On 28/04/2022 at 10:22, Jaded No More said:

Exactly. Stop worrying about who plays when. We are getting prime time slots and these are some of the best games of the H&A season. 

You can all sleep when you’re dead. 

I've got no issue with the rubbish scheduling.

You need to win lots of games to earn the Friday night slot. 

Wait a minute.......

 

  On 28/04/2022 at 06:33, Lucifers Hero said:

I just don't get the AFL love for the Bulldogs.  They have already had 3 Friday nights and umpteen Wed, Thurs and Saturday nights.  Now they get another two Friday nights and a stand alone Saturday night.

Also, scheduling us to play Brisb on a Thurs night means we don't get a full bye with just a 9 day break after the QB game, whereas other teams, like the Bulldogs get a 16 day break for their bye.

While true, it also means we should get a 9 or 10 day break the following week when we are set to play the Crows in Adelaide.

Look, prime time TV Thursday/Friday night stuff is great to an extent, but any chance we will ever get a traditional 2:10pm Saturday afternoon game again - ever?

Ball looked so slippery at times against the Tigers on Anzac eve and I feel it did bring down the skill level a bit.

Call me a bit stuck in my ways, but I really do feel that Aussie Rules should be a live spectator sport predominantly and a TV sport second and mid/early afternoon games are the best time to play and watch at the ground. No real ballance at all for us in this respects right now.

Edited April 28, 20223 yr by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

  On 28/04/2022 at 12:06, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

Look, prime time TV Thursday/Friday night stuff is great to an extent, but any chance we will ever get a traditional 2:10pm Saturday afternoon game again - ever?

Ball looked so slippery at times against the Tigers on Anzac eve and I feel it did bring down the skill level a bit.

Nostalgically how many of those games will we see again, very few unfortunately.

  On 28/04/2022 at 08:55, rpfc said:

Get stand-alone Thursday and Saturday night around QB and what do we have to greet these marquee fixtures? Melbourne fans readying their excuses and dusting off their reasons for not going/not having good a crowd/being out numbered by fans of teams that do not exist anymore (Fitzroy/Sth Melb)…

Sad really.

The question mark was around lack of Friday night games not about Dees fans attending. 

The benefit of Friday night games is that a lot of 'neutrals' will go after work, especially to see a game with top of the ladder teams thus very good for gate takings.

Our Sydney and Brisbane games should be a Friday night, especially the Brisbane game which would be an easy swap with the dogs/hawks Friday night game.

Edited April 28, 20223 yr by Lucifers Hero

Just going to quickly complain about Melb v Bris being on a Thurs night before saying how good it is to finally have some primo time slots!

  On 28/04/2022 at 21:09, Lucifers Hero said:

Our Sydney and Brisbane games should be a Friday night, especially the Brisbane game which would be an easy swap with the dogs/hawks Friday night game.

The Dogs have a Saturday night game the week before and would thus only have a 5 day break into the Thursday night game which you have proposed above.

The problem here is that the Dogs would have already copped a 5 day break from round 7 into 8 and therefore are unable to have anther 5 day break. 

I don't like Thursday night football for various reasons (see below). But, the AFL and presumably Channel 7, thinks it is a prime slot, so we can't complain about our success being ignored.

List of reasons why I don't like Thursday night football:

1. Hard to get to the game on a work day when there is a work day the following day
2. Ditto, school days for kids
3. I struggle to be ready to watch a game on TV on a Thursday night because of other very standard lifestyle commitments - like finishing work, getting dinner ready, etc
4. I'm psychologically not ready for football on a Thursday - football is a weekend activity and there's no way of describing Thursday night as the beginning of the weekend
5. It devalues the Friday night game, whoever is playing
6. It spreads the football out too much with it taking four days to complete a round 
7. Related to the previous point, there's too much football. (Die-hard footy watchers will disagree, but the AFL and Channel 7 risk killing the goose that lays the golden egg with football saturation. I know I now watch fewer games than ever before precisely because there are too many games too watch. It's lost it's special status.)

  On 28/04/2022 at 23:01, Bring-Back-Powell said:

The Dogs have a Saturday night game the week before and would thus only have a 5 day break into the Thursday night game which you have proposed above.

The problem here is that the Dogs would have already copped a 5 day break from round 7 into 8 and therefore are unable to have anther 5 day break. 

Fair points.

I'm probably labouring the point a little but no reason Bulldogs couldn't play Sat or Sun to avoid a 5-day break. 

Regularly attending dees fans will go regardless of time slot.  I feel our best chance to raise gate revenues is more Friday night games especially against good teams even better if it was a good 'big' Vic club. 

