Training at the MCG

[Stinger2 28]

Why can't the MCG be our training base?  We are affiliated with the MCC.  The club is born out of the MCC.  The grounds are in pristine condition these days and would not be affected by the training.  I know other clubs have the the MCG as their home, but they were not born out of the MCG.

[Demon Disciple 10,902]

Because Gil and the AFL says so

[Stinger2 28]

That's the question I'm asking.  We used to train there.  It was our home ground.  I am asking the question, why are we not allowed to do this by the AFL?  What is the actual reason?  Is it because of potential damage to the ground for the weekend?  Is it because of supposed advantage?  I am not sure as to why it is not a viable option.  It is our home ground.

[deanox 8,516]

Ground use/overuse. Want to play 2-3 games there every week? You can't train there as well.

Also, it can't be used out of seaso. Because of cricket. 

That being said, I can't see the overuse being caused doing a short weekly or fortnightly session there, for the purpose of full ground drill/zonal work, with other aspects of the session such as warm ups, skills etc. being completed elsewhere. Which means it becomes an issue of "it's everyones homeground so we cant have Melb, Rich, Coll, etc. all doing it".

[Fork 'em 6,507]

Used to go watch the boys train at the mighty MCG as a young fella when Barrassi was in charge and before.
Good times .... Many memories.

They often had the centre square roped off even then and would train around it.

 

Edited November 7, 2020 by Fork 'em

[Bring-Back-Powell 13,106]

At this rate I’d be happy if we simply played a home and away game at the G next year - in front of the faithful.

[—coach— 3,466]

Little known fact, West Coast trained at the MCG more than we did in 2019.

[old dee 22,815]

I tried to resist but couldn’t . It will never happen. All the reasons have been stated before. 

[rjay 23,867]

The main reason is that we need a training base that gives us pretty much 12 moths a year access.

Given cricket has the ground for between 4 to 6 months then it doesn't add up despite the emotional attachment...

[kev martin 8,894]

Would love to see the AFL/MCC decision makers let us use it occasionally. 

The ground keeper could indicate when the surface is good, during minimal game weeks.

The session should be  private/closed., (no security risks) as we can't have closed sessions at either Gosch or Casey.

The argument for the other clubs is, why not allow them to use the number one ground and our spiritual home sometimes, as Gosch's is sub-standard.

Allow us to get some home ground advantage, like the majority of clubs have. Some of our home games are interstate and at Marvel, which adds a bit of a balance.

Is the grand final an advantage to us though ?

Hoping we make a few this decade, even take the lollies.

 

Edited November 8, 2020 by kev martin

[Dee Dee 1,040]

On 11/8/2020 at 8:16 AM, —coach— said:

Little known fact, West Coast trained at the MCG more than we did in 2019.

I think that was prior to finals! Quite acceptable, and they were on the ground for only an hour or so! 

Now the problem with using the ground for training on a regular basis are many,                   First of all the work being done on the ground during week days is quite extensive including mowing in summer every day and daily fertilising, together with turf replacement on a regular basis. Plus of course regular watering and working on the wicket area. In other words there are people working on the ground almost non stop. ( I think the MCC employs eight to ten full time ground staff).

In winter the ground is mown twice weekly but other work as described above (excluding working on the cricket wickets) still continues!  And added to that is the use in winter of large portable banks of lights, to stimulate grass growth, especially on that northern section of the ground which gets little or no direct sunlight during winter. These banks of lights would certainly prove difficult to manoeuvre around at training as they can occupy half the ground.
There are times when the ground would be free for training but not on a regular daily week to week basis unfortunately. 
Another point is that training on the G is certainly not “private” or “ closed session” as there are people present all the time including multiple tour groups, trades people, MCC and MFC office workers, catering staff etc. so whatever football training session took place on the ground could be viewed by dozens of if not hundreds of people!

I would love to see Melbourne train on the cricket ground but I doubt it could be on a regular weekly basis: once in a while maybe!!!

