According to the AFL site the Saints will host Port in China next year for points. 

Are we expecting to see a China game every year from now on? Does anyone know details of the actual agreement between the AFL and China?

Edited October 24, 20186 yr by Dee Zephyr

  On 24/10/2018 at 21:20, Dee Zephyr said:

According to the AFL site the Saints will host Port in China next year for points. 

Are we expecting to see a China game every year from now on? Does anyone know details of the actual agreement between the AFL and China?

HTF do Port get that as an away game?  Something to do with needing a game every week at AO so they need the home game?

  On 24/10/2018 at 21:20, Dee Zephyr said:

According to the AFL site the Saints will host Port in China next year for points. 

Are we expecting to see a China game every year from now on? Does anyone know details of the actual agreement between the AFL and China?

you bet DZ.... to some extent it's funded by the Federal Government as part of a trade delegation.

The Chinese funding comes from a billionaire Chinese property developer who has very very large agricultural holdings in Australia.

The AFL also contributes. Gill quoted a figure of around A$4M .. not sure if that was the total cost or the AFL contribution.

Peter Gordon said a year or two back that he would want a million dollars (cannot remember if that was plus expenses) to use a home game of the Bulldogs to play in China.

Interesting that the Suns gave up as they are effectively an AFL run/funded club.

Not a great move by the Saints just like ours in the NT. You take the money but you lose exposure in your home market.

BTW anyone who thinks it's about increasing the viewing numbers in China doesn't understand the strategy. It's all about providing a corporate platform to engage Chinese government and business interests.

I'm not against it but I would like to see a lot more transparent discussion about the business model. After all AFL money is "our money" in the sense that each dollar they spend lessens the dollars available for lower tier competitions, facilities etc.

  On 24/10/2018 at 22:12, Fifty-5 said:

HTF do Port get that as an away game?  Something to do with needing a game every week at AO so they need the home game?

In one word .....Kochie... he did a great deal

Sound familiar.....

“There’s the commercial outcome but it’s also a chance to grow our fanbase,” he said. “There are so many Chinese international students in Melbourne. Monash University, one of our performance partners, has 10,000 Chinese students in its own right.

“It starts to differentiate our football club in a very competitive market.”

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/oct/25/st-kilda-replace-gold-coast-for-afl-game-in-china

Read yesterday that Adelaide requested 6 home games against Melbourne teams (Richmond, Collingwood, Hawthorn, Geelong, Carlton, and Essendon).  Surely they don’t want to play in Alice again!

  On 25/10/2018 at 22:08, Watson11 said:

Read yesterday that Adelaide requested 6 home games against Melbourne teams (Richmond, Collingwood, Hawthorn, Geelong, Carlton, and Essendon).  Surely they don’t want to play in Alice again!

Correct me if I am wrong please but do the interstate teams play the other interstate teams twice each year. Of course they have two "derbies" a year but do they play the other six teams twice?

If that is right that is fourteen games of the fixture already allocated.

Many thanks

  On 25/10/2018 at 22:57, Diamond_Jim said:

Correct me if I am wrong please but do the interstate teams play the other interstate teams twice each year. Of course they have two "derbies" a year but do they play the other six teams twice?

If that is right that is fourteen games of the fixture already allocated.

Many thanks

I don't think so.  I think the teams they play twice will be 3 in their 6 based on ladder positions, 1 in each of the other two groups of 6, with a showdown guaranteed against Port.  Last years the teams Adelaide played twice were Port, Richmond, Melbourne, Carlton, and the Giants.  They'll play Port twice and double up against 2 of Geelong, Sydney, North, and Essendon in 2019.  They'll double up against one of the top 6 and have requested Hawthorn, Collingwood, and Richmond before us... 

  On 25/10/2018 at 22:57, Diamond_Jim said:

Correct me if I am wrong please but do the interstate teams play the other interstate teams twice each year. Of course they have two "derbies" a year but do they play the other six teams twice?

If that is right that is fourteen games of the fixture already allocated.

Many thanks

No we haven't played the Eagles or Freo twice for many years. The last 3 years we've only played the Eagles once in Home and away and all in Perth 

  On 25/10/2018 at 23:47, Watson11 said:

I don't think so.  I think the teams they play twice will be 3 in their 6 based on ladder positions, 1 in each of the other two groups of 6, with a showdown guaranteed against Port.  Last years the teams Adelaide played twice were Port, Richmond, Melbourne, Carlton, and the Giants.  They'll play Port twice and double up against 2 of Geelong, Sydney, North, and Essendon in 2019.  They'll double up against one of the top 6 and have requested Hawthorn, Collingwood, and Richmond before us... 

They are thinking about wins. Nothing else.

Tougher draw in 2019. Much tougher.  

Better for $$$ and Friday nights. Expect minimum 4 Friday nights. Expect to play 5 of top 9 (top half) teams twice. That’s hopefully

Eagles x 1 in Melbourne 

Collingwood x 2 round 1 & QB game 

Tigers x2 incl Anzac Eve 

Hawks x2

Cats x 1 home game

Sydney x 2 

Giants x1 away 

Kangas x 2 

hope it’s Pies (away) Round 1 on the Friday night

 

 

  On 27/10/2018 at 05:16, spirit of norm smith said:

Tougher draw in 2019. Much tougher.  

