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Swans in Cairns for 2 days vs Demons less than 5 hours - why?

Hogan2014
in Melbourne Demons

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1 minute ago, demonique said:

If it was a cost saving measure from the AFL , wouldn’t it have been cheaper to fly them directly to Cairns after the Alice Springs game? 

Well given we flew to and from Alice with the Saints, that was never going to happen.

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    The fact we flew in so late is almost certainly on the AFL.

    We were in Alice Springs with St Kilda. St Kilda needed to return to the Queensland hub. So we flew with them.

    Fremantle was in the hub and needed to fly to Cairns. So we flew with them.

    Had we flown directly from Alice Springs to Cairns, that's an extra flight the AFL had to arrange (St Kilda still had to fly back to Queensland and then Fremantle still had to fly to Cairns).

    Sydney was in Adelaide and had to get into Queensland somehow, and no one else was flying from Adelaide to Queensland, so they were able to just fly them to Cairns without having to worry about anything else.

    I'm not sure, but I'm relatively confident these decisions weren't made by us.

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    19 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

    I'm not sure, but I'm relatively confident these decisions weren't made by us.

    Agree with this. Others won't, but only as it does not suit their argument.

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    36 minutes ago, demonique said:

    If it was a cost saving measure from the AFL , wouldn’t it have been cheaper to fly them directly to Cairns after the Alice Springs game? 

    No aeroplanes!  St. Kilda wouldn't appreciate being in Cairns, for starters. 

    More possible flights from BN/MCY/AD to Cairns.  Not surprising Sydney went up 2 days early. 

    What would have been better...AS/MCY/CNS with a 3 day stay in MCY or AS/MCY (at 3am) then off to CS the next day?

     

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    Just now, Clintosaurus said:

    Agree with this. Others won't, but only as it does not suit their argument.

    I agree too, Clint.  We wouldn't have made that decision.

    I am loathe to even consider it an excuse, though.  Good sides overcome this stuff, or just find a way to win really, really ugly.  

    It was clear we had pretty much rolled over before a ball had been bounced.  We need to be better than that.

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    Sydney were in Cairns on Saturday, and were training at Cazaly for a couple of days.

     

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    • Shocked 1

    Hopefully for all of us we won't have to put up with this rubbish in 2021.

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    56 minutes ago, Clintosaurus said:

     

    The whole season is a fix - the Grand Final will be 2 of Brisbane, Port and Richmond and the Final 8 will not be decided until the last day

     

    Seriously? Brisbane, Port and Richmond (along with Geelong) are just better, more consistent footy teams, that’s all. Every other team has been flaky at different times and on more than one occasion. 

    If you think the AFL, amidst all the moving around, rescheduling and constant logistical changes due to border changes and different state restrictions, have had time to orchestrate a fiendish, fixed finals series, you give them more credit than they deserve!

    Edited to add: Brisbane have had a distinct home advantage, but they’re in QLD!

    Edited by 3183 Dee

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    4 minutes ago, 3183 Dee said:

    Seriously? Brisbane, Port and Richmond (along with Geelong) are just better, more consistent footy teams, that’s all. Every other team has been flaky at different times and on more than one occasion. 

    If you think the AFL, amidst all the moving around, rescheduling and constant logistical changes due to border changes and different state restrictions, have had time to orchestrate a fiendish, fixed finals series, you give them more credit than they deserve!

    Edited to add: Brisbane have had a distinct home advantage, but they’re in QLD!

    I think maybe @titan_uranus has brought it up before, but I'd love to see the stats on where teams have played, how many flights etc.  It would be interesting to compare the top sides to the mid-range/bottom sides to see the difference.

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    58 minutes ago, demonique said:

    If it was a cost saving measure from the AFL , wouldn’t it have been cheaper to fly them directly to Cairns after the Alice Springs game? 

    I doubt they have direct flights to Cairns from Alice. Plus the saints had to fly out too so that's an extra flight anyway. Plus the extra accommodation in Cairns while they are already paying for accommodation at Maroochydore.

