According to the hun we have the saints round 1 on the Sunday at Etihad. True to form they bury two up and coming teams on the Sunday, put the collapsing pies on the Friday night and the drug cheats on the Saturday night. 

Ten bucks it's will end up our home game at that dump too!

ROUND 1, 2017
Thursday, March 23 Carlton v Richmond, MCG
Friday, March 24 Collingwood v Western Bulldogs, MCG
Saturday, March 25 Sydney v Port Adelaide, SCG North Melbourne v West Coast, Etihad Stadium Gold Coast v Brisbane, Metricon Stadium Essendon v Hawthorn, MCG
Sunday, March 26 Adelaide v GWS Giants, Adelaide Oval St Kilda v Melbourne, Etihad Stadium Fremantle v Geelong, Subiaco

The Saints?!? At Etihad?!? Let me be the first to say Goodwin has no Plan B!

Saints at Etihad on a Sunday.... there's a shock

I thought the Friday and Saturday night games were supposed to be good contests involving the top clubs. Makes sense to start the season pitching bottom teams from last year against the teams that came first and third then!

Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon host on our ground before us.  [censored] off! 

no time like round 1 to get the monkey off the back and kickstart the season with a positive win...

http://gph.is/18RTEdl

We played the Saints twice at Etihad last season.  Their home ground.  Twice.

And now we open the season there against them.  The AFL is run by amateurs.

 

We played the Saints twice at Etihad last season.  Their home ground.  Twice.

And now we open the season there against them.  The AFL is run by amateurs.

We need to stop complaining about playing at etihad. Good teams can play anywhere/anytime. 

Unfortunalty the ground doesn't play to our strengths. Quick sides run circles around us on this ground 

Can't wait! ...and I'm being completely serious. 

Two of the comps up-and-comers.

I like it.

Sunday licks balls, however.

 

We need to stop complaining about playing at etihad. Good teams can play anywhere/anytime. 

Unfortunalty the ground doesn't play to our strengths. Quick sides run circles around us on this ground 

Don't disagree...but awful scheduling.

2x not finalists opening the season.

Bulldogs vs...Collingwood? *yawn*

Essendon vs...Hawthorn? How predictable.

The AFL and Channel 7 just don't get it. It's not really about Melbourne. That opening round is just predictably boring.

FUXING Etihad..... that ground is a FUXING hole. Way to douse the excitement leading into round 1. Just make sure you all buy your tickets online & print them off. Round 1 a few years back.. lined up a good 20min before the start of the match. Didn't get in till mid-way through the second. I wonder if the AFL will do a better job running it. But i doubt it. 

against the Saints at Docklands.... the Double Hoodoo..... sounds like a horse.... wonder what odds will be on offer !!

If round 1 is our only game at etihad I will be happy, if we some how manage to upset the saints then it could really launch our season 

 

We need to stop complaining about playing at etihad. Good teams can play anywhere/anytime. 

Unfortunalty the ground doesn't play to our strengths. Quick sides run circles around us on this ground 

We'll be paying an attractive $3.20.

 

We'll be paying an attractive $3.20.

We'll probably start favourites and I'll make a nice tidy sum backing the Saints!

 

We need to stop complaining about playing at etihad. Good teams can play anywhere/anytime. 

Unfortunalty the ground doesn't play to our strengths. Quick sides run circles around us on this ground 

I don't think that was the point. Or should be. It's that we played St Kilda at Etihad twice this year, so rightfully we should play them at the 'G, if not twice next season.

I know it didn't work out too well in 2014 round 1 but I like this match up. The Saints will be a good side. And win, lose or draw I'd rather play a good side in round 1 than get fake form against a bad team. 

We'll have all offseason to build our game plan to work on all grounds but also plenty of time to adapt it for Etihad and pick the right side. 

Speed and size of the ground have often been mentioned as the reasons for our downfall at Etihad but I think work rate and skills have contributed just as much if not more. 

The hard dry ground makes the ball bounce and move up and down the ground quickly so you have to keep working all over the ground whilst the ball is in motion. So often the Dees players will do a few efforts then fatigue and the other side will score. Then skills have been just as big a concern. It's a ground where you have to attack the corridor and we just haven't been able to do that.

