Melbourne's 2017 AFL Fixture

[solly21 91]

I have some stats from our 2017 fixture. After looking all this up i am stunned we are now in a position that we can make finals considering. This is remarkable job considering the fixture we had & the injuries. These are not excuses these are just facts hopefully we make it but i will send this to the club so they can make a request for their 2018 fixture hopefully we don't get such a shocking fixture.

 

6 Day Breaks

We have had 9 six day breaks this year yet our opposition going to matches against us have only had 2 6 day breaks going to a match against us. Those 2 matches were against Geelong in rd 3 we had a 6 day break aswell & against Essendon in rd 3 were they had a 5 day brerak & we had a 6 day break.

 

Consecutive 6 day breaks

 

we had 3 consecutive 6 breaks together from rd 13-15 yet none of our opponents had any consecutive 6 day breaks leading into a match against us.

 

 

2 days extra break or more

 

We only had on 1 occassion a 2 day extra break against our opposition at that was against Collingwood on queen's birthday as we had the bye the previous round so we had a 16 day break & collingwood had a 8 day break. Yet our opposition had on 5 different matches at least an extra 2 day break. In particular was the bulldogs game when we played on the monday on queen's birthday & the bulldogs played the previous thursday night & the week after against west coast were we played on the sunday aginst the bulldogs & the eagles played the previous thursday night again.

 

 

Bigger Breaks

 

We had on 6 occassions a bigger break then our opponents yet out opposition has had 10 occassions where they had a extra break on us.

 

 

This is just very interesting i thought.

[Sir Why You Little 34,627]

We are still part of the B Team. 

A good September will help to break down this stigma

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

The worst part of all this is with the floating fixture we got another six-day break.

[YesitwasaWin4theAges 5,876]

1 hour ago, solly21 said:

I have some stats from our 2017 fixture. After looking all this up i am stunned we are now in a position that we can make finals considering. This is remarkable job considering the fixture we had & the injuries. These are not excuses these are just facts hopefully we make it but i will send this to the club so they can make a request for their 2018 fixture hopefully we don't get such a shocking fixture.

 

6 Day Breaks

We have had 9 six day breaks this year yet our opposition going to matches against us have only had 2 6 day breaks going to a match against us. Those 2 matches were against Geelong in rd 3 we had a 6 day break aswell & against Essendon in rd 3 were they had a 5 day brerak & we had a 6 day break.

 

Consecutive 6 day breaks

 

we had 3 consecutive 6 breaks together from rd 13-15 yet none of our opponents had any consecutive 6 day breaks leading into a match against us.

 

 

2 days extra break or more

 

We only had on 1 occassion a 2 day extra break against our opposition at that was against Collingwood on queen's birthday as we had the bye the previous round so we had a 16 day break & collingwood had a 8 day break. Yet our opposition had on 5 different matches at least an extra 2 day break. In particular was the bulldogs game when we played on the monday on queen's birthday & the bulldogs played the previous thursday night & the week after against west coast were we played on the sunday aginst the bulldogs & the eagles played the previous thursday night again.

 

 

Bigger Breaks

 

We had on 6 occassions a bigger break then our opponents yet out opposition has had 10 occassions where they had a extra break on us.

 

 

This is just very interesting i thought.

Don't even get me started. 

[Red and Blue realist 2,026]

Surely Jackson and Bartlett, bring this up when speaking with AFL about next year's fixture. I think Jackson has already spoken about those 3 consecutive 6 day breaks and it not happening again. Very good stats, I'm sure every club has a gripe with the fixture, but the amount of time off between games wouldn't be helping a younger team. 

[Bring-Back-Powell 13,293]

On the flip side, our double up games have been against Carlton, Collingwood, North Melbourne, Adelaide and St Kilda. Only one of which is in the top 8.

[Chook 14,594]

What are the statistics on teams' performances after shorter breaks? How do they compare after a longer break or a standard 7-day break.

Ahem…I mean to say "Rabble rabble rabble the AFL's unfair!!!"

[Dr. Gonzo 22,523]

3 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

On the flip side, our double up games have been against Carlton, Collingwood, North Melbourne, Adelaide and St Kilda. Only one of which is in the top 8.

Part of that is because we beat them when it comes to the Saints. Eg we play the saints once and they win their other game and we play the Bombers twice and beat them both times the Saints would replace the Bombers in the 8.

[Skuit 9,269]

Those consecutive six-day breaks and our horrid injury list were surely related. Above all, it's a duty of care thing. We've also had some fairly concentrated travel-patches. I don't know if this was at our request, but to bung WA into the middle of the six-day schedule and then climate-hop for a month is pretty taxing on the body.

[BAMF 3,787]

The fixture is [censored]. How is it fair that Vic based clubs travel 5 or 6 times a year and other state based teams have to travel 10?

Collingwood travelled 5 times this year. West Coast 10. How is that even remotely fair?

[low flying Robbo 979]

The thing about the fixture that really pisses me off is how many Friday night games Sydney get...

