2021-season-start-date

Key points

• Late March start date.
• 22 round season.
• Unlikely to be 16 min quarters (will be more).  I'm hoping they are back to the full 20m + TO

I wonder how they will allocate the 'double up' games.  My MFCSS says we won't get any fixture favours.

Edited September 17, 20204 yr by Lucifer's Hero

Eddie McGuire made a good point (first time for everything) at the outset of all this when he said that we should just replicate what was supposed to be the original 22 game season for this year again in 2021. That way all the teams that were due to host marquee games can do so with fans (hopefully) in attendance. 

Yes it means we fly to Perth again for Round 1 but if the flip side is getting to host Richmond and Collingwood in our blockbusters then I think it's a price worth paying. I'll also get to reuse my Jetstar tickets to HBA for the final game of the season. 

 

24 minutes ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

2021-season-start-date

Key points

• Late March start date.
• 22 round season.
• Unlikely to be 16 min quarters (will be more).  I'm hoping they are back to the full 20m + TO

I wonder how they will allocate the 'double up' games.  My MFCSS says we won't get any fixture favours.

I wouldn't object to the 20 minutes being changed as long as the total time including time on was expected to be 30 minutes. I suspect that was what was in McLachlan's mind when he wouldn't commit to 20 minute quarters in his recent statement. 

still reckon we'll be playing bubble footy in 2021

2 minutes ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

Eddie McGuire made a good point (first time for everything) at the outset of all this when he said that we should just replicate what was supposed to be the original 22 game season for this year again in 2021. That way all the teams that were due to host marquee games can do so with fans (hopefully) in attendance. 

Yes it means we fly to Perth again for Round 1 but if the flip side is getting to host Richmond and Collingwood in our blockbusters then I think it's a price worth paying. I'll also get to reuse my Jetstar tickets to HBA for the final game of the season.

Good idea! 

I wonder if the AFL will stick to original 2020 fixture given that a season, albeit shortened was played and we have a new ladder.

Our 2020 double up games were:  Adelaide, Gold Coast, Fremantle, Collingwood, Saints.  That would give us 2 games vs bottom 6 teams, 1 or 2 vs middle 6 team and 1 or 2 vs top 6 teams.

 

6 minutes ago, whatwhatsaywhat said:

still reckon we'll be playing bubble footy in 2021

Agree. Europe has eased restrictions and infections are ticking upwards. Until there’s an effective vaccine they’ll be no crowds.

24 minutes ago, whatwhatsaywhat said:

still reckon we'll be playing bubble footy in 2021

Full attendances will be July at the absolute earliest certainly in Melbourne. Assuming the vaccine is available in say mid Feb

And then there's the border issue

Melbourne will never pre vaccine go 30 days without community transmission which is what Anastasia was demanding

34 minutes ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

Eddie McGuire made a good point (first time for everything) at the outset of all this when he said that we should just replicate what was supposed to be the original 22 game season for this year again in 2021. That way all the teams that were due to host marquee games can do so with fans (hopefully) in attendance. 

Yes it means we fly to Perth again for Round 1 but if the flip side is getting to host Richmond and Collingwood in our blockbusters then I think it's a price worth paying. I'll also get to reuse my Jetstar tickets to HBA for the final game of the season. 

 

Zero doubt that we should be getting our marquee fixtures next year. I could see a possibility of sharing the gate receipts equally for the blockbusters to even out the pie.

I remember Nick Reiwoldt put forward an interesting idea a while back, obviously aimed at assisting the Saints and other clubs that don't draw big crowds. He basically said that the money generated by the competition is created by all the clubs existing and that they should therefor share the pot of gold that comes from it in a similar way to the way they share the TV rights.

The Pros are that it would create a more equitable competition for the bottom line of ALL clubs, means each club would be able to spend more equally on operating costs and footy department costs. Also should mean it's less likely for clubs to be on their knees like we, and other clubs like North, Saints, Brisbane have been in the past.

The Cons are that it creates a communistic style of running things, meaning clubs that have managed themselves well and got into strong positions to have larger crowds don't get to reap the benefits of it. I would also be willing to bet it'll happen just as we start to get big crowds regularly at the G!

I wonder if there could be a middle ground for this idea where there could be a cap on what a club can earn from a single crowd and that the leftovers after the cap goes into a pot to be spread out evenly across the clubs. I'm not sure how they would manage it with Geelong given they own their stadium.
 

As for what we get next year, looking at those double ups I'm not sure they would be the best/worst. Freo look like they might be on the up a bit, at the very least they have become hard to beat. Saints are always tough for us. Pies could be a contender should they get their list fit. And even GC are no longer easy beats.

