AFL 2011 Fixture Talk

[drdrake 3,203]

The AFL has given us a draw that gives us every chance to play finals. Over to us the fans to turn up. We have every chance of in our first 8 games, dare to dream we could be 8 and 0 instead of 0 and 8

[Jaded No More 68,975]

Brilliant draw IMO.

All out attack in '11!

Absolutely.

If given a choice, I'm sure the club would rather have a draw that helps us get into the finals, than a draw that will net us a bigger profit but gives us a small chance of making finals.

Sustained success is what will bring us the biggest long term financial windfall.

I'm VERY happy with this draw, with the exception of having to travel in Round 24, and also having to play a home game at that craphole Etihad.

[titan_uranus 25,174]

Saw that. Unbelievable. Wouldn't happen EVER at the Pies. AFL = still a transparently rigged comp. And no-one does anything about it.

Huh? Look at Round 1. Home game vs Port. In fact, the Pies have a contractual obligation to play (I think) 2 home games at Etihad per year.

[stranga 328]

Who knows, maybe St Kilda, Geelong and the Dogs will be crap next year and we will wish we had them twice. Its too hard to say and a lot of the good sides are past their peak.

Id still prefer a couple of bigger drawing home games.

[e25 5]

I'd rather play the pies and the cats twice.

Shame.

And a home game at etihad on a Sunday against WCE? WTF??!

A home game at etihad is mental. I predict 16K crowd numbers.

Easy draw, lots of exposure.

As the mfc website says, it's a 44% increase on free-to-air tv.

Exposure and form is vital for building our supporter base.

Everything else should follow.

A financially poor fixture is only a temporary issue - if we make finals and look good on telly (& we very likely will) we'll reap the financial benefits.

[Deemort 28]

Pros:

1. Pretty easy fixture. Only one trip to Perth.

2. No trip to Adelaide.

Cons:

1. We do not have one home game at the MCG on a Saturday.

2. We play a HOME game against the EAGLES at ETIHAD on a SUNDAY at 1:10PM. FFS! Why Hawthorn has a home game on Saturday against Port, and we're delegated to Etihad on a Sunday against the Eagles is beyond me.

3. We have 5 home games against interstate clubs on a Sunday, 3 of which start at 1:10pm

4. We have four Etihad matches.

I seriously can't believe you managed to drag more cons out of that draw than pros??? And one of your pros was wrong? AAMI in round 24, guess that makes it 1 pro you can see?? IMO This is a dream draw with the only real negative being Port at AAMI in the last round.. Just need to make sure our place in October is sealed before that game to settle the nerves.. A home game at Etihad sucks but as for start time on Sundays an hour earlier who cares. Really if this is all we have to whinge about, how good is this!! Go through week by week and look at the amount of games the look realistically winnable.. looks great, got a dream draw for the start of building a new era at the MFC.

[45HG 1,559]

Saw that. Unbelievable. Wouldn't happen EVER at the Pies. AFL = still a transparently rigged comp. And no-one does anything about it.

Care to do some research before having a teary? Collingwood played two home games at Etihad this year. One of them was against, guess who, the Eagles.

I think in that case I reckon people are ho-hum about that because it changes every year. No-one thought Freo would be a tough side to play this year for example. What looks like an easy draw becomes hard halfway through the season and vice versa. The only one I can say looks like it might be easy is the Gold Coast games... and even then...

It's an odd statement. The level of difficulty of a draw, from an AFL's perspective, can only be measured against a club's ladder position of the year.

I guarantee that if we played the top 6 this year twice you'd think differently.

[e25 5]

Who knows, maybe St Kilda, Geelong and the Dogs will be crap next year and we will wish we had them twice. Its too hard to say and a lot of the good sides are past their peak.

Id still prefer a couple of bigger drawing home games.

I think we will, same with cats & pies.

[Grandson of a gun 276]

To those whinging about getting the raw end of the deal in relation to crowds/off-field remember this, of the 10 Victorian clubs, we finished 8th last year. That means that unfortunately for us there are stronger Victorian teams at the moment who will get a more preferential deal for crowds /off-season stuff because the AFL see them as winning more games. GET OVER IT.

From an on-field perspective, we have what ON PAPER appears to be a very good draw.

I don't care where we play as long as we are winning.

We all want to see this team improve. Going on Bailey's theory we want to see 12 wins in 2011.

This fixture gives us the possibility to do that.

This fixture means that we may very well be a chance to play finals.

THAT IS THE BIGGEST POSITIVE FOR THIS GREAT CLUB.

[Demon Tragic 0]

I think it would be reasonable to expect approx 12 wins from this draw. Just what we needed!

[rpfc 28,899]

I don't really think we 'deserved' much at all.

We only won 8 games and we finished 12th.

It looks to be a draw that Dean and Chris would look forward to and one that would give Cameron Schwab a few headaches.

But as we get better, we will get better draws and if we win games we will get 30k to ES for the WCE game so hopefully we will break even on the day.

We could easily be 7 and 3 going into QB and set ourselves up for second half of the season to attempt to get into the finals and draw some decent crowds.

[Deetective Sgt. Taggert 389]

I agree that its a great draw in terms of winnable games, perhaps not so good financially. But if we can perform well in the early games against Carlton and Essendon on the friday nights that should help bring in more people later in teh year.

