8 minutes ago, SaberFang said:

The bye after the NT game is one of the smartest things I've seen related to our club's fixturing in many a year. Something so obvious, simple and infurating that many of us have screamed out for over the years.

That's got PJ all over it, methinks. Well done, MFC/AFL!

Not really - the bye should be after our Darwin game not the Alice game. The Alice game shouldn't impact us any more than playing in Perth or Brisbane.

6 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Not really - the bye should be after our Darwin game not the Alice game. The Alice game shouldn't impact us any more than playing in Perth or Brisbane.

I'm guessing there's climate reasons that we play the Alice game pre-bye and the Darwin game a few months later? Temperatures or something?

4 minutes ago, SaberFang said:

I'm guessing there's climate reasons that we play the Alice game pre-bye and the Darwin game a few months later? Temperatures or something?

The Darwin game is 15 July - as mid-winter as you can get. Perhaps it is also mid-dry season in Darwin and therefore expected to have the lowest humidity.

8 minutes ago, SaberFang said:

I'm guessing there's climate reasons that we play the Alice game pre-bye and the Darwin game a few months later? Temperatures or something?

Average highs in Darwin for May to August

It's hot and humid all winter !!

32.0 (89.6)

30.6 (87.1)

30.6 (87.1)

31.4 (88.5

14 minutes ago, ArtificialWisdom said:

How did the Saints end up with 4 friday nights and only 4 six day breaks. I feel like every step of improvement we make the Saints are half a step ahead.

12 of their first 16 games at Etihad.

11 minutes ago, Bombay Airconditioning said:

12 of their first 16 games at Etihad.

May not help them win finals at the G, though.

Terrible fixture,.., absolutely terrible

 

 

Six day breaks

Melbourne 8 (Most in the AFL)

Brisbane 4

North 4

Carlton 4

St Kilda 4

Port 3

Gold Coast 2

 

2 things annoy me with the fixture, which is actually pretty good, it is normally more than that.

1: We have two home games against big Vic clubs we don't normally get, Carlton and the Hawks. This is great but both are buried at 3:20 on a Sunday! It seems the AFl want to gather evidence that we don't deserve the spotlight because our crowds are too low. Which links nicely with:

2: We get a Friday night game, finally, but it isn't against a vic side so again our crowds will show to be lower than other Friday night games. Just more ammo for not given us them in future.

Oh well, we will just have to shove it up them all and prove them wrong!

3 hours ago, Petraccattack said:

Why are we playing West Coast in Perth again when we played them there last year?

So I can go. 

2 minutes ago, Petraccattack said:

Terrible fixture,.., absolutely terrible

 

 

Six day breaks

Melbourne 8 (Most in the AFL)

Brisbane 4

North 4

Carlton 4

St Kilda 4

Port 3

Gold Coast 2

 

I believe Geelong have 8 also.  The very vhard stretch is the 3 in a row, all against sides that have longer breaks.  Apart from that it's a pretty good fixture.

4 hours ago, Sylvia Saint said:

First three rounds look challenging. All three are bogey sides and 2/3 on a bogey ground. We must start the season strongly (at absolute worst 1-2) as there's history says no coming back from 0-3.

 

2006 says otherwise

11 minutes ago, Petraccattack said:

Terrible fixture,.., absolutely terrible

 

 

Six day breaks

Melbourne 8 (Most in the AFL)

Brisbane 4

North 4

Carlton 4

St Kilda 4

Port 3

Gold Coast 2

 

Equal most with Cats, Hawks, Dogs.

1 hour ago, bandicoot said:

I have us 15 wins 7 losses.

Rd1 Saints Etihad - L
Rd2 Carlton MCG - W
Rd3 Geelong Etihad - L
Rd4 Freo MCG - W
Rd5 Rich MCG - W
Rd6 Essendon Etihad -W
Rd 7 Hawks MCG - W
Rd8 Adel AO - L
Rd9 North MCG - W
Rd10 Gold Coast - W
Rd11 Bye
Rd12 Queens Bday -W
Rd13 Bulldogs Etihad -L
Rd14 West Coast Away-L
Rd15 Swans MCG - L
Rd16 Carlton MCG - W
Rd17 Adel Darwin - W
Rd18 Port MCG -W
Rd19 North Tassy -W
Rd20 GWS Manuka - L
Rd21 StKilda MCG -W
Rd22 Brisbane MCG -W
Rd23 Collingwood MCG -W

Very optimistic.

We lost to Essendon's Reserve Grade team and now you expect us to beat their A Grade side.

Adelaide, Hawks as Wins very interesting.

Freo with their stars back will be a top 8 side again. Not an automatic win like last year.