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    Still no excuses, they're professional athletes, know how to prepare. It's not as if they flew all the way from Russia. Excuses is why this club is P-weak. Effort is a non-negotiable, 2hr flight doesn't excuse not trying. On top of that, the club should've kicked up a stink, in the media, like McGuire does, but obviously said "yes Gil." SYD are bottom 4 and missing some of their best players, now come on.

    Edited by SFebes

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    2 hours ago, Wells 11 said:

    Good post. If true  This is frikn diabolical. The AFL makes us fly up on game day to cut costs?   On a 5 day break into cairns. FMD. You could see from how they started something just wasn’t right. I reckon those opening 2-3 mins were neeldesque. I don’t want to let them off the hook but that is really tough. 

    Please don't mention this name.  At least not whilst we have goodwin in our midst.  With Covid screwing life up as well, I just can't take the pain.

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    • Haha 2

    Some points re various posts above:

    • On any given day there isn't much difference in humidity and temperatures in Alice, Maroochydore and Carins.  We played in Alice at night.
    • We couldn't fly with Sydney as they were flying from Adelaide. 
    • Before Adelaide, Sydney had flown to and from Perth so they had to get used to the Cairns hot and humid conditions.  We should have been used to them.
    • We did influence the schedule by wanting to play in Alice.  It had to be sometime in this block of games.  We could have played the Saints in SE Qld instead but we would forfeit the $700k that came with the Alice game.
    • We are playing in Cairns because that is the hub for Syd and Freo and we were about the only team that had not played them at this stage of the season.
    • There is no AFL conspiracy against us and the club isn't being 'weak' by not complaing; it is simply how the cards fell.

    Rather than look for 'outs', I ask the question:  why have our best players not been rested at times, especially our midfielders and our less 'match hardened' players?  We knew this tough bloc was coming up on the back of a recent tough bloc.  Pert said in 'Talking Points' that players were tired.  Yet we kept selecting the same core players.  So much for our depth if we can't rest them!  Players that should have had a rest:  Weideman, Salem, Brayshaw, Petracca, Oliver, Melksham (form as much as rest) etc etc. 

    How different might last night have been if they had all had a break at some stage.  Now all games are 'must win' with less chance of resting which only exacerbates possible fatigue.

    Edited by Lucifer's Hero

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    • Like 3

    Generally not one to moan too much about this sort of stuff but we’ve certainly got the rough end of the stick fixture-wise after landing an easier draw pre-Covid. We’ve now hubbed in Cairns, Sunshine Coast, Sydney & Adelaide with a trip to Perth and Alice springs on top of that. Richmond, conversely, have only hubbed in one place (QLD) with visits to Adelaide and Darwin only. Pretty easy ride for someone who won the flag last year!

     

    edit: on top of that we were forced to take our bye when we were fresh!

    Edited by The Jackson 6

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    • Thanks 2
    1 hour ago, Clintosaurus said:

    The whole season is a fix - the Grand Final will be 2 of Brisbane, Port and Richmond and the Final 8 will not be decided until the last day.

    The fixture and when teams travel is being used to manipulate results and flowing from that, the ladder. WWE has more integrity.

    Come on mate, you're giving the AFL far too much credit. As if they'd have the organizational competence to pull off such an elaborate conspiracy.

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    Can they stay up there and change their name. I have little desire to see them making fools of us all in Melbourne.

     

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    9 hours ago, CYB said:

    Anyone remember what Port we’re doing earlier this year? 4 am flights fly in fly out ring a bell? Stop making excuses for this mob. They are mentally fragile. A team that truly wants to win would have found a way.

    How many sitters did we miss? Despite being 5 goals down we had every opportunity to win the game in the last Q. [censored] weak. I’m not a Goodwin fan but this performance was utterly disgraceful by the players. 

    That's true. Port did have two early starts when they played the Giants and again they did it against the Blues. Both of them were narrow wins, however.

    I think the top teams who are well drilled cope with these inconveniences better.

     

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    • Author
    1 hour ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

    Some points re various posts above:

    • On any given day there isn't much difference in humidity and temperatures in Alice, Maroochydore and Carins.  We played in Alice at night.
    • We couldn't fly with Sydney as they were flying from Adelaide. 
    • Before Adelaide, Sydney had flown to and from Perth so they had to get used to the Cairns hot and humid conditions.  We should have been used to them.
    • We did influence the schedule by wanting to play in Alice.  It had to be sometime in this block of games.  We could have played the Saints in SE Qld instead but we would forfeit the $700k that came with the Alice game.
    • We are playing in Cairns because that is the hub for Syd and Freo and we were about the only team that had not played them at this stage of the season.
    • There is no AFL conspiracy against us and the club isn't being 'weak' by not complaing; it is simply how the cards fell.