38 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Full attendances will be July at the absolute earliest certainly in Melbourne. Assuming the vaccine is available in say mid Feb

And then there's the border issue

Melbourne will never pre vaccine go 30 days without community transmission which is what Anastasia was demanding

sustained zero case targets for Vic are ridiculous. if Dan has his way we might still be in lockdown by round 1!

bring on the vaccine!  I need to get to the MCG!

1 hour ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

2021-season-start-date

Key points

• Late March start date.
• 22 round season.
• Unlikely to be 16 min quarters (will be more).  I'm hoping they are back to the full 20m + TO

I wonder how they will allocate the 'double up' games.  My MFCSS says we won't get any fixture favours.

out of interest, for the double up games, would you prefer more games against tougher opposition than bring in more revenue or more easier games that would result in a potentially higher ladder position but less revenue?

I know it is not black and white but in general

5 minutes ago, DubDee said:

sustained zero case targets for Vic are ridiculous. if Dan has his way we might still be in lockdown by round 1!

bring on the vaccine!  I need to get to the MCG!

In his defence this is what the Saviour of the AFL  aka the Qld Premier demanded... not Dan

OTHH no way will full crowds be allowed anywhere before you have well and truly hit that threshold

The first hurdle will be the cricket and the tennis both of whom are sweating

14 minutes ago, Pates said:

Zero doubt that we should be getting our marquee fixtures next year. I could see a possibility of sharing the gate receipts equally for the blockbusters to even out the pie.

I remember Nick Reiwoldt put forward an interesting idea a while back, obviously aimed at assisting the Saints and other clubs that don't draw big crowds. He basically said that the money generated by the competition is created by all the clubs existing and that they should therefor share the pot of gold that comes from it in a similar way to the way they share the TV rights.

The Pros are that it would create a more equitable competition for the bottom line of ALL clubs, means each club would be able to spend more equally on operating costs and footy department costs. Also should mean it's less likely for clubs to be on their knees like we, and other clubs like North, Saints, Brisbane have been in the past.

The Cons are that it creates a communistic style of running things, meaning clubs that have managed themselves well and got into strong positions to have larger crowds don't get to reap the benefits of it. I would also be willing to bet it'll happen just as we start to get big crowds regularly at the G!

I wonder if there could be a middle ground for this idea where there could be a cap on what a club can earn from a single crowd and that the leftovers after the cap goes into a pot to be spread out evenly across the clubs. I'm not sure how they would manage it with Geelong given they own their stadium.
 

As for what we get next year, looking at those double ups I'm not sure they would be the best/worst. Freo look like they might be on the up a bit, at the very least they have become hard to beat. Saints are always tough for us. Pies could be a contender should they get their list fit. And even GC are no longer easy beats.

You make some good points there Pates. 

Whilst some of my own views take more of a socialist line (free health care & child care, public transport and utility companies to be publicly owned, no taxpayers monies to be given to private schools and religions to be taxes like any other business) I think there still needs to be a lot of scope for people to be creative and industrious as this is what makes many of us tick. 

From a football perspective it's a tough one to answer. The AFL own all of the club licences but the 18 clubs are the AFL. All with an equal stake in the game in a competition that's only as strong as it's weakest link. In the modern day only Hawthorn has been able to attain regular success in a competition designed to bring the best performing clubs back to the pack and give the poorer performers a leg up. 

Supporters can also be fickle and a year or two of poor on field performances can see fairweather supporters drop off quickly. Geelong being the exception where it's been mooted they earn $1 million per home game and have a local supporter base that far exceeds the capacity of the stadium. 

As for your double up point, yeah I'd happily accept meeting those five teams a second time. This year is really an outlier with the season having been turned on it's head so I wouldn't mind if the ladder placings were ignored for just this one time.  

18 minutes ago, DubDee said:

sustained zero case targets for Vic are ridiculous. if Dan has his way we might still be in lockdown by round 1!

bring on the vaccine!  I need to get to the MCG!

Hi DD. I think people are also underestimating the length of time it will take to get the majority of not just Australia but the world in general inoculated against the virus. Your point about when we might see capacity crowds at the G may not be far off the mark but I hope you're wrong. 

1 hour ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

Eddie McGuire made a good point (first time for everything) at the outset of all this when he said that we should just replicate what was supposed to be the original 22 game season for this year again in 2021. That way all the teams that were due to host marquee games can do so with fans (hopefully) in attendance. 

Yes it means we fly to Perth again for Round 1 but if the flip side is getting to host Richmond and Collingwood in our blockbusters then I think it's a price worth paying. I'll also get to reuse my Jetstar tickets to HBA for the final game of the season. 

