THE AFL has defended its decision to hold two preliminary finals under lights this weekend for the first time since 2004, and insists it is not a portent to a night grand final.

Either Hawthorn or St Kilda will have 24 hours less recovery and preparation time than its opponents ahead of this year's grand final — a disadvantage that could have been reduced if the league had scheduled Saturday's second preliminary final in the afternoon. Though the fixturing will have physical disadvantages for the side that will play either Geelong or the Western Bulldogs, who play their preliminary final on Friday night, the AFL's chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan said yesterday that the start time for the Saturday game was based on maximising crowds and television audiences.

"Very simply it just gives the most amount of people the ability to either go to the game or watch the game," McLachlan said.

"There are football finals all over Melbourne (on Saturday afternoon) and people doing other things during the day. More people can get to the game at night and more people are at home to be able to watch it and consume it. We wouldn't have done that if there was an interstate team playing — we basically felt that each team had to get back and be able to be in their bed by the Saturday night — so if Sydney were playing we would have had a Saturday afternoon game."

At the suggestion that it was another step towards a night grand final McLachlan said: "Boloney."

"It's got nothing to do with it. Andrew (Demetriou) is on record saying that he likes a day grand final. It's not going to change while Andrew's CEO and it probably won't change with anyone else.

"With the preliminary finals, I haven't heard any traditional argument (against night matches) and it's just a fact that more people can get to the game and more people can watch it."

Being the top-ranked team, Geelong won the right to play on Friday night, starting at 7.40pm. Hawthorn and St Kilda will play at 7pm the following evening.

John Quinn, Essendon's long-serving fitness head who departed the club this year, said yesterday that every hour of recovery time was precious leading up to a grand final.

"You can't have them both on the one day of course, so someone's got to be disadvantaged, but you'd want to minimise that as much as you could," Quinn said.

"I would certainly prefer to have my team playing in the afternoon (on Saturday) to give them that time. They're one day behind anyway, and going into a big game such as a grand final you'd want to have every advantage you could get.

"You would hope it's not going to be the reason that Geelong were to win the grand final … but it's certainly an advantage that Geelong or the Western Bulldogs are going to have going into the grand final.

"It's probably less than one-percenters — things like just getting lactic acid out of your system and a little bit of extra time for getting past any swelling from bumps, knocks and bruises — but when you're talking about grand finals you want every single bit of assistance you can get."

St Kilda chief executive Archie Fraser expressed no gripe with the AFL's scheduling: "We support day and night games," he said yesterday.

"Night games work well for our supporters because they get to see their local footy and then get to see us play at night, so it's a win-win situation for everyone."

Hawthorn's CEO Ian Robson could not be reached, though McLachlan said there had been no criticism conveyed from either club.

"We're talking about the difference between a few hours. I think they're OK," he said.