With the introduction of under-16 football this season the traditional start times had already been altered.
But after the opening fortnight of the season many senior football matches have started up to half an hour late and further tweaks have been made.
At a league presidents meeting on Wednesday night it was agreed to start the fourths matches at 9am and reduce quarter lengths by two minutes apiece in that grade.
Three minutes have also been shaved off of the half-time break for Saturday's youngest footballers.
Under-18 football will begin at 10.45am, reserves at 12.40pm and seniors at 2.35pm.
The base schedule for night games is 12.30pm, 2.45pm, 4.40pm and 6.35pm — but clubs usually agree to shift the senior start time to either 6pm or 7pm at this stage of the season and cascade the remaining bounce times backwards from there.
This new set-up will be trialed for four rounds — including the weekend of matches just completed — with feedback to be compiled and a more concrete decision made for the remainder of the campaign.
“The introduction of the under-16s competition meant game times needed to be adjusted for this season,” league operations manager Josephine Spencer said.
“It became evident in the lead-up to round one that the proposed game times wouldn't work.
“So in consultation with clubs, the board made recommendations that the times should be changed, because the start times are in the by-laws. Any amendment to our by-laws need to go through a review and approval process with clubs.
“In the meantime clubs have the ability to alter some game times. This includes night games as well as any club who plays Rochester, will see their under-16 matches being held at a usual under-18 start time with no thirds for Rochester this year.”
The reason for late senior matches in the first two rounds was likely a by-product of a range of factors.
“Senior matches have been starting late and, especially early in the season, a lot of factors have been at play,” Spencer said.
“Coming back from 18 months off it may have taken a while to get back into the swing of things, while there are a lot of COVID-19 protocols in place which weren't there in our last season.”
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