Better for $$$ and Friday nights. Expect minimum 4 Friday nights. Expect to play 5 of top 9 (top half) teams twice. That’s hopefully

Eagles x 1 in Melbourne 

Collingwood x 2 round 1 & QB game 

Tigers x2 incl Anzac Eve 

Hawks x2

Cats x 1 home game

Sydney x 2 

Giants x1 away 

Kangas x 2 

hope it’s Pies (away) Round 1 on the Friday night

 

 

Sort of thing Top 4 teams Do

Bring it !!

  On 18/10/2018 at 13:34, WERRIDEE said:

Who will be the 5 teams we play twice? My guess is the Pies, Dockers, Kangas, Suns and Cats

Given the 6-6-6 ladder based fixturing it should be 2 teams of WC, Pies, Richmond, GWS and Hawks. I'd guess Pies and either Hawks or Richmond.

MFC will play Freo in Perth, WC in Melbourne. And that will probably be one of only two WC matches at the G, the other being the GF replay.

My guess for the five double ups. Pies, Richmond, Kangas, Suns or Brisbane and Geelong.

I think the double ups amongst the top 6 might be something like...

WC - Pies and either Richmond or GWS, probably GWS

Pies - WC (the AFL do love a GF re-match (or two)) and Dees

Dees - Pies and Richmond.

Hawks - Richmond and GWS

Richmond - Dees and Hawks

GWS - WC and Hawks

R1 March 23, MCG 1.45pm Saturday afternoon vs Port Adelaide

Edited October 27, 20186 yr by adonski

Port round 1, Saturday 1.45pm MCG.

Edited October 27, 20186 yr by Matt Demon

How that rubbish mob Geelong get that Friday night slot is beyond me!!!

Home game at the 'G to kick off the season.  Don't give a stuff who it's against, I'll take that every day of the week.

It will also be great for Weideman to kick his first bag of 7 in front of the hometown fans.  

Dees by 10 goals.  I can feel it already.

  On 27/10/2018 at 11:07, adonski said:

R1 March 23, MCG 1.45pm Saturday afternoon vs Port Adelaide

We played Port Adelaide at the MCG in Round 1, 2013 and were humiliated.

 I’m not talking about revenge but it’s time to put them in their place.

  On 27/10/2018 at 11:42, Wiseblood said:

Home game at the 'G to kick off the season.  Don't give a stuff who it's against, I'll take that every day of the week.

It will also be great for Weideman to kick his first bag of 7 in front of the hometown fans.  

Dees by 10 goals.  I can feel it already.

It’s at the G which is great but fair dinkum I’m still pretty deflated by this. 

Bloody Port. 

  On 27/10/2018 at 11:45, McQueen said:

It’s at the G which is great but fair dinkum I’m still pretty deflated by this. 

Bloody Port. 

I get what you mean Steve.  The Geelong game from this season was a ripper and a great way to kick off the year.

On the flip side, I'm stoked we're at home again and we have every opportunity to kick off the season with a win.  I think that's more important than who the opposition is.

Port Adelaide. “Yawn” at least it’s a home game on a Saturday at the G.

Thought we would have got repaid better than that for making a Prelim,. Oh well.

  On 27/10/2018 at 11:59, Deevout said:

Port Adelaide. “Yawn” at least it’s a home game on a Saturday at the G.

Thought we would have got repaid better than that for making a Prelim,. Oh well.

Agree 100%

  On 27/10/2018 at 11:59, Deevout said:

Port Adelaide. “Yawn” at least it’s a home game on a Saturday at the G.

Thought we would have got repaid better than that for making a Prelim,. Oh well.

 

  On 27/10/2018 at 12:09, Vineytime said:

Agree 100%

So you're basing how we're being 'repaid' for making a Prelim on Round 1?

I'd suggest we will get more prime time games, such as Friday and Saturday nights, throughout the 2019 season.  It's a bit short sighted to suggest otherwise just going on our Round 1 fixture.

  On 27/10/2018 at 11:59, Deevout said:

Port Adelaide. “Yawn” at least it’s a home game on a Saturday at the G.

Thought we would have got repaid better than that for making a Prelim,. Oh well.

I don’t understand your gripe.

A season is 23 weeks. Not just round 1.

If we end up having 0 Friday night games then I’ll sympathise with you.

Two schools of thought on the round one fixture vs Port.

Positive side:

- home game to start the year (always what you want)

- against an interstate team provides greater opportunity for a win

- potentially fly under the radar a little bit which can be good early in the year

Negative side:

- shafted commercially to start to year makes us less attractive to sponsors, 1pm timeslot is a dead timeslot on pay TV

- though an interstate team against us at the G provides a great opportunity for a win, I would prefer kicking the year off against a tough Melbourne team to get us in the big game frame of mind. A loss could also get us front and centre for a bollocking from the media

- AFL (and us) have missed a really good opportunity to build on what a great round one we had last year. Great crowd, two Vic teams, traditional rivals, we played two ripper games and a final with 90k+. I would’ve thought Cats v Dees Saturday arvo/night would be a great thing to build on