[—coach— 3,468]

Doing the same as the dogs with our Darwin games would help too:

http://m.afl.com.au/news/2017-08-23/dogs-to-give-cairns-home-games-the-boot

[titan_uranus 22,543]

5 hours ago, Skuit said:

Those consecutive six-day breaks and our horrid injury list were surely related. Above all, it's a duty of care thing. We've also had some fairly concentrated travel-patches. I don't know if this was at our request, but to bung WA into the middle of the six-day schedule and then climate-hop for a month is pretty taxing on the body.

It's this stuff that exacerbates the problem.

The six-day breaks are bad. Having them back-to-back make them worse. Putting a trip to Perth in the middle of them worse again. And whilst starting the year with 7 games in Melbourne sounds nice, all it does is cram 6 interstate trips into the remaining 15 games.

This last three weeks is the first time we've played three consecutive games in Melbourne since Rounds 5-7. And the Adelaide-Port-North-GWS stretch was really difficult given the venues involved.

44 minutes ago, BAMF said:

The fixture is [censored]. How is it fair that Vic based clubs travel 5 or 6 times a year and other state based teams have to travel 10?

Collingwood travelled 5 times this year. West Coast 10. How is that even remotely fair?

Not a solveable problem, though.

[poita 3,638]

Just wondering if some of you people realise that the season is the same length for all teams. Between the first day and the last day each team plays 22 games. Yes, there are some long breaks and some short breaks in that period, but every team still plays 22 games across 23 weeks. 

The statistics quoted in the opening post are skewed by the fact we played two Monday games this year. If you don't want the short breaks that come with playing on a Monday, don't put your hand up to play marquee games. Would people prefer we play Saturday afternoon every week with no FTA TV coverage, and no big events? More Friday night games would add to the problem. 

 

[FarNorthernD 5,848]

1 hour ago, poita said:

Just wondering if some of you people realise that the season is the same length for all teams. Between the first day and the last day each team plays 22 games. Yes, there are some long breaks and some short breaks in that period, but every team still plays 22 games across 23 weeks. 

The statistics quoted in the opening post are skewed by the fact we played two Monday games this year. If you don't want the short breaks that come with playing on a Monday, don't put your hand up to play marquee games. Would people prefer we play Saturday afternoon every week with no FTA TV coverage, and no big events? More Friday night games would add to the problem. 

 

Collingwood also had Anzac Day and QB matches but only had 5 six day breaks. We end up with nine. So it can be done but just not for us. 

 

[Demon trucker 1,776]

 I heard a Collingwood supporter ring up KB show on sen complaining  about how hard their draw has been this year and that's the reason for their lonely position on the ladder, she said that Buckley is a good  coach and just unlucky that they've been given a terrible draw.

[Pates 9,537]

12 hours ago, --coach-- said:

Doing the same as the dogs with our Darwin games would help too:

http://m.afl.com.au/news/2017-08-23/dogs-to-give-cairns-home-games-the-boot

I have to admit, when I first heard that the Dogs were playing a game in Ballarat I kind rolled my eyes a little and laughed. But if they're able to get that ground up to a 17-18,000 capacity stadium and they play 2 games there a year that will surely play much better for them than traveling all the way to Cairns to lose any home ground advantage.

My biggest gripe about our draw this year is easily the consecutive 6 day breaks WITH us doing the second biggest travel in the AFL (aside from the China game). It definitely put us in the hole when facing Sydney for our one and only Friday night game for the year.

[Lucifers Hero 37,193]

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2017-08-26/more-prime-time-matches-for-melbourne

From the article:  " MELBOURNE expects to receive more games in primetime slots in 2017, but won't purposefully lobby the AFL for Friday night and Saturday night action next season, according to CEO Peter Jackson".

I get it when he says teams are given the fixture they deserve but the evidence this year contradicts that eg  Ess have received about 10-12 FTA Saturday night games.  Carlton, Collingwood and Richmond have also dominated the Thursday, Friday and Saturday night FTA games plus a bunch of Sun aft games.  All were bottom sides last year and yet got the cream of the FTA spoils because they lobbied very hard.

I have no faith in the AFL doing the right thing and rewarding us with a favourable fixture, FTA or anything else.  The big clubs always leverage their way in.  Smaller clubs need to shout louder to be heard.

So, Jackson' s position surprises me because those prime FTA spots are a golden opportunity to promote our sponsors and expose our team to new fans/renew old fans.  

If we don't lobby, we don't get is my view!!!  I hope that Jackson gets this right and we do get a fair fixture in 2018 - not just on the FTA but also 6-day breaks, sequencing of interstate trips and getting Home MCG games against big Vic clubs to help our revenue. 

PJ don't let us down on this...

[binman 38,653]

On 22/08/2017 at 10:05 AM, Clint Bizkit said:

The worst part of all this is with the floating fixture we got another six-day break.

Absolutely. So unfair. Pies have a 7 day break and have nothing but pride on the line.

Lets say viney could have got up with one more day? Not the case probably but that is an example of the possiblw impact of a 6 day break.

