3 hours ago, pineapple dee said:

To be fair the Daniel Andrews government has only spent about $120 on upgrading Kardinia Park.

It's a totally reasonable and justifiable amount to lavish upon one club and one town, especially since state debt is at an historically low levels.

$120 mill.

I always say to them, if they used the money for the upgrades better they could have demolished the tiny shizenstadium and built one made for humans and not ants for the same cost!

Edited July 5, 20223 yr by Gorgoroth

11 hours ago, Macca said:

With memberships at an all time high it seems the AFL are now only concerned at looking after the money coming their way (broadcast rights dollars)

Gate receipts would be negligible in many cases (for a lot of the games) so maybe that's why the maximising of crowd numbers isn't high on the agenda

I hope your right. I look forward to next year’s fixture when Essendon, Carlton and Collingwood all have to play in Geelong. 

On 7/4/2022 at 11:53 PM, Ben E said:

Here’s something I prepared earlier.

Guess which team (other than Geelong, of course) has played the most times at Kardinia Park this century?

Melbourne. 18 times.

Guess which team has played the least times?

Collingwood. Zero. (Oh and Essendon once, Hawthorn and Carlton thrice.)

The lack of integrity and fairness in the fixture is, to me, the biggest blight on our great game. What elite, professional sporting league in the world would allow such a discrepancy to occur, where an ‘away’ team, a so-called big club, doesn’t play at another team’s home venue for over 20 years, while another team plays there almost every friggin’ year? It infuriates me.

It’s like telling Manchester United they don’t need to play at Bournemouth, ever, while Liverpool does.

I am sick to death of the fixture’s inherent inequity, and our collective acceptance of it (or is it apathy).

If we can’t have a pure 34-game home-and-away season (which would be fair and ideal for an 18-team comp), then let’s have a 17-game season. Play each team once, alternate between playing at home one season and away the next, no questions asked, no compromises entertained. Collingwood plays down at Geelong, it’s a sell-out, so be it.

People forget that for the first 90 years of the VFL, the fixture was built on playing each team twice, home and away. There were 8 teams and 14 rounds in the first VFL season in 1897. This nonsense that we have to be wedded to a 22-round season no matter the number of teams we have is, well, nonsense. The 22-round season only came into effect when the league had expanded to 12 teams in 1925. When the league moved to 14 teams in 1987, the season inexplicably remained at 22 rounds. 

Now, of course, the fixture is a complete mess having strayed more and more from first principles, leading to the quite absurd scenario pointed out at the top of this post and illustrated in the attached table.

I agree with everything you've said other than the 22 round season coming into effect in 1925. It actually only came into effect in 1970 up until then we had an 18 round (20 rounds in 1968-69) season so there was no evenness in the fixture.

The thing is in the AFL the fixture doesn't have to be a true home and away - the H&A season is only there to seed the clubs for finals, we don't award the premiership to the leader at the end of H&A like the EPL. It would be nice to see some evenness around how many times teams host each other over a period of time though.

The other thing is that all the arguments you've made about us going to Geelong could just as easily be made by clubs like WCE, Port, GC, Freo etc against us for having to play in the NT. They could very well say "why do we always play Melbourne in the NT, they should rotate it so Collingwood, Richmond etc have to play the Demons there too". Obviously that will never happen though.

Edited July 5, 20223 yr by Dr. Gonzo

11 hours ago, DubDee said:

Thanks for the info LH, really enjoyable thread

These two give me a lot of pleasure. They used to give us nightmares and I wouldn't even give us a 1/100 chance of winning in previous years. Goes to show how far we have come.

And I LOVE that the fans are scarred from last year!  suck it!

Most of them have forgotten the round 4 of last year's scoreline: 12.13.85 vs 9.6.60, which flattered them.  Had we kicked straight our score would have been more like the Prelim Final 'kill' of 19.11.125 vs 6.6.42. 

Their highest score last year was in round 23:  12.9.81 to 12.5.77 and even then it was due to accurate kicking by them.

They rely on scoring efficiency rather than lots of i50's  ie once inside they need to kick straight.   Therein is our weapon:  stop the ball getting into their fwd 50 or stop clean transmission to i50.

We will win this by 3-5 goals.