I agree that it sucks to be playing a home game against West Coast at Etihad, but we have to learn to win at that venue so what better chance could we ask for?

[Reality Bus 17]

would people rather:

- exposure with FTA games

- home games against big Vic clubs

- Winnable games, with minimum against last year's top teams

All three would be perfection. I'm not saying this is a perfect draw for us, but it's pretty close. Sure, our home games against big clubs are down from last year, but we have certainly nailed the other two.

Last year, non-MFC supporters started to take notice of us and our young talent. This year, it will be in their faces, with 14 FTA games and 4 blockbuster night games (1 thur, 3 fri) where we are playing in the only game.

Byes are a fact of life in this years draw. Ours are well spaced out.

We have been given the best possible opportunity to make finals in 2011, which is far better exposure than a couple more games against bic Vic clubs.

Financially, we have to help out the club as much as possible. Get/upgrade a membership, and get to the games!!!!

[BAMF 4,433]

Wow. Thats an awesome fixture for us! anyone complaining about anything has rocks in there head.

[Flying Cloud 152]

Only 4 interstate games, with one of those being at TIO where we have a good record is a pretty good draw.

[DemonDave 1,096]

Wow, when I look at the draw, my first concern is for chances of on-field success, not off field.

The draw from a playing perspective is brilliant.

-Only 3 away road trips

-Playing this years top 6 teams only once

-Playing this years bottom 2 teams twice (as well as potential cellar dwellers GC17 twice)

I'm wrapt with this draw. If we are winning, and playing attractive exciting footy (esp. if Jurrah stays fit),

then the crowds should and will come regardless of the timeslot and day.

Bring on 2011!

[H_T 3,049]

I guess the Essendon game will see us wearing our alternate strip.

Must take advantage of our fixtured home games, albeit small drawing opposition (interstate sides).

[Reality Bus 17]

Wow, when I look at the draw, my first concern is for chances of on-field success, not off field.

The draw from a playing perspective is brilliant.

-Only 3 away road trips

-Playing this years top 6 teams only once

-Playing this years bottom 2 teams twice (as well as potential cellar dwellers GFC twice)

I'm wrapt with this draw. If we are winning, and playing attractive exciting footy (esp. if Jurrah stays fit),

then the crowds should and will come regardless of the timeslot and day.

Bring on 2011!

haha i assume you mean Gold Coast, and not Geelong?

[Inner Demon 1]

I would go so far as to say we have the best fixture in the comp.

This is an absolute ripper. Night games, FTA games, minimal clashes with 2010 top teams, only 4 I/S trips.

There's no pleasing some people, but this is a draw our footy department will be absolutely rapt with.

[Sir Why You Little 37,302]

Remember one important fact. Our Debt is cleared now, so if we the supporters buy a good membership package the club will do ok financially.

More FTA games will get us a better slice of that cash cow as well.

A good draw. Not perfect, nothing ever is-But we can make it a positive-The choice is ours, The AFL has given us a sniff.

I think Vlad & co actually want the Demons to be up there, reward for what Jimma & co (and we the supporters) have done. B)

[Curry & Beer 5,444]

6, exactly. The bare minimum.

I disagree with the lack of acknowledgment. 2 extra Friday night games, a Thursday night match, 14 of 22 (possibly 15 of 22) games on FTA is a fair step-up IMO.

I think the best thing that could happen to the footy club this year it to make finals. This draw gives us that chance.

I would much rather have an easier draw that will hopefully give us a better shot at playing finals, rather than a blockbuster-filled draw that boosts attendances and sees us with a much tougher run. In the end, finals are what matters. Our fixture wasn't great this year, but I thought our crowds were and when it's all said an done, if we're winning the crowds will be up anyway - and if they're not, well, then we don't deserve the blockbusters.

spot on

[Reality Bus 17]

Another positive. We are guaranteed to play football in September in 2011. Round 24, v Port will fall somewhere between Sept 2 - 4.

[DemonDave 1,096]

haha i assume you mean Gold Coast, and not Geelong?

Yes that should read GC17. Got a bit excited and had visions of Ablett in my head. Nathan Ablett. And I really hope he's getting a game for them as it will show how shallow a squad they have.

[Allen Jakovich 516]

Our draw is epic.

We are the darlings of the AFL.

[Radar Detector 1,347]

I would go so far as to say we have the best fixture in the comp.

This is an absolute ripper. Night games, FTA games, minimal clashes with 2010 top teams, only 4 I/S trips.

There's no pleasing some people, but this is a draw our footy department will be absolutely rapt with.

Yep, this is the best draw I can remember us getting for some time. The travel assignments are as good as we could have hoped for. One "home" game at TIO, then WCE in Perth (not Freo), Suns at the Gabba and Power in Adelaide (not Crows). All winnable games.

One home game at Etihad is really not so bad. It's against WCE who can't win in Melbourne and the AFL are deliberately fixturing every club on the G at least once. That weekend is Port's only MCG game for the year. Even Collingwood have an Etihad home game (round 1).

And we have MCG home games against Collingwood, Hawthorn, Carlton and Richmond.

We even have well poitioned byes in rounds 5 and 16 and long weeks after all our road trips. We have a bye after playing the Suns, a ten days break after WCE and an 8 day break after TIO.

In any event, we have every chance to play finals with this draw and the crowds will look after themselves if we're winning.

I'm pumped. Bring on 2011!!