ANDREW Demetriou says he doesn't want a twilight grand final, and yet he has been thinking about one for close to a season-and-a-half now. And why wouldn't he be? What better way to give comfort to the AFL's broadcast partners, who are starting to think seriously about the value they are getting for their $750 million?

It is true that the game on many levels has never looked healthier. Match attendances have been excellent, ratings in traditional Australian football markets are doing brilliantly and fans appear to be so in love with the game that football programs away from the games themselves have climbed in ratings numbers as well.

But that is only one part — albeit a significant one — of a much bigger and perplexing story. Because the competition — despite some real scepticism from its broadcast partners — insists that it will be introducing an 18-team competition by 2012.

Everybody knows it will be tough to win audiences on the Gold Coast and — even tougher — in the west of Sydney, where the 18th team will play its games. The television market looms as a frightening challenge. Some experts predict the next round of AFL rights will sell for $1 billion over five years. But how will those rights be packaged, and who is going to televise weekly primetime matches into Sydney and Brisbane?

Consider the television audience in Sydney at eight o'clock last Saturday night. At the top was Seven with its international rugby union coverage (307,000 viewers); second was the ABC (Bed of Roses: 298,000); third was Nine with the repeat movie Richie Rich (250,000) and fourth was the SBS program Top Gear, which drew an audience of 181,000.

The AFL clash between Sydney and St Kilda? It ranked fifth, with an average of 107,000 watching. Suffice to say, the Ten Network came last in the Sydney market and was fourth nationally.

And this at a time when the Swans are flying, challenging for a top-four position. It is not unusual on any given Saturday night this season for AFL football to claim only 14% of the Sydney audience and 9% of the Brisbane audience.

Thirteen months ago, The Age revealed that Ten had finally won a captive audience with the AFL when it put forward the proposal for a twilight grand final. So much so that the commission, for the first time, actually considered the prospect for 2007 at a meeting one year ago. The idea was rejected but the feeling was that it would come around again and that Ten — having presented an impressive package — would win the right to trial a 5pm timeslot should the AFL ever agree.

"I think it's time," Ten sport boss David White told The Age last year. "2007 is the time for the AFL grand final to be played under lights."

Seven, whose chief executive David Leckie is a rugby league fan who has also talked up the idea of night grand finals in the past, will host the 2008 and 2010 play-offs but his football boss Ian Johnson has chosen to be less enthusiastic about the prospect at present.

White also said in 2007: "The AFL have made it clear they won't look at a night grand final and, to be honest, I'm inclined to agree with them. A five o'clock start is a people-friendly time, not too early and not too late."

White has a point and we suspect Demetriou agrees with him. Why else would he deliberately place it back on the agenda? The AFL chief loves a debate and June 2008 appears a perfect time to soften up the game's fans in time for 2009. Think about the extra fans who would watch, not to mention the fireworks.

And the players. We imagine they'll turn up.