 

yeah, good point Ed. But as it's a good idea, it's one that the AFL will ignore

3 minutes ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

Hi DD. I think people are also underestimating the length of time it will take to get the majority of not just Australia but the world in general inoculated against the virus. Your point about when we might see capacity crowds at the G may not be far off the mark but I hope you're wrong. 

yeah I agree. March/April would be a very good result for the vaccine being available in Aus.  I work for the company that will probably manufacture it.  can make 180K a day of Fluvax when up and running though

PM me if you want me to put one aside for you  ;-)

13 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

In his defence this is what the Saviour of the AFL  aka the Qld Premier demanded... not Dan

OTHH no way will full crowds be allowed anywhere before you have well and truly hit that threshold

The first hurdle will be the cricket and the tennis both of whom are sweating

Hi DJ. Yeah, I think you might be right about that. I read somewhere that it's the other states that have closed their borders to Victoria and not us closing ours. With individual states having the whip hand we have to get our numbers down to a consistently low level for them to be opened to us again. 

I work in the travel industry and never understood why at the outset it wasn't made a requirement of travel by the federal government that all people boarding flights into Australia must be tested for covid and spend 14 days in hotel quarantine on arrival or be refused boarding at the point of departure. Every country has official entry requirements that all airlines must adhere to. I've dealt with plenty of people over the years that have been refused boarding because they have no proof of onward travel to a neighbouring country, don't have enough funds to cover the length of time they want to spend in a country without illegally working, don't have proof of the mandatory inoculations for a particular country etc. All airlines know that if they let that person fly and they are refused entry on arrival then the airline is fined around $10k and has to fly the person back again at their own expense. Therefore they take this very seriously. 

As all cases effectively originated overseas we'd have no virus carriers in the population and no need to contact trace anyone. I know that everything has to be seen through a political prism these days and making this happen would have seemed both expensive and overbearing on the public at the time and perhaps out of step with what other nations were doing but boy does it sound like great idea in hindsight. 

If cases are 0-5 per day and under control in the first 3 months of next year then surely there will be no need for hubs next year. And surely games will be back in Victoria. 

2 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

If cases are 0-5 per day and under control in the first 3 months of next year then surely there will be no need for hubs next year. And surely games will be back in Victoria. 

Players wont be allowed in Qld on that basis....

"There are reports that Queensland is considering changing its requirements for opening the borders to New South Wales.

The Chief Health Officer’s current recommendation stipulates that NSW has to go 28 days with no cases of community transmission before we would let them back into Queensland.

That clock was reset yesterday, when just one mystery case was recorded over the border.

It’s understood Queensland Health is now considering halving the number of days to 14, after South Australia announced similar measures yesterday.

They are today opening up to the ACT but will not open to NSW until it’s been two weeks of no new community transmission.

Queensland Health maintains that it reviews the border restrictions at the end of every month."

https://www.mygc.com.au/queensland-considering-changes-to-border-opening-requirements/

As to games in Vic with those numbers crowds would be limited maybe even as low as 25% and at most 50%

 

2 hours ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Full attendances will be July at the absolute earliest certainly in Melbourne. Assuming the vaccine is available in say mid Feb

And then there's the border issue

Melbourne will never pre vaccine go 30 days without community transmission which is what Anastasia was demanding

 

2 hours ago, whatwhatsaywhat said:

still reckon we'll be playing bubble footy in 2021

Borders would likely be open, we'd likely have a GF at the MCG, and we'd likely have gone to 10+ games this year had one government not completely [censored] up quarantine. If the only thing preventing the country from keeping this under control is ensuring anyone with the virus is locked the [censored] up until they are healthy, which appears to be the case outside of Victoria, then there is no reason why we can't be going to the football in round 1 next year.

Let's not forget that in mid May we had effectively eradicated the virus from the community and the only people that had it were in hotel rooms. To suggest we can't go to the football in March next year is more an indictment on the government than it is a reflection of the ongoing impact of the virus. Ball is 100% in the government's court now. In fact, getting the AFL up and going is much in the state's best interest at this point and also the country's if we are going to be self sustaining in an isolationist world. You're talking about one of the most lucrative industry's in the country. Bubble football and no crowds next year would pretty much end the AFL. It won't happen. We'll be going to the football in March.

I called it prior to this second wave that by end of June we'd be going to the football. We were very very close to that happening. At the time there was no reason to suggest we wouldn't be. At the current trajectory as well all signs point to minimal cases and strong, harsh quarantine measures moving forward. 