Ill twll you why we got 6 days. Ill bet london to a brick it is in case they want to play us in the thursday finals  game thwy have committed to

[titan_uranus 22,543]

29 minutes ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2017-08-26/more-prime-time-matches-for-melbourne

From the article:  " MELBOURNE expects to receive more games in primetime slots in 2017, but won't purposefully lobby the AFL for Friday night and Saturday night action next season, according to CEO Peter Jackson".

I get it when he says teams are given the fixture they deserve but the evidence this year contradicts that eg  Ess have received about 10-12 FTA Saturday night games.  Carlton, Collingwood and Richmond have also dominated the Thursday, Friday and Saturday night FTA games plus a bunch of Sun aft games.  All were bottom sides last year and yet got the cream of the FTA spoils because they lobbied very hard.

I have no faith in the AFL doing the right thing and rewarding us with a favourable fixture, FTA or anything else.  The big clubs always leverage their way in.  Smaller clubs need to shout louder to be heard.

So, Jackson' s position surprises me because those prime FTA spots are a golden opportunity to promote our sponsors and expose our team to new fans/renew old fans.  

If we don't lobby, we don't get is my view!!!  I hope that Jackson gets this right and we do get a fair fixture in 2018 - not just on the FTA but also 6-day breaks, sequencing of interstate trips and getting Home MCG games against big Vic clubs to help our revenue. 

PJ don't let us down on this...

Those clubs don't need to lobby - they've traditionally had much stronger viewership and membership numbers. The AFL/Channel 7 want them in the prime time games (along with Hawthorn, Sydney and Geelong).

This year our membership is up, our home attendances are up, our overall attendances are up, and (hopefully) our TV ratings are up. If we make finals, and especially then if we go on and win a final, that will push us up further and Channel 7 will want us in those timeslots.

The problem we have with the Friday night pie is that Richmond had 0 this year but, given they'll finish top 4 this year, they're going to be back next year. My hope is that teams like St Kilda, Hawthorn, North and the Dogs all lose some of their prime time slots to make room for us.

[binman 38,653]

22 hours ago, binman said:

Absolutely. So unfair. Pies have a 7 day break and have nothing but pride on the line.

Lets say viney could have got up with one more day? Not the case probably but that is an example of the possiblw impact of a 6 day break.

Ill twll you why we got 6 days. Ill bet london to a brick it is in case they want to play us in the thursday finals  game thwy have committed to

Ill preface this comment by saying im not in any way excusing yesterdays performance. We were woeful, partic in that first quarter.

But it was completely unnessary for the afl to give us a six day break. And unfair given the likely stakes they were aware of when deciding the schedule that our opponent had 7 days.  And inequitable given how many 6 day breaks they had already given us.

[Bimbo 907]

On 8/23/2017 at 6:56 AM, BAMF said:

The fixture is [censored]. How is it fair that Vic based clubs travel 5 or 6 times a year and other state based teams have to travel 10?

Collingwood travelled 5 times this year. West Coast 10. How is that even remotely fair?

The offset for the interstate teams having to travel so often is that their home ground advantage is generally vastly greater than that of the Victorian teams.

[praha 10,294]

6 minutes ago, binman said:

Ill preface this comment by saying im not in any way excusing yesterdays performance. We were woeful, partic in that first quarter.

But it was completely unnessary for the afl to give us a six day break. And unfair given the likely stakes they were aware of when deciding the schedule that our opponent had 7 days.  And inequitable given how many 6 day breaks they had already given us.

Unfortunately the schedule just didnt work in our favour because of last week's games. Richmond was alway going to get 7 days because of the late Perth game last week. However given the ladder position of Freo and Collingwood, it would have made more sense to swap the Essendon and Melbourne games. End of the day it was a flip of the coin. It was a tougher turnaround for us because we played a co-tenant. The only game that could have been swapped was these two games. Essendon has an 8 day break. It's an astonishing oversight by the league.

[binman 38,653]

6 minutes ago, praha said:

Unfortunately the schedule just didnt work in our favour because of last week's games. Richmond was alway going to get 7 days because of the late Perth game last week. However given the ladder position of Freo and Collingwood, it would have made more sense to swap the Essendon and Melbourne games. End of the day it was a flip of the coin. It was a tougher turnaround for us because we played a co-tenant. The only game that could have been swapped was these two games. Essendon has an 8 day break. It's an astonishing oversight by the league.

Thanks praha - some good points.

That said i can't see why Tigers could not have played Saturday. It was an arvo game in perth and they were been back in town by 10pm on Sunday night. They could have played the tigers saints game sat night (and the gws - cats game sat arvo) and there is your 6 day break. 

[Jibroni 4,147]

37 minutes ago, binman said:

Thanks praha - some good points.

That said i can't see why Tigers could not have played Saturday. It was an arvo game in perth and they were been back in town by 10pm on Sunday night. They could have played the tigers saints game sat night (and the gws - cats game sat arvo) and there is your 6 day break. 

 

And we had our last three at the G and no travel issues hence why I can see the AFL scheduled as they did.

If the game was today do you think we would have won based on yesterdays rubbish?