, but that same weekend this year it was more than 13,000, so that's a significant uplift on previous years."
As well as its thousands of loyal week-in and week-out supporters, the SANFL has also been enjoying renewed interest from dormant fans who would normally be focused on the Adelaide Crows or Port Adelaide Power.
"We've had a lot more focus and that does happen when the two SA AFL teams don't finish in the finals," Mr Parkinson said.
Finals television coverage enjoys improved ratings
A Channel Seven spokesperson agreed "there certainly had been a lot of interest in the SANFL finals this year", with ratings for the finals up on last year, particularly the preliminary final last Sunday between Woodville West-Torrens and North Adelaide.
"I don't like to forecast audience numbers, particularly for live sport ... [but] we're expecting a healthy audience for Sunday's grand final live on Seven," she said.
The network's Adelaide sport editor, Paul Childs, said the lack of a local AFL team had made a difference, as well as the time slot scheduled for SANFL finals.
All the matches have been played on Sundays when there has been no AFL games for football fans to watch.
"But the actual game itself has to stand up, to hold them [the viewers' attention], and to the SANFL's credit, they've had a very good finals season," Mr Childs said.
"I do think the brand of SANFL football stands up fairly well for viewers who are exposed to it."
19th-man controversy creates national headlines
All the attention, of course, has been overshadowed (or spread further) by controversy in the final week when North Adelaide Football Club was found to have played an extra man in the first three minutes of the last quarter in their preliminary final comeback win against the Eagles.
The saga left more people with an opinion about which team should be playing in the SANFL grand final than have talked about it in decades.
Mr Parkinson admitted the situation created national headlines and interest in the league from further afield than usual.
"But we certainly enjoyed the media attention for the quality of that game," he said.
"It was very, very hard fought and free flowing and high scoring and both teams put on an excellent exhibition of football.
"Unfortunately, the attention due to the additional man being on the field for over three minutes from NAFC has somewhat overshadowed that."
Despite its post-match controversy, the fast, attacking game was an example of the SANFL's attraction to punters, who have grown tired of the flooded and over-glamorised scrummage that some of the AFL has become in recent years.
"Norwood and North Adelaide are both outstanding teams ... and to be playing off in the grand final this year, it will be a wonderful game," Mr Parkinson said.
Strong crowd expected at Adelaide Oval
Mr Parkinson is expecting a big crowd to turn up on Sunday, hoping to reach the heights of the Sturt-Port Adelaide grand final last year, which was decided by one point.
That game attracted 39,813 people, which dwarfed the VFL's grand final crowd of 17,000 and the WAFL's 18,180, and further illustrated why the SANFL is widely considered the country's second tier football league.
"Norwood and North Adelaide last played off in the 2013 grand final at Football Park, the last game played there, and that crowd was something like 36,000 people," Mr Parkinson said.
"With the amount of interest in the competition, we're hoping to eclipse that."
The grand final begins at 3:00pm and follows the reserves grand final, which is also being played between Norwood and North Adelaide, from 11:25am.
Pre-game entertainment includes the band Dragon, while at half time some 18 SANFL junior premiership sides will parade around the ground.
The men's under 18 and under 16 state teams, which were both national champions this year, will also be on parade.
"We're very proud of their achievements and we wanted to be able to showcase them on grand final day," Mr Parkinson said.
Topics: sanfl, australian-football-league, sport, adelaide-5000, north-adelaide-5006, norwood-5067, sa
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