There will be no twilight AFL grand final in 2018, with the AFL deciding to keep this year's decider at 2:30pm.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan announced today that the league's commission had decided against moving the time of the game.
A move to a later time was expected to spark fierce resistance from some fans.
"I think the commission considered views about where the footy community is and what they wanted," Mr McLachlan said.
"And a view that, if we're therefore going to move something, it's been a day game for so long we'd want to make sure that every aspect of the move was where you wanted it to be.
"I think on balance the view that for all of the above then we're going to keep it the same."
Last March, Mr McLachlan said there was "a sense of inevitability" that the start time would eventually move, but it came down to what supporters wanted.
Mr McLachlan said going into the meeting with the commission he thought the decision could have gone "either way".
"I've been open enough to say that we see merit in changing, we see the upside in changing, but to do it you'd have to be comfortable that everything was right," he said.
"Our role is to work as hard as we can to maintain and respect the heritage of our game, while making progressive decisions while we grow, and getting that balance is the challenge.
"In the end, without everyone feeling entirely comfortable about change then the heritage and the tradition prevails and that's what we got today."
He said the timing of future grand finals would be decided each year.
But Mr McLachlan said he believed the timing of the game would eventually change.
"Someone will change it one day whether it's next year or in 10 years I'm sure at some point there will be change."
Mr McLachlan's predecessor, Andrew Demetriou, was steadfast in his support for the traditional afternoon timeslot.
The NRL holds its grand final on a Sunday night, while the NFL in the US holds the Superbowl — a ratings bonanza — at a similar time.
The push for a twilight grand final started to gather serious momentum after the success of the first twilight preliminary final in 2016 between the Western Bulldogs and Greater Western Sydney, which was deemed one of the most exciting finals matches of recent years.
