In our era of instant gratification, tied games in major sporting competitions are becoming less tolerable all the time. We want winners and we want them now. The term Sudden Death is so appealing.
The AFL is the most recent league to fiddle with its system for dealing with ties in the Grand Final. Rather than replay the entire match, which seems like the fairest way to break a tie, the league has announced that in the future, if a Grand Final is tied after four quarters, two five-minute extra time periods will be played. There would be a break and a change of ends after the first five-minute period.
Sudden death would then come into effect if the score were still tied after the 10 minutes of extra time, with the first team to score being declared premiers.
Mike Fitzpatrick, chairman of the AFL commission, said that the changes were mainly out of consideration for sides that are not based in Victoria and would incur expensive travel expenses if a tied Grand Final necessitated returning to MCG for a replay at a later date.
The league considered making similar changes to the home and away season, but scrapped that plan as too radical.
