"Time on"?

[erica]

This point is right. So why do they show a running clock at the game and not the same 'time-elapsed/time-left' clock that is shown on the TV? Just for good theatre, as in my example above re the 2012 GF?

Years ago they used to show a 'time left' clock at SCG games. We used to love counting down.

[Meg]

The time on discussion was highlighted after the saints demons game when at the 23 minute mark players thought there were 3 or 4 minutes to go when in fact it was only 41 seconds!

That's interesting. I questioned earlier why they only show a running clock at the ground. Is it perhaps to keep the players guessing about how much time is left so their style of play near the end of a game is not heavily influenced?
Though we already see the trainers scurrying around trying to tell the players in a tight result and hence the kicking backwards by the team with the lead.

[Spi]

These are the rules from the AFL website:

When I was officiating the term used for the stoppages was time on, so it may all be down to semantics.

[...10.5.1]
The Timekeepers shall stop the clock which is used for the timing of a Match when:[...]

Certainly the traditional way it's been stated in the Laws of the Game is the timekeeper being told to "start/stop adding time-on", and something like that would be hard to shake from the vernacular, particularly at a grassroots level. It doesn't really have an analogue in soccer, or even Gaelic football - where the referee has sole control of time and thus is merely told by the laws to make "allowance for lost time" (in soccer's case) - the fourth official only relays on the amount of time decided by the ref in the centre.

But digressing. I'm guessing that the wording of the rules was changed in more recent times, probably in the last 10 years or so, as I seem to recall the laws being written that way at some point in the 20-minute era - but I can't say as online versions of the Laws only seem to go back to 2009. Plenty of things could've brought it on a rewriting - 2006 brought on automatic time-on for ball ups and also Sirengate mid-year; either of which could've been used to clarify the timekeepers' roles.

There are still a couple of mentions of the umpire "signalling time-on" in the 2015 laws (mainly with what to do with a centre bounce free kick) but calling time-on for 50-metre penalties is said the "new" way (ie. timekeeper "stopping the clock").

Now, whether there's a good reason other than historical/tradition for keeping the upward-counting clock is another matter ("players not knowing" is a bit of a red herring - at AFL level the runners would probably tell them, and a lot of suburban players below the top levels would play with no time-on anyway)... which I'm kinda on the fence with, at least in broadcasting terms like Gary pointed out - a southern crowd will know what you're talking about but a first-timer used to "time on" being a call to restart time in the rugby codes, but I'm not sure how relevant that ends up being with the scant radio coverage we get north of the Murray. It'd be more of a problem if used in a national TV audience, for instance.

I'm fairly comfortable with the status quo, but then I'm comfortable with what it's supposed to mean

(Hello, too - first time poster, rather long-time lurker )

[Doctor]

Time on is an old fashioned term and somewhat anachronistic but who cares? It's one of the enjoyable little quirks of the game. The count up clock HAS to stay for the same reason. Being at the ground and having no idea how long is left in a tight game makes it so much more exciting (and stressful) for fans.

[Meg]

There is a discussion about the option of a countdown clock on this week's AFL Exchange podcast - starting from 9'35" and going to 15'25".
"Drew Petrie and Matt Thompson are joined by Pete Ryan to discuss the Giants' finals chances, nicknames in football and whether we should a countdown clock at AFL venues"

audioBoom / AFL Exchange - Round 12 2015

[GoSouth33]

A timekeeper's clock only has to be able to count to 20 minutes which is the length of a quarter. When there's "dead" time, the clock is stopped. Nothing is added. When play resumes the clock restarts and so it goes until it reaches 20 minutes. Somebody only looking at elapsed time will note that invariably a quarter will stretch longer than 20 minutes to make up for all the time that the clock had to be stopped. I think it's perfectly OK to call this "extra" time, "time on".