YES
A drawn game of footy is like dancing with your sister – no one goes home happy.
Why do we do it to ourselves? A simple five minutes each way of overtime and we get a result – plus 10 minutes more excitement.
A drawn game doesn’t live on to be a classic, because neither team particularly wants to remember it.
An overtime win is an instant classic.
Doing away with draws also gets rid of those annoying two point gaps on the premiership ladder – no one likes them.
There are three realistic ways of dealing with level scores at the end of the game – a draw (during the home and away season), overtime (in the first three weeks of finals) and a replay (in the Grand Final).
Only overtime can work in all three situations.
It’s time…for overtime!
- Andrew Fuss
NO
A draw's a draw. So two teams are even at the end of the allocated game time? Clearly, neither was good enough to win, but clearly weren't poor enough to lose.
It's fair.
Who says footy needs to be entertaining? Who says we need a result every time? Soccer has drawn games every other week.
In a game that changes the rules every single year, it would be nice to see some aspects of that game that have prevailed since its early years remain.
- Matthew Agius
ALTERNATIVES
Golden goal
Bounce the ball in the middle, and let two sides got at it for as long as is required to kick a major score. Once that happens, that's it. You can imagine the roar of the crowd when it goes through the big sticks.
Pros: Exciting
Cons: Would only work at Etihad where there's no wind interference (in the interest of fairness).
50-metre shootout
Siren goes? It's not over. Get five nominated forward to take pings at the goal from the 50-metre line. Imagine having the five best goal kickers of each team going head-to-head to determine the game.
Pros: Exciting, skills-focussed
Cons: Challenging when it comes to policing marks, players on the goal line...and wind interference.
