Brownlow Medallist calls for NSW ‘Magic Round’ as SA’s chances receive big boost

With an announcement on who should host the AFL’s mooted ‘Magic Round’ in 2023 expected as soon as next week, Jimmy Bartel has implored the league to choose New South Wales.

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan first flagged the idea in midSeptember and said multiple states were interested, with discussions already advanced.

It was first thought to be a growth tool for the league that would see an extra home and away round added to next season, with all 18 clubs to flock to the one state.

Given the success of Queensland’s bubble during the pandemic in 2020, Bartel was keen to see what a footy carnival would do for NSW.

“It’s going to be an extra round… so why don’t you treat the extra round as a bonus, don’t add to another state,” the Brownlow Medallist told Sportsday.

“Use it in a growth corridor or another area. Why not along the border of Victoria and New South Wales, why not in another big regional spot you want to target as well?

“The New South Wales market is the obvious one because during Covid and everything going on there, there was one game in close to 1000 days up there.

“Both sides were stuck in Melbourne, they were in the bubble… (In the Queensland bubble) the knock-on effect of the football in Queensland because football was up there has been enormous.”

The Advertiser reports South Australia has firmed from a significant outsider to an almost equal favourite with NSW, with SA premier Peter Malinauskas telling FIVEaa on Wednesday: “I’ve been pretty blunt about this with Gil and others (that), ‘if you guys host this in New South Wales, these guys can’t get half a stadium full for a run-of-the-mill NRL match, let alone an AFL match’.”

But Bartel knocked back that notion on the basis that it’s better for the game.

“I’m not disrespecting South Australia and Adelaide in particular but if you continue to grow into growth corridors, that brings greater money to the game, which then – because the way the AFL is structured with distributions – if there’s more money in the pie… every club profits from it.”

It’s understood the SA government is also floating a significant amount of money to host the event.

While SEN SA host Andrew Hayes noted the publicity of hosting Magic Round in NSW would be good for the league, it’s also the far more risky proposition.

“I understand you’re all about promotion if you’re the AFL, but at the same time, they don’t want this to be an absolute bomb, and that is a genuine possibility,” he told SEN SA Breakfast.

“If it’s Fremantle versus Port Adelaide at Giants Stadium on a Sunday afternoon, you’re not filling that up.

“I feel like we can confidently say they would battle for numbers in places like Sydney.”

Earlier this week Kane Cornes also described NSW as a “risk”, calling on the AFL to choose the “sensible” host state in SA.