[george_on_the_outer 6,944]

On 11/7/2020 at 10:03 PM, Stinger2 said:

Why can't the MCG be our training base?  We are affiliated with the MCC.  The club is born out of the MCC.  The grounds are in pristine condition these days and would not be affected by the training.  I know other clubs have the the MCG as their home, but they were not born out of the MCG.

Because  cricket is played there for 6 months of the year.

It is not 1964 any more when training consisted of a weekly run on a Thursday night and little if any pre-season.  AFL is a full time year round operation today.

[Rab D Nesbitt 7,060]

The best we could hope for might be a single light session on the G a day or two prior to each home game at a time of day that works around any ground maintenance schedules. I think the WA sides get to do this at Optus. The fact that we now train early in the day and could be off the ground before 12 noon might help. They often have lines of grow lamps covering the surface at night, when we used to train there. 

[Pates 9,536]

Firstly because the ground belongs to the MCC and like all the clubs that call it home we are a tenant club (though closer aligned to the MCC than others). 

Secondly as stated there are such a high volume of games every week the curators have decided it needs that time through the week to recover. 

Even if we were to get on the ground it wouldn’t be major sessions so it wouldn’t really be worth it compared to doing a proper session at Gosches paddock or (hopefully in the future) an MCG sized training facility of our own. 

[ox_5 163]

Don’t understand this emotional attachment. It is not the MCC’s fault we don’t have a training facility. No other MCG home club trains on it, so why should we. Romanticism aside.

The worst decision the administration ever made was turning down the first right for the Collingwood home base. 

[chookrat 3,774]

I find it absurd that Geelong are allowed to train at GMHBA. Does anyone know which of the interstate teams train at their home ground?

[mpc 52]

Was going to ask in the podcast thread but thought I'd revive this one first. 

I noticed Brisbane got to do a training session (probably captains run) on the MCG before the match this week. I've seen other interstate teams in the past also training on there. How come they are allowed to do that but we don't ever seem to?

I know the reverse applies when we travel interstate (for example I saw us having a run on the Adelaide oval before the matches over there).

I've never understood why interstate teams get to use it, but never Melbourne when it's our home ground. I get that it can't be our full time training ground, but it would be good if we could do our captains run there every few weeks.

It's weird that essentially the interstate teams get to train on the MCG more than we do.

Does anyone know the reasoning of why this is?

Edited April 13 by mpc

[Moonshadow 16,115]

On 09/11/2020 at 19:43, Pates said:

Firstly because the ground belongs to the MCC and like all the clubs that call it home we are a tenant club (though closer aligned to the MCC than others). 

Secondly as stated there are such a high volume of games every week the curators have decided it needs that time through the week to recover. 

Even if we were to get on the ground it wouldn’t be major sessions so it wouldn’t really be worth it compared to doing a proper session at Gosches paddock or (hopefully in the future) an MCG sized training facility of our own. 

That's incorrect. The MCG belongs to the Victorian Government through the MCG Trust. It is managed through an agreement with the MCC

[58er 5,593]

On 09/11/2020 at 18:57, chookrat said:

I find it absurd that Geelong are allowed to train at GMHBA. Does anyone know which of the interstate teams train at their home ground?

All of them I presume. Not every day but maybe once per week. 
Cats at least twice per week probably.

Please don’t go and say it’s part of the reason for a loss. That’s why most teams try and get their training ground the same dimensions. Now that is maybe a disadvantage.

[demon3165 1,908]

On 09/11/2020 at 02:55, kev martin said:

Would love to see the AFL/MCC decision makers let us use it occasionally. 

The ground keeper could indicate when the surface is good, during minimal game weeks.

The session should be  private/closed., (no security risks) as we can't have closed sessions at either Gosch or Casey.

The argument for the other clubs is, why not allow them to use the number one ground and our spiritual home sometimes, as Gosch's is sub-standard.

Allow us to get some home ground advantage, like the majority of clubs have. Some of our home games are interstate and at Marvel, which adds a bit of a balance.

Is the grand final an advantage to us though ?

Hoping we make a few this decade, even take the lollies.

 

And then the tigers, pies, hawks all would want to do the same thing so don't think that's going to happen......

