It was hard not to get a little misty eyed at the MCG on Saturday afternoon and not just because the swirly winds were blowing all matters of rubbish around.

For the first time pretty much all year, Mecca, as we like to call it, hosted a big game. The sort of game that attracted a huge crowd (69,2320), bringing the city to a standstill, filling the car parks before the game and the pubs and city restaurants after it.

Hours after the game, people were still milling around, sporting their Geelong and Hawthorn scarves and caps. The Geelong fans, naturally, had that little extra buzz about them, but even the vanquished Hawk fans knew they had witnessed a cracker of a game.

AFL football has long ceased being merely a sport, and those charged with running it need to think of it in terms of a business and as a product that needs to compete with various other forms of entertainment

In their zeal to broaden the game's appeal and in their bid to grow it as a TV product, the AFL have spread games right throughout the weekend, with the traditional Saturday afternoon timeslot having almost become an afterthought. The Geelong-Hawthorn clash was the first such game for five weeks.

Nobody can argue about Friday night becoming the marquee time of the week, but the case for playing big games on Saturday afternoon received a huge boost with the big crowd - and fantastic spectacle - that the Cats and the Hawks provided.

And it doesn't end there. Collingwood is the home team for the next three Saturday afternoons at the MCG, first against fellow premiership aspirant St Kilda, followed by traditional rivals Richmond and Carlton. You would imagine crowds of at least 70,000 for each, with perhaps 80,000 for the Carlton match, if the weather is good and the Blues are still pushing for a top-four berth. It is doubtful that any more would attend these games if they were played on Friday nights or any other time of the football week.

Will the AFL take notice? That's the big question. The league will point to surveys that suggest Saturday afternoon footy is losing its lustre but the people voted with their feet this weekend and we suspect they will right through July.

And when the AFL looks at its fixture for next year and in particular from 2012 with an extra game each week, Saturday afternoon football in Melbourne should not only be sacrosanct but where possible, be played at the MCG with two Victorian teams the combatants.

The shame is that Geelong and Hawthorn can't play each other more than more than twice every season. But of the four MCG co-tenants, two will be contending for the flag in the next season or two, while the other two are on track to be doing so not long afterwards.

Chuck in a couple of Geelong, Carlton and Essendon home games over the course of the season and Saturday afternoon footy can regain its place as one of the jewels of the AFL season.