AFL to rule on floodlit grand final

THE AFL will decide within the next month whether this year’s Grand Final will be played under lights.

League chief executive Gillon McLachlan yesterday revealed a decision on football’s final frontier would be made at the March AFL Commission meeting.

Asked if this year’s decider would be a twilight affair, McLachlan said: “We’ll make a call by the start of the season.”

Mike Fitzpatrick, who on Wednesday announced his departure as AFL Commission chairman after a decade in the job, admitted his ardent support for a day Grand Final had softened.

Fitzpatrick does not officially step down from the position until April 4.

However, commission member and endorsed successor Richard Goyder will have a major say in the final stages of the deliberations.

Asked last year about the likelihood of a night or twilight Grand Final, McLachlan said it was “inevitable”.

“It’s a question of when and it’s to do with the composition of the commission, the presidents and others in the industry who have their views,” he said.

McLachlan yesterday said a 2018 fixture overhaul and the introduction of a 17-5 model also remained a possibility.