News up here on the Gold Coast is that Carlton, St. Kilda and Richmond will each be given on lucrative "home" game at Carrara to replace North Melbourne which no longer wants to host any games there. Melbourne will be one of the "visitors" when it plays the Saints in a game up here next year.

AFL chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan confirmed that the Brisbane Lions would not be involved in any of these games and according to the Gold Coast Bulletin -

McLachlan said the AFL was comfortable with the drawing power of the scheduled fixtures, but was wary of giving the Lions any perceived home turf advantage.

"With Brisbane having a home state advantage, we felt we wanted visiting teams to feel like they were playing in neutral territory rather than in Brisbane's back yard," he said.

Now, I wonder if the same principle will apply to Melbourne's "home" game to be played in Canberra next year or will the AFL throw neutrality out of the window and give Sydney the home state advantage for this fixture once again?

Now, I wonder if the same principle will apply to Melbourne's "home" game to be played in Canberra next year or will the AFL throw neutrality out of the window and give Sydney the home state advantage for this fixture once again?

ofcoarse the AFL will throw nuetrality out the window

what do u think they might be? good people?

Hypocrisy.... AFL ???

what you mean they arent the same thing ??

Its hard to really understand how anyone lets this bunch of idiots loose on a multi billion dollar organisaton !! Honestly , it confounds me.

WJ...any illusion as to a level playing field come Melbourne ( fc) simply doesnt exist...you ought to know that by now

That theory obviously never existed when we were allowed to sell a home game to Brisbane at the Gabba either.

I'd back us to be playing Sydney in Canberra again. Realistically if we don't play Sydney there'll be 7-10k there, if we play the Swans it'll be 14-15k.

see TBH, unless we were tilting on finals

im not upset with us playing there

we did ok in the end

bate played well...kicked 4 i think

and we get a big crowd which of coarse equals more of the $$

I'd back us to be playing Sydney in Canberra again. Realistically if we don't play Sydney there'll be 7-10k there, if we play the Swans it'll be 14-15k.

That same argument exists in Carrara, but doesn't hold. Brisbane would surely increase the crowd. Richmond v Melbourne won't draw as much as Richmond v Brisbane. Yet Rich v Melb is the go.

I'd back us to be playing Sydney in Canberra again. Realistically if we don't play Sydney there'll be 7-10k there, if we play the Swans it'll be 14-15k.

Doesn't worry us what the crowd is because we get the $$$ anyway. Personally I would rather we played an SA or WA club in Canberra because they are poor drawing games in Melbourne whereas we have ususally had respectable crowds V Sydney at the 'G'.

Doesn't worry us what the crowd is because we get the $$$ anyway. Personally I would rather we played an SA or WA club in Canberra because they are poor drawing games in Melbourne whereas we have ususally had respectable crowds V Sydney at the 'G'.

I agree entirely.

News up here on the Gold Coast is that Carlton, St. Kilda and Richmond will each be given on lucrative "home" game at Carrara to replace North Melbourne which no longer wants to host any games there. Melbourne will be one of the "visitors" when it plays the Saints in a game up here next year.

AFL chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan confirmed that the Brisbane Lions would not be involved in any of these games and according to the Gold Coast Bulletin -

Now, I wonder if the same principle will apply to Melbourne's "home" game to be played in Canberra next year or will the AFL throw neutrality out of the window and give Sydney the home state advantage for this fixture once again?

As Mike Williamson once said - "I tipped this!"

What I didn't tip was the bold faced hypocritical utterances from the AFL's apparatchik on the subject of the draw. Things like, "it's a good football draw for Melbourne" and the comment that Collingwood has only one less interstate trip than the average.

A good football draw is the programme the AFL handed to Collingwood which plays each of last year's grand finallists once after playing Geelong once last year (at the G). And they never play the cats at Skilled Stadium where there is a genuine home ground advantage.

As for Collingwood having to travel interstate one time less than the avergae club that might well be true but it happens every year. Why can't they play out of metropolitan Melbourne one time more than the average for once?

When Ian Collins ran the Kremlin AFL he used to have a saying when questioned about irregularities in the draw that "what goes around, comes around". The problem was that when the time came around everyone forgot and we got the same line again and again but nothing ever came around. The current crowd don't even bother telling that lie any more.