Also Queensland's borders won't stay shut beyond Christmas. It along with the current Victorian shambles will prove to have long term implications on the Federal Labor brand, there will be pushback and crossbench angst once polls come back closer to Christmas. Both still polling well but the fall in support is concerning, politically. It will only keep dropping. I get the feel at this point that Scomo is just letting Qld and Victoria implode.

Edited September 17, 20204 yr by praha

12 hours ago, DubDee said:

out of interest, for the double up games, would you prefer more games against tougher opposition than bring in more revenue or more easier games that would result in a potentially higher ladder position but less revenue?

I know it is not black and white but in general

We don't get many games vs high revenue (big Vic) clubs.  Last year we got return games vs Richmond and Collingwood and because we were losing fans didn't show up so the revenue didn't eventuate. 

From a revenue point of view I'd rather Home games at the G vs Carlton, Hawks, Ess etc but we get those as Away games, if we are lucky.

On that basis the answer to your question is 'easier' games to help us climb the ladder.  But we are so inconsistent who knows what 'easier' is as we often drop games against bottom sides.

We have beaten only 2 top 4 sides (eagles/hawks in 2018) in years and rarely beaten a top 6 side.   We won't go up the ladder until we regularly beat top teams so imv winning 'easy' games might make us feel good but it doesn't really help us get significantly better to regularly contend for a flag.

 

12 hours ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Players wont be allowed in Qld on that basis....

 

Then Brisbane and GC can hub in VIC, SA or NSW for the entire season if QLD won't play ball next year.

No way can we have another season of no crowds is VIC.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about border closures and lockdowns in 2021 for the following reasons.

1. Queensland has a State election on 31 October. Once that date is passed, whoever is in power will be able to lift any restrictions without worrying about the impact at the ballot box for a few years.

2. If Victoria is still in any form of strict lockdown, meaning no crowds at AFL games, by March next year, Dan Andrews won't still be Premier. Let me be clear - I'm not anti-Andrews. I'm just predicting what I think would happen to him should he over-reach by maintaining a strict lockdown into 2021. His own party will fear for their prospects at their next election (due November 2022) and will overthrow him. Whoever replaces him will get the job only because he/she promises to lift most of the restrictions.

Hopefully the scientific world will succeed in developing a vaccine so we won't have to worry about politicians from all sides playing politics with the AFL and other aspects of our lives.

3 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

I wouldn't worry too much about border closures and lockdowns in 2021 for the following reasons.

1. Queensland has a State election on 31 October. Once that date is passed, whoever is in power will be able to lift any restrictions without worrying about the impact at the ballot box for a few years.

2. If Victoria is still in any form of strict lockdown, meaning no crowds at AFL games, by March next year, Dan Andrews won't still be Premier. Let me be clear - I'm not anti-Andrews. I'm just predicting what I think would happen to him should he over-reach by maintaining a strict lockdown into 2021. His own party will fear for their prospects at their next election (due November 2022) and will overthrow him. Whoever replaces him will get the job only because he/she promises to lift most of the restrictions.

Hopefully the scientific world will succeed in developing a vaccine so we won't have to worry about politicians from all sides playing politics with the AFL and other aspects of our lives.

Andrews may be walking a knife edge early next year anyway.  Firstly, the Boxing Day Test will test his resolve on crowds.  Adelaide Oval has put its hand up to host it.

It is reported Andrews wants the Aus Open to go ahead.  How he is going to 'bubble' players and their entourages and not risk the virus taking off is hard to see in any practical sense. The AFL has had to use extreme controls over players and families who have generally behaved.  Will international folk and their families...  So the AO is another test of his resolve on restrictions and crowds. 

Furthermore, It will be a bad look if thousands of sport folk and their entourages are allowed into Australia when tens of thousands of aussies can't come home because State Premiers have restricted the number of people they will take into quarantine. 

Other states have a vested interest in border closures with Victoria - poach our premiere events and the tourism $ that go with them.  Lots to play out before we even get to the AFL season.  By then one way or another crowd rules will be worked out.

In a worse case scenario, if State Premiers don't open borders I can see the summer tests and Aus Open moving to NZ, cancelled or Victoria by-passed.  The first Test is about 10 weeks away so decisions need to be made soon.

Edited September 18, 20204 yr by Lucifer's Hero

15 hours ago, Better days ahead said:

Agree. Europe has eased restrictions and infections are ticking upwards. Until there’s an effective vaccine they’ll be no crowds.

could be years then

Effective flu vaccines are between 29 and 60 % effective only is everybody is vaccinated

Cant see it happening any time soon

Duplicate

Edited September 18, 20204 yr by Lucifer's Hero