The fixture for Mothers Day didn't provide fans with much excitement to close off Round 9 - and is the AFL missing a trick by ensuring it is a footy dead zone?
The Demons faced off against the Eagles at Marvel Stadium on Sunday, and the Tigers played the Crows at the MCG in front of a measly 22,000 supporters. The AFL has for several years avoided scheduling games of note.
Speaking on the Six Points AFL podcast, Mark Stevens believes the AFL should be doing more with Mother's Day.
“What are the AFL doing with Mother's Day? They're sort of baulking and running away from it," Stevens said.
“Well, they are ignoring, they don't want to be involved in it, crab walking backwards, I think they need to start celebrating it, because yesterday, they put on really crappy games to try and hide the footy away.
“We are in prime footy season in May, 22,000 in the Richmond game versus Adelaide, and you look on the AFL website today, TBC, to be confirmed Melbourne versus West Coast at Marvel."
“The crowd, how could they not give us a sum, through the years, right through the 70s, 80s, always get a crowd number. Is there something wrong with the turnstile, diddling with the figures, but either way, probably 20,000 there at the most, that's 42,000 on both games."
Stevens believes a club should take charge and celebrate the day.
“We need to now embrace it. Is there a club out there that can say, let's have the world's biggest Mothers Day lunch, let's celebrate Mothers Day," Stevens said.
"There are so many other things that football clubs do to try and make a buck, or get people to the footy, Mother's days are a wipe out, so at the moment we may well have the day off, they never used to be this way."
“So at the moment, the AFL have a decision to make, let's just have the whole day off then if they think it's not worth having footy, because you can't lose momentum in May."
