How long are we locked into playing up there? It sounds like an Eagles home game. Enough already.

what we need is the afl to have a common sense approach to fixturing and program the darwin game THEN the bye, not vice-versa.

You want to build a presence in these areas. Unfortunately the teams from WA and SA seem to be well supportered in Darwin. It's embarrassing to listen to.

We are trying to build our membership, yet every game we play in the NT would send a shiver down your spine.

It doesn't help when we play teams that are more suited to the NT conditions when Melbourne's weather comes straight from Antarctica this time of year.

what we need is the afl to have a common sense approach to fixturing and program the darwin game THEN the bye, not vice-versa.

Its so obvious isnt it

The AFL are run by absolute dick heads

Maybe we can sell a home game to Geelong? We play well there now.

Can't stand watching these Darwin games....

Well if we had more than 30 supporters we would get better memebrship, better crowds and wouldn't have to sell games to fuckin survive... FFS.

Free kick count at 3/4 time is 17-8 in favour of the Eagles. That's par for the course for their home games.

Pointless. This is basically an Eagles home game. Players are spent. Will prob mean we lose next round as well. Pointless exercise.

Pointless. This is basically an Eagles home game. Players are spent. Will prob mean we lose next round as well. Pointless exercise.

$600k appearance money comes in handy when you're a skint club. We're always going to have to [censored] a game somewhere until 20,000 more members turn up but should have tried to get into Hobart before North.

Pointless. This is basically an Eagles home game. Players are spent. Will prob mean we lose next round as well. Pointless exercise.

Every chance.

Hopefully they have a very light week and come out breathing fire against Essendrun.

No one to blame but ourselves

Low memberships, poor attendances, what do you expect ?

We need the money.

Very frustrating we need to give up Home Games

It is an 8 point game. Because next week those boys will be fatigued

Makes it hard to improve.....

It's good money keep it going, our consistently shite performances are why there aren't more people cheering us on.

I'd rather sell games to Freo/wce or Adel/Port than play in NT.

It's the following week that kills us, not the actual NT game itself.

11,873 at the game. Not bad and im sure we get more money than if we played at the G in front of 20,000. If we can win up there its not a problem. For us supporters its not a bad place to go for a few days holiday. Get some warm weather.

Maybe instead of us playing strong teams like freo, port or wc we could play GWS or GC. We may have a chance of winning.

But it better not affect our performance next week.

No one to blame but ourselves

Low memberships, poor attendances, what do you expect ?

We need the money.

Yeah, we need to sell games. It's embarrassing that we decided to commit to Darwin and then years later Norf choose Hobart.

11,873 at the game. Not bad and im sure we get more money than if we played at the G in front of 20,000. If we can win up there its not a problem. For us supporters its not a bad place to go for a few days holiday. Get some warm weather.

Maybe instead of us playing strong teams like freo, port or wc we could play GWS or GC. We may have a chance of winning.

But it better not affect our performance next week.

After the Geelong win we'd have gotten 30k to the G at an early Sunday arvo time slot. Eagles playing well and would have had good support, we'd have gotten numbers after the Geelong win.

Would have been game on if played at the G.

$600k appearance money comes in handy when you're a skint club. We're always going to have to [censored] a game somewhere until 20,000 more members turn up but should have tried to get into Hobart before North.

I see why divide the money as such:

Michael Evans (2015) - 200k

Dean Terlich (2016) - 200k

Matt Jones (2016) - 200k

I started a thread two years ago looking at the results of the post-Darwin games: demonland.com/forums/index.php?/topic/34589-the-darwin-effect/

Adding in last year, it now reads:

2014 - 66 point loss to Geelong. 32 scoring shots to 11. Disposals: 374-295. Inside 50s: 57-30.

2013 - 122 point loss to North Melbourne. 40 scoring shots to 8. Disposals: 439-290. Inside 50s: 66-30
2012 - 54 point loss to North Melbourne. 32 scoring shots to 18. Disposals: 429-337. Inside 50s: 62-37.
2011 - 54 point loss to Hawthorn. 32 scoring shots to 18. Disposals: 409-298. Inside 50s: 59-39.
2010 - 54 point loss to Geelong. 31 scoring shots to 17. Disposals: 434-328. Inside 50s: 57-37.

Now, we've clearly run into very strong opponents most years post-bye - Geelong in 2010 made the GF, Hawthorn in 2011 made the prelims, Geelong in 2014 finished top 4. And though we had North in 2012-13 who were middle of the road, they were the Neeld years where we were as bad as can be. This year's opponent, Essendon, is much much worse than these opponents.

Nonetheless, that's 5 years in a row where we've been annihilated the week after, not being able to even get our hands on the ball most years. I'd be astounded if it didn't have an effect, but this year will show us what it really does - we're not playing Hawthorn or Collingwood, we've got a fellow bottom 6 side.

My real whinge will always be that we play it after the bye not before.

After the Geelong win we'd have gotten 30k to the G at an early Sunday arvo time slot. Eagles playing well and would have had good support, we'd have gotten numbers after the Geelong win.

Would have been game on if played at the G.

I agree, the game would have been closer but would melbourne made as much money out of it. Unfortunately when you are rolling in money we need to take these deals.

Just check to see how long we have on this deal and I think it ends at the end of next year.

It would make sense to play in darwin the week before the bye.

Were there more WC supporters there tonight than Melbourne? If so, surely the club should end the NT experiment after the current deal is up. We're not generating membership or support up there, we're not winning, and it has a physical toll on the players. The money is useful but reduce it to the Alice Springs game only if need be, get an MCG game back, and focus on winning.