[Demon Dynasty 15,211]

Did i see the Lions training at the G on Weds?

[mpc 52]

6 hours ago, Demon Dynasty said:

Did i see the Lions training at the G on Weds?

Yep. This is what caught my eye and triggered me to revive this thread. I'm curious why interstate clubs get to train on it, but not us. Would love to know the decision making process of deciding which clubs can use it and when. 

[whatwhat say what 18,793]

On 14/04/2024 at 21:53, mpc said:

Yep. This is what caught my eye and triggered me to revive this thread. I'm curious why interstate clubs get to train on it, but not us. Would love to know the decision making process of deciding which clubs can use it and when. 

same reason we get to train at the adelaide oval, or the scg, or the gabba, or our beloved perth stadium, when we're on the road

[deespicable me 1,427]

I think the interstate sides get a pretty raw deal having to live out of hotels and fly every second week, so letting them train at the various stadiums they are going to play at that weekend is a good idea. We have just seen first hand the toll  travel and reduced time for recovery does to the squad, so any advantages given to interstate sides makes sense.

But what I think we should see is the same for Melbourne clubs at Melbourne Stadiums. I think fan engagement would be strong. At the start of each week the schedule for "training at the G" could go out and maybe even for a gold coin donation to charity there are regular training sessions that people could go to. There could be coffee carts etc and the clubs could make a big deal of it. Next week in the lead up to Anzac Day I think if marketed properly you could get 5 or 10,000 attending. The downside is staffing but I'm sure it could be doable.

Further teams should be able to train down at that sh*t-hole Kardinia Park

[Dee Dee 1,040]

3 hours ago, deespicable me said:

I think the interstate sides get a pretty raw deal having to live out of hotels and fly every second week, so letting them train at the various stadiums they are going to play at that weekend is a good idea. We have just seen first hand the toll  travel and reduced time for recovery does to the squad, so any advantages given to interstate sides makes sense.

But what I think we should see is the same for Melbourne clubs at Melbourne Stadiums. I think fan engagement would be strong. At the start of each week the schedule for "training at the G" could go out and maybe even for a gold coin donation to charity there are regular training sessions that people could go to. There could be coffee carts etc and the clubs could make a big deal of it. Next week in the lead up to Anzac Day I think if marketed properly you could get 5 or 10,000 attending. The downside is staffing but I'm sure it could be doable.

Further teams should be able to train down at that sh*t-hole Kardinia Park

 A few years ago, I covered the reasons why training on a regular basis at the G was quite impractical, and unfortunately your suggestion while well intentioned is as well for the following reasons.

There is so much activity at the MCG on a daily basis that it would be nearly impossible to regulate groups of fans just going along to the ground to witness training. During non match days the only entrance open to the ground for the public is the one allowing access to the sports museum and to the MCG tours office. Tours are a standard feature at the ground and take place almost every non match day. Both general tours and special (eg. Schools) tours attract hundreds and sometimes thousands of people each week and they venture to many parts of the ground generally off limits to fans (change rooms, media area), and around the cricket club section.

Security at the whole ground is very strictly policed, and no member of the general public can just go wandering as there are security cameras everywhere, and yes big brother is watching you! The ground is absolutely off limits to the general public except as mentioned above.

I used to go along to training at the G many years ago but in those days it was a sports ground and quite easy to enter. Now however the Melbourne Cricket Ground is an entrainment and social complex hosting for instance, company AGM’s, sales conventions, product launches and school speech nights: there are social and business functions on the go on a daily basis!
And let’s not forget concerts - wow! Big, big money earners for the club as well.
And the MCC library has in the past (and still might be) part of an annual antiquarian book festival. 

Unfortunately the MCG is a very, very busy place these days, and as one old cricket player turned commentator use to say “it’s all happening” (but not as a regular training ground).

If people have the time, please do yourself a favour and pop along to the “G” and take one of their guided tours. They are fascinating, they take you to many parts of the ground that are off limits to the public and they will probably show you why unfortunately training at the G in not possible.