Edited July 5, 20223 yr by Lucifers Hero

On 7/4/2022 at 2:14 PM, WalkingCivilWar said:

Last I heard it, it was singing Grand Old Flag extremely loudly and possibly drunkenly out side someplace somewhere in Adelaide. 🥴

The Strathmore Hotel I reckon WCW!  And you were loud. 😀

Edited July 6, 20223 yr by Slartibartfast

Great, now it’s not just my voice I left in Adelaide, but my pride and dignity as well, by the sounds of it.  🙃

Edited July 6, 20223 yr by WalkingCivilWar

23 minutes ago, Slartibartfast said:

The Strathmore Hotel I reckon WCW!  And you were loud. 😀

See above ⬆️ 

5 hours ago, ANG13 said:

I hope your right. I look forward to next year’s fixture when Essendon, Carlton and Collingwood all have to play in Geelong. 

That is not going to happen

As previously discussed, there is a bias towards certain clubs and that's not likely to change

And the only way we'll get into that category is to become a club like that (which will take a number of years)

The fixture is more of an arrangement and has been for at least 2 decades

The media aren't going to help out either.  They are in tune with the AFL to a nicety

We've got the 5th highest attendances this year and we're either 1st or 2nd with regards to percentage increases in crowd numbers since we all got hit with covid (Bulldogs are the other team)

But of course myths become folklore in the AFL.  Perceptions read as the truth.  However, a lot of what we read is total bs

Only 500 Demon supporters can attend tomorrow night ... and that is the truth

On 7/4/2022 at 12:12 PM, jnrmac said:

They play 10 -11 games at Taxpayer Park so it kind of guarantees them a good finals spot

Love it !!!

1 hour ago, Macca said:

That is not going to happen

As previously discussed, there is a bias towards certain clubs and that's not likely to change

And the only way we'll get into that category is to become a club like that (which will take a number of years)

The fixture is more of an arrangement and has been for at least 2 decades

The media aren't going to help out either.  They are in tune with the AFL to a nicety

We've got the 5th highest attendances this year and we're either 1st or 2nd with regards to percentage increases in crowd numbers since we all got hit with covid (Bulldogs are the other team)

But of course myths become folklore in the AFL.  Perceptions read as the truth.  However, a lot of what we read is total bs

Only 500 Demon supporters can attend tomorrow night ... and that is the truth

I didn't really expect much else but this is the replay from MFC when I raised the topic of unfair fixturing playing at Geelong every season. In hindsight perhaps Im should have sent my comments to Gary Pert directly

 

  

Thank you for contacting Melbourne membership.
 
Unfortunately, the Melbourne Football Club have no influence on the AFL rolling fixture. 
 
Whilst we provide recommendations and fan insights, there are many contributing factors that lead to the published outcome.
 
We acknowledge this may be problematic for certain members and supporters.
 
Thank you for supporting our club.
 
Have a lovely day!
 
Kind Regards,

7 minutes ago, Sydee said:

I didn't really expect much else but this is the replay from MFC when I raised the topic of unfair fixturing playing at Geelong every season. In hindsight perhaps Im should have sent my comments to Gary Pert directly

 

  

Thank you for contacting Melbourne membership.
 
Unfortunately, the Melbourne Football Club have no influence on the AFL rolling fixture. 
 
Whilst we provide recommendations and fan insights, there are many contributing factors that lead to the published outcome.
 
We acknowledge this may be problematic for certain members and supporters.
 
Thank you for supporting our club.
 
Have a lovely day!
 
Kind Regards,

Wouldn't expect Membership to say much more.

Try contacting a Director or the CEO.

2 hours ago, Slartibartfast said:

The Strathmore Hotel I reckon WCW!  And you were loud. 😀

I was there!

They should be saying this is totally cringeworthy and please stop it now ! Embarrassing for all concerned  

Retro Footy Cards (geelongcats.com.au)

Geelong simply cannot afford to lose this match, we're already living rent free in their heads after last year. If we win again this time, we'll own the place.

33 minutes ago, Sydee said:

They should be saying this is totally cringeworthy and please stop it now ! Embarrassing for all concerned  

Retro Footy Cards (geelongcats.com.au)

yeah, but no worse than dangerflop surfing in a tux

We can stop complaining about certain teams never playing at Tax Stadium.  Now that the AFL is increasingly focussing on TV viewership and is happy to generate artifical crowd noises, in a few years  they won't give a damn about making C'wood play at Kardinia Park. 

