The first-ever meeting between GWS and the Sydney Swans for premiership points was a television ratings star, comfortably eclipsing the opening match of the 2011 AFL Premiership Season.
AFL Chief Operating Officer Gillon McLachlan said Saturday’s opening match of the season at ANZ Stadium drew an average of 1.178 million fans on the Seven Network and Fox Sports nationally for the three-hour broadcast, eclipsing the 951,723 fans that watched the opening match of the 2011 season between Carlton and Richmond.
McLachlan said the AFL was extremely pleased the match between the AFL’s newest club, GWS, and the Sydney Swans had finished as the number one program in Melbourne on the primary Seven channel while it had been number one on the second Seven Channel, 7Mate, in NSW.
“The first-ever meeting between the Swans and the Giants showed there was an appetite for the newest cross-town rivalry in our competition, that can join the likes of the established cross-town matches played in WA and SA, and the developing rivalry between the Gold Coast Suns and the Brisbane Lions in Queensland.
“As with these other matches, games between the Swans and the Giants will become a fierce contest for bragging rights in the state,” he said.