The Saints are a high work rate pressure side. We'll have to be fit and much better at dealing with pressure. The game will sort out who is and isn't improved.

That is such a dull round 1 fixture.  Not a single game i'll go out of my way to watch.  

I look forward to the rest of the "fixture" where we get to play our home game against the Saints at Etihad too. 

The AFL.  Experts at making amazingly poor decisions seem normal for 10+ years

 

I don't think that was the point. Or should be. It's that we played St Kilda at Etihad twice this year, so rightfully we should play them at the 'G, if not twice next season.

Not convinced it works like that. The who plays who home v away in any year is random and not determined on a 1 for 1 basis.

- When fixtured to play away games against the Saints those games will continue to be at Etihad, that's their home ground. 

- Every year it seems we get one home game at Etihad, I doubt that will change and apparently we asked to play a Victorian club there to avoid the 8,000 crowd and massive loss that came v GWS in 2015. If we put in that same request we might well host the Saints at Etihad again. Or maybe the Dogs or North. If we don't have that same request then we'll play the Saints at the G when we are fixtured as the home side.

If we could ever win at the ground semi consistently then we'd host our one home game there a year against an interstate side and get 20k. But I don't blame PJ and the club trying to avoid a costly and embarrassing 8,000 crowd.

 

That is such a dull round 1 fixture.  Not a single game i'll go out of my way to watch.  

I look forward to the rest of the "fixture" where we get to play our home game against the Saints at Etihad too. 

The AFL.  Experts at making amazingly poor decisions seem normal for 10+ years

Clever fixture. Put bad games in round 1 when you'll watch anyway. Then you get more good games for the rest of the year!

 

Not convinced it works like that. The who plays who home v away in any year is random and not determined on a 1 for 1 basis.

- When fixtured to play away games against the Saints those games will continue to be at Etihad, that's their home ground. 

- Every year it seems we get one home game at Etihad, I doubt that will change and apparently we asked to play a Victorian club there to avoid the 8,000 crowd and massive loss that came v GWS in 2015. If we put in that same request we might well host the Saints at Etihad again. Or maybe the Dogs or North. If we don't have that same request then we'll play the Saints at the G when we are fixtured as the home side.

If we could ever win at the ground semi consistently then we'd host our one home game there a year against an interstate side and get 20k. But I don't blame PJ and the club trying to avoid a costly and embarrassing 8,000 crowd.

I'm saying it should work that way.

And from now on, there's no excuse that it shouldn't work that way. Etihad is now owned by the AFL. There won't be massive losses. The money situation will be different. It was St Kilda, Essendon, Bulldogs and Carlton who were foolish enough to sign deals there. That shouldn't be our problem. 

And given we played a home game at Etihad and as you say that's their home ground, the same could again apply, except in reverse - St Kilda plays a home game at our home ground.

 

I'm saying it should work that way.

And from now on, there's no excuse that it shouldn't work that way. Etihad is now owned by the AFL. There won't be massive losses. The money situation will be different. It was St Kilda, Essendon, Bulldogs and Carlton who were foolish enough to sign deals there. That shouldn't be our problem. 

And given we played a home game at Etihad and as you say that's their home ground, the same could again apply, expect in reverse - St Kilda plays a home game at our home ground.

Maybe it should work that way. But being flexible with the fixture allows the league to come up with a fairer overall fixture for teams as well as a financial fixture that lines the  ̶p̶l̶a̶y̶e̶r̶s̶ administrators pockets.

Essendon have fantastic deal. Carlton might, but I'm pretty sure the other 3 teams don't even have contracts in place to play there any more, haven't for years. They had to sign the initial deal as they had nowhere else the AFL would let them play and have been stuck without a fair deal since. The AFL will rightly create fairer deals for those teams but I can't see them giving up Etihad home games for more MCG or other games. Even the Pies and Tigers play Etihad home games each year and they'll probably get the game back before us. The AFL will still want their full share of 45 or so games and they won't be handing out money for teams who draw crowds of 8,000.

St Kilda won't play a home game at the G because the G has too many games and Etihad too few games already. They played 1 home game against Collingwood there this year for a once off 50 year premiership reunion and that won't happen again soon.