Edited July 6, 20223 yr by sue

With the new capacity at  Kardinia Park you might find that Geelong play all their home games down there.

I remember the Geelong CEO saying they could make as much money from playing at KP as having a 60k crowd at the MCG.

That was before the expansion so it could be they will need a 70k crowd at KP to match the revenues.

Geelong really have the golden goose by effectively controlling their own stadium. Catering rights, pouring rights, advertising, super box revenue.....all into the Cat's "kitty".

18 hours ago, Darkhorse72 said:

Lsat final they got there they lost... v dockers years ago. 

Yes played at Pork Barrel Park. One of my favourite all time non MFC finals game. Steven Hills 5 bounce late charge along the Pork Barrel members wing to goal and ice the game was sublime.

 

Edited July 6, 20223 yr by John Crow Batty

44 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

With the new capacity at  Kardinia Park you might find that Geelong play all their home games down there.

I remember the Geelong CEO saying they could make as much money from playing at KP as having a 60k crowd at the MCG.

That was before the expansion so it could be they will need a 70k crowd at KP to match the revenues.

Geelong really have the golden goose by effectively controlling their own stadium. Catering rights, pouring rights, advertising, super box revenue.....all into the Cat's "kitty".

I'm happy for them to.  They are a living demonstration that success in the H&A does not translate to finals / premiership success (despite getting close).  I think the more games they play there, the more trouble they will have at the MCG.

On 7/4/2022 at 11:53 PM, Ben E said:

 

Now, of course, the fixture is a complete mess having strayed more and more from first principles, leading to the quite absurd scenario pointed out at the top of this post and illustrated in the attached table.

For 2020 we were actually fixtured to play Geelong in Geelong in a late season Saturday twilight game but the fixture obviously got torn up when COVID hit. We eventually played them at the G in front of nobody.

So we've actually been fixtured at Kardinia Park 19/23 times since 2000 if you count the original 2020 fixture.

For some reason in 2001 we got to play Geelong twice at the MCG, and won them both.

Edited July 6, 20223 yr by Bring-Back-Powell

1 hour ago, Diamond_Jim said:

With the new capacity at  Kardinia Park you might find that Geelong play all their home games down there.

I remember the Geelong CEO saying they could make as much money from playing at KP as having a 60k crowd at the MCG.

That was before the expansion so it could be they will need a 70k crowd at KP to match the revenues.

Geelong really have the golden goose by effectively controlling their own stadium. Catering rights, pouring rights, advertising, super box revenue.....all into the Cat's "kitty".

I wonder how many clubs would be in the same boat if they'd done up their old stadiums instead of moving to the G.

17 minutes ago, Kozzie4PM said:

I wonder how many clubs would be in the same boat if they'd done up their old stadiums instead of moving to the G.

Great quuestion but would they have got the money from the Government that Geelong received. 

Each suburban ground would have been challenged by their location but perhaps some would have worked. St Kilda at the Junction Oval could have been a winner. The old Lakeside Oval is a great location as well. The others were all a little harder perhaps.

The real failure is Docklands. Imagine if teams playing there received Geelong like returns. Instead they barely break even on many games

Edited July 6, 20223 yr by Diamond_Jim

2 hours ago, deelusions from afar said:

I'm happy for them to.  They are a living demonstration that success in the H&A does not translate to finals / premiership success (despite getting close).  I think the more games they play there, the more trouble they will have at the MCG.

Yes and the ground is 30 metres narrower than the G and other grounds. Therein lies the problem. Lack of planning foresight at the time lost the opportunity to make the ground an afl dimension. It could have been achieved but the simple route was taken.

22 hours ago, pineapple dee said:

To be fair the Daniel Andrews government has only spent about $120 on upgrading Kardinia Park.

It's a totally reasonable and justifiable amount to lavish upon one club and one town, especially since state debt is at an historically low levels.

Not really. The uprade has for years sucked out available state grants from geelong in other areas. The new library just completed . The arts precinct only now being rebuilt. Yet down the road for a lousy 9 times a year for less than capacity crowds in nearly all games all the main capex money was spent on a ground that is the wrong shape anyway years earlier than many needed projects.

Btw find 60 dollars if you want a seat.

This club is elitist and most geelong people don't or can't afford to attend.