Maybe in rnd 16-23 we will get some Friday nights.  Perhaps our home games vs Coll and then Carlton.  Good for revenue especially if both still playing well.  Lots of their fans and 'neutrals' to attend.

Edited April 28, 20223 yr by Lucifers Hero

The fixturing decisions here aren't that surprising ultimately.

Ideally Round 12 vs Sydney would be the Friday night, but Sydney already had the past two Friday nights. Mind you, Essendon's been given three Fridays in a row, but it doesn't surprise me that we missed out on the Friday night there.

As for Round 15 vs Brisbane, again ideally it'd be the opening game on a Friday night but Channel 7 is obsessed with Thursday night games and given we are both coming off the bye that, again, is a no-brainer of a decision for the AFL.

I would agree with @Lucifers Hero that there are too many Dogs games in prime time. Their first five games were FTA night games. They're Friday night in Rounds 8 and 9 and Saturday night Round 11, then have Friday night, Saturday night and Friday night games through Rounds 13-15. It looks like pretty much all of these games will be on Channel 7. Which really means any weekend you want to watch football, you're getting no choice but to watch the Dogs.

Let's be honest: Fremantle vs Brisbane would be a far better Friday night game, on current form, than Bulldogs v Geelong in Round 12. But we're not getting Fremantle vs Brisbane in a prime time game.

  On 28/04/2022 at 08:11, DubDee said:

Why do they have Thursday night games during the bye rounds and not now?

1-2 games or Sat or Sun is no good

Because byes allow clubs to be scheduled on Thursday nights without short breaks. Without byes, clubs can only get into Thursday night off a five-day break (given they can't both be on a six-day break or you'd be repeating the previous round's Friday night game).

  On 28/04/2022 at 06:29, FearTheBeard said:

Thursday night game is at 7:20 not 7:50. Dees been shafted for the Swans game.

It's still FTA and stand alone !!! 

  On 28/04/2022 at 23:18, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

I don't like Thursday night football for various reasons (see below). But, the AFL and presumably Channel 7, thinks it is a prime slot, so we can't complain about our success being ignored.

List of reasons why I don't like Thursday night football:

1. Hard to get to the game on a work day when there is a work day the following day
2. Ditto, school days for kids
3. I struggle to be ready to watch a game on TV on a Thursday night because of other very standard lifestyle commitments - like finishing work, getting dinner ready, etc
4. I'm psychologically not ready for football on a Thursday - football is a weekend activity and there's no way of describing Thursday night as the beginning of the weekend
5. It devalues the Friday night game, whoever is playing
6. It spreads the football out too much with it taking four days to complete a round 
7. Related to the previous point, there's too much football. (Die-hard footy watchers will disagree, but the AFL and Channel 7 risk killing the goose that lays the golden egg with football saturation. I know I now watch fewer games than ever before precisely because there are too many games too watch. It's lost it's special status.)

The number of games to watch has been the same ( except bye rounds) for 20 years plus!!

Mot sure when Fox  started but it's simple don't watch other games and Thursday night have a bite to eat at the ground. Also psychologically it's now a night that is used in sport so either get used to it or miss out. 

  On 28/04/2022 at 23:19, Lucifers Hero said:

Fair points.

I'm probably labouring the point a little but no reason Bulldogs couldn't play Sat or Sun to avoid a 5-day break. 

Regularly attending dees fans will go regardless of time slot.  I feel our best chance to raise gate revenues is more Friday night games especially against good teams even better if it was a good 'big' Vic club. 

Maybe in rnd 16-23 we will get some Friday nights.  Perhaps our home games vs Coll and then Carlton.  Good for revenue especially if both still playing well.  Lots of their fans and 'neutrals' to attend.

At the end of the day, the Dees V Brisbane game deserved to be on the number 1 timeslot for that weekend, being Friday night, however we got a bit unlucky with the timing.

The Melbourne V Carlton game can't be Friday night as there are three Marvel games on that weekend which would need to be spread over 3 days, assuming no Thursday night game that weekend. That game could be a bumper crowd regardless of timeslot, perhaps out biggest home crowd of the year.

The Melbourne V Collingwood game can be on Friday night but I have my doubts whether Collingwood will be in the hunt by round 21.

I can see our Geelong and Bulldogs away games being Friday nights but they get the proceeds not us.

  On 28/04/2022 at 23:46, 58er said:

It's still FTA and stand alone !!! 

And the value to the MFC is what?

I started out thinking we are again being shafted by the AFL. There is great value to the AFL in terms of what they get from this, especially with new rights being negotiated. But it does nothing for increasing membership or attendance. The counter argument is our sponsors will be loving the bang for buck they are getting. So the big question is; what is the biggest contribution to the Club?