    Rather than look for 'outs', I ask the question:  why have our best players not been rested at times, especially our midfielders and our less 'match hardened' players?  We knew this tough bloc was coming up on the back of a recent tough bloc.  Pert said in 'Talking Points' that players were tired.  Yet we kept selecting the same core players.  So much for our depth if we can't rest them!  Players that should have had a rest:  Weideman, Salem, Brayshaw, Petracca, Oliver, Melksham (form as much as rest) etc etc. 

    How different might last night have been if they had all had a break at some stage.  Now all games are 'must win' with less chance of resting which only exacerbates possible fatigue.

    Don’t disagree their is a fragility in the list from either lack of leaders/culture as they have a history of dropping games to teams lower on the ladder. Will still say they were clearly disadvantaged vs the Swans & not sure if the Afl are real on a fair comp then both teams should have been landing in cairns at the same time. 

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    1 hour ago, The Jackson 6 said:

    Generally not one to moan too much about this sort of stuff but we’ve certainly got the rough end of the stick fixture-wise after landing an easier draw pre-Covid. We’ve now hubbed in Cairns, Sunshine Coast, Sydney & Adelaide with a trip to Perth and Alice springs on top of that. Richmond, conversely, have only hubbed in one place (QLD) with visits to Adelaide and Darwin only. Pretty easy ride for someone who won the flag last year!

     

    edit: on top of that we were forced to take our bye when we were fresh!

    Spot on with the Tigers played last 6 in Melb in 2019 plus last 4 weeks in qld for 2020, not bad hey leading into finals! 

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    The issue here is that the Swans had 2-3 days on us including training on the ground.

    These are the things that you expect Pert and Mahoney to fix.

    Picture what Eddie etc would have done

    PS Gil probably needed the jet to fly his mates to Brisbane

    Hell... we could have crowd funded the cost of the flight for the team!!!

    Edited by Diamond_Jim

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    6 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

    I doubt they have direct flights to Cairns from Alice. Plus the saints had to fly out too so that's an extra flight anyway. Plus the extra accommodation in Cairns while they are already paying for accommodation at Maroochydore.

    Yes I guess it’s planning on the fly . Are they charter flights ?

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    3 minutes ago, demonique said:

    Yes I guess it’s planning on the fly . Are they charter flights ?

    It was stuff up as the flight timing was cost neutral:

    The costs of flying to Cairns would usually be paid by the AFL who would in turn be paid by Qld Govt for putting on a game in Cairns.

    Swans would have had a half empty plane so no reason we couldn't go with them.

    The plane carrying Freo would be half empty but the fact remains you still needed the two flights as presumably three teams cannot fit on the one plane.

    Then there is the cost of an extra 2-3 nights accommodation...not that great in the scheme of things.

    Only a little thing but it's little things that make the difference between winning and losing and we stuffed up again

     

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    7 hours ago, Clintosaurus said:

    The whole season is a fix - the Grand Final will be 2 of Brisbane, Port and Richmond and the Final 8 will not be decided until the last day.

    The fixture and when teams travel is being used to manipulate results and flowing from that, the ladder. WWE has more integrity.

    Tbh I hope it is Port v Lions as I am sick of Tigers, Cats, Pies and WC . I could live with GWS if as looking likely we are not a finalist.

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    5 hours ago, old dee said:

    Can they stay up there and change their name. I have little desire to see them making fools of us all in Melbourne.

     

    Everyone in QLD has been shaking their heads at Melbourne for a couple of months now. At least now it's Melbourne the footy club that is the focus of derision rather than the rest of us.

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    13 minutes ago, Redleg said:

    Tbh I hope it is Port v Lions as I am sick of Tigers, Cats, Pies and WC . I could live with GWS if as looking likely we are not a finalist.

    That must be the understatement of the week Mr. Leg

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