All depends on injuries and our development of younger players but I see an 11/11 or 12/10 win/loss ratio.

 

Many teams could realistically finish anywhere between 6 wins and 16 wins. 

People severely understate how competitive and tight the league currently is. 

There are very few genuinely "weak" teams aside from Brisbane. We are still comfortably in that mid-tier where we could win anywhere between 6 and 12 games and finish anywhere between 6th and 16th. There are many other teams that fit into this bracket (including last year's premier's, and last year's wooden spooners). 

Trying to pick who we were going to beat is just silly. Take every week, one week at a time. Let's start with round 1 against the 'Aints at Etiherpes stadium.

Our best fixture for finals/profit since 2011 which is not saying much. Compare it to Essendon and we are still miles off having a great fixture. We are 20,000 members away from being relevant with the afl.

I have us down for 22 wins  - then a loss in the qualifying final (the loss we needed to have) followed by 3 more finals win - including the GF.

20 minutes ago, True Heart said:

Very optimistic.

We lost to Essendon's Reserve Grade team and now you expect us to beat their A Grade side.

Adelaide, Hawks as Wins very interesting.

Freo with their stars back will be a top 8 side again. Not an automatic win like last year.

All depends on injuries and our development of younger players but I see an 11/11 or 12/10 win/loss ratio.

 

Agreed.

I think 11 or 12 wins are very gettable and I wouldn't be surprised if we won 15, but there are a number of games that could go either way. 

Look, we are never going to get the best draw because we aren't one of the big clubs.

Considering the absolute shizen they've handed us for the last 10 years, we need to be happy with what we've received this year. 

If we seriously want to play finals and be a contender, we need to learn to win at Etihad, win off 6 day breaks, and beat sides we haven't been able to beat in years. This is all part of becoming a good team.

Considering that we avoid playing twice teams like Hawks, Geelong, Sydney, GWS, WCE & Dogs, is already a massive bonus. If we can't beat mediocre teams like North, St Kilda, Carlton and Collingwood, than the draw makes no difference and we are never going to be any good anyway.

Commercially this is a good fixture, it allows us to get maximum exposure early on, get some wins, increase membership numbers etc. We got 2 big games, 1 Friday night against a good opponent, and some home games against big clubs. 

Yes we have a hard stretch there in the middle with 3 short 6 day breaks including a trip to Perth, and 3 tough opponents. 

At least we start and finish the year off with a good draw! 

1 hour ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Not really - the bye should be after our Darwin game not the Alice game. The Alice game shouldn't impact us any more than playing in Perth or Brisbane.

Yup.

Its after the wrong NT game.

14 minutes ago, Jaded said:

Look, we are never going to get the best draw because we aren't one of the big clubs.

Considering the absolute shizen they've handed us for the last 10 years, we need to be happy with what we've received this year. 

If we seriously want to play finals and be a contender, we need to learn to win at Etihad, win off 6 day breaks, and beat sides we haven't been able to beat in years. This is all part of becoming a good team.

Considering that we avoid playing twice teams like Hawks, Geelong, Sydney, GWS, WCE & Dogs, is already a massive bonus. If we can't beat mediocre teams like North, St Kilda, Carlton and Collingwood, than the draw makes no difference and we are never going to be any good anyway.

Commercially this is a good fixture, it allows us to get maximum exposure early on, get some wins, increase membership numbers etc. We got 2 big games, 1 Friday night against a good opponent, and some home games against big clubs. 

Yes we have a hard stretch there in the middle with 3 short 6 day breaks including a trip to Perth, and 3 tough opponents. 

At least we start and finish the year off with a good draw! 

I have a feeling by the end of the season the Hawks and Geelong will be thankful they didn't play us twice.

Ladder of Thu/Fri night games reported on AFL website. Dees again dominating the bottom (anyone have the saturday night ladder)?

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-10-27/2017-fixture-reaction-every-club

1 minute ago, Wunders said:

Ladder of Thu/Fri night games reported on AFL website. Dees again dominating the bottom (anyone have the saturday night ladder)?

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-10-27/2017-fixture-reaction-every-club

 

St Kilda 4? Carlton, Essendrug and Richmond with more than us?

Is that a [censored] joke?

Just now, Petraccattack said:

 

St Kilda 4?

Is that a [censored] joke?

Their Jewish supporters won't be happy! 

 

Melbourne are favourites to win the opening game. $1.80 to $2.00.  We could easily win our first ten. 

St Kilda got

4 Friday nights

14 games at Etihad

4 Six Day breaks

 

How much did they pay the AFL under the